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Postmark vs Mailgun

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Postmark and Mailgun built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 16 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Postmark if…

Teams that need to answer "what happened to this message" weeks later — 45 days of retention as standard, extendable to a year, is the longest window in this set.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose Mailgun if…

Senders who want inbound routing included from the free plan up, and who treat the message log as a debugging tool rather than a record.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Postmark: The included volume is small for the price and overage is the most expensive here at $1.80 per 1,000 on the entry plan.
  • Mailgun: One day of log retention on the entry plan is the shortest here by a wide margin, and the overage rate is quoted as "from", so the number you plan against is a floor.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Postmark alternatives · Mailgun alternatives

8 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Postmark documentationVisit Mailgun documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionPostmarkMailgun
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
Kind of free offerFree tierFree tier
What the free plan includes100 emails a month on the Developer tier, intended for testing an integration rather than production sending.Limited to one user per account; Mailgun states the per-user cap on the free plan rather than a volume on this page.
Entry paid plan
$15.00/month for Basic at the 10,000-email tier. Postmark prices by volume, so the figure rises with the slider.
$15/month for Basic, described as a starting price.
Pricing modelOne monthly price per volume tier, chosen on a slider, covering both sent and received email. Overage rates improve as the plan gets larger.Monthly plan by volume with per-1,000 overage, and email validations billed separately at around $1.20 per 100.
Email
Emails included
10,000 a month at the $15 Basic tier. The plan price scales with volume — 50,000, 125,000, 300,000, 700,000 and 1.5M are the published steps. The free tier is 100 a month.
10,000 a month on Basic; 50,000 on Foundation at $35. The free plan is capped at 100 a day rather than a monthly figure.
Price per 1,000 over
$1.80 per 1,000 on Basic, $1.30 on Pro and $1.20 on Platform. The free tier allows no overage at all.
From $1.80 per 1,000 on Basic and from $1.30 on Foundation. Mailgun writes "from", so these are floors rather than fixed rates.
Log retention
45 days on Basic. Pro and Platform default to 45 days and can be raised to 365.
1 day on Free and Basic; 5 days of logs and 1 day of message retention on Foundation.
Dedicated IPLimitedLimited
Inbound email
Limited
Supported
Compliance
GDPR / data residencyStates its compliance, data protection and information security teams prepared its services for GDPR.In addition to our partnership with an industry-leading hosting provider, Sinch Mailgun is SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001 Certified, as well as  GDPR compliant .

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

What the free plan includes

Postmark
100 emails a month on the Developer tier, intended for testing an integration rather than production sending.
Mailgun
Limited to one user per account; Mailgun states the per-user cap on the free plan rather than a volume on this page.
Sources (2) →

Entry paid plan

Postmark
$15.00/month for Basic at the 10,000-email tier. Postmark prices by volume, so the figure rises with the slider.
Mailgun
$15/month for Basic, described as a starting price.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

Postmark
One monthly price per volume tier, chosen on a slider, covering both sent and received email. Overage rates improve as the plan gets larger.
Mailgun
Monthly plan by volume with per-1,000 overage, and email validations billed separately at around $1.20 per 100.
Sources (2) →

Emails included

Postmark

10,000 a month at the $15 Basic tier. The plan price scales with volume — 50,000, 125,000, 300,000, 700,000 and 1.5M are the published steps. The free tier is 100 a month.

Mailgun

10,000 a month on Basic; 50,000 on Foundation at $35. The free plan is capped at 100 a day rather than a monthly figure.

Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Postmark ↗

    “10,000 50,000 125,000 300,000 700,000 1,500,000 More [...] Basic $15.00/mo [...] Test your integration with 100 emails/month”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Mailgun ↗

    “Basic Starting at $15/mo 10,000 emails/mo included [...] $35/mo 50,000 emails/mo included [...] Free [...] 100 emails/day included”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Price per 1,000 over

Postmark
$1.80 per 1,000 on Basic, $1.30 on Pro and $1.20 on Platform. The free tier allows no overage at all.
Mailgun
From $1.80 per 1,000 on Basic and from $1.30 on Foundation. Mailgun writes "from", so these are floors rather than fixed rates.
Sources (2) →

Log retention

Postmark

45 days on Basic. Pro and Platform default to 45 days and can be raised to 365.

Mailgun

1 day on Free and Basic; 5 days of logs and 1 day of message retention on Foundation.

Sources (2) →

Inbound email

Postmark
Limited
Mailgun
Supported
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

Postmark
States its compliance, data protection and information security teams prepared its services for GDPR.
Mailgun
In addition to our partnership with an industry-leading hosting provider, Sinch Mailgun is SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001 Certified, as well as  GDPR compliant .
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

Credit card to startPostmark: No
When the free offer endsPostmark: Never — the free Developer plan does not expire.
Support on entry paid planMailgun: Ticket support, named on the free plan. The Basic plan's feature list at $15/month does not restate a support level.
SOC 2Mailgun: In addition to our partnership with an industry-leading hosting provider, Sinch Mailgun is SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001 Certified, as well as  GDPR compliant .Postmark: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Postmark.
Encryption at restMailgun: AES-256 encryption-at-rest for all customer dataPostmark: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Postmark.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Postmark or Mailgun?

Postmark: $15.00/month for Basic at the 10,000-email tier. Postmark prices by volume, so the figure rises with the slider.

Mailgun: $15/month for Basic, described as a starting price.

Should I choose Postmark or Mailgun?

Pick Postmark if Teams that need to answer "what happened to this message" weeks later — 45 days of retention as standard, extendable to a year, is the longest window in this set.

Pick Mailgun if Senders who want inbound routing included from the free plan up, and who treat the message log as a debugging tool rather than a record.

Provider pages

PostmarkTransactional email service priced by monthly volume, with configurable log retention and inbound processing.MailgunEmail API priced by monthly volume, with short log retention on entry plans and inbound routing.

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Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.