head to head
Resend vs Mailgun
Modern React-oriented API versus mature SMTP, routing, and high-volume tooling.
Side by side
| Feature | Resend | Mailgun |
|---|---|---|
| Tagline | Email API tightly coupled to React Email. | Developer-leaning email infra, owned by Sinch. |
| Free tier | 3,000/mo permanent, one domain | 100/day on Foundation trial |
| Starts at | $20/mo for 50,000 emails | $15/mo for 10,000 emails (Basic) |
| Pricing model | tiered | tiered |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| SDKs | node, python, go, ruby, php, rust, java, elixir, cli | node, python, go, ruby, php, java |
| Templates | react-email | rich |
| React Email | Yes | No |
| Webhooks | Yes | Yes |
| Inbound | No | Yes |
| Multi-tenant | No | Yes |
| Idempotency | Yes | No |
| Dedicated IP | Yes | Yes |
| Deliverability | Acceptable, but the deliverability track record is shorter than Postmark or SendGrid. Independent inbox-placement studies vary. Dedicated IPs are available on higher tiers. | Generally good, with deliverability monitoring tools available on higher tiers. Inbound routes and suppressions are battle-tested. |
| DX score | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Best for | Early-stage React or Next.js product teams sending under 50k/mo. | Technical teams that want SMTP relay plus advanced routing. |
Resend
pros
- ›Idiomatic SDKs across major languages
- ›React Email integration is the smoothest of any provider
- ›Idempotency keys supported
- ›Clean dashboard and event log
cons
- ›Volume pricing is significantly higher than AWS SES at large volumes
- ›Founded 2023, so deliverability track record and incident history are still building
- ›No drag-and-drop template editor; non-React stacks get a thinner experience
- ›No native inbound parsing
- ›Single-region historically; multi-region setup is newer
- ›Smaller support footprint than Twilio SendGrid or Sinch Mailgun
Mailgun
pros
- ›Strong SMTP relay support, useful when migrating off self-hosted Postfix
- ›Inbound routes with regex matching
- ›Validation and parsing tools available
- ›Sub-accounts for agency use cases
cons
- ›Overage pricing and plan differences need close review at scale
- ›Documentation is comprehensive but occasionally out of date
- ›No idempotency keys
- ›Sinch ownership has moved focus toward enterprise