# Mailgun 8 Hacker News commenters recommended Mailgun and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. **Verdict:** People recommend Mailgun as an SMTP relay that works right away, with a free tier for low volume and lower cost than SES at higher volume. Critics say it is not built for untrusted senders. ## Why people recommend it - Works immediately as SMTP relay (2 comments): "I came across curl when I tested the mailgun.com smtp relay (mandatory tls + auth) and it worked immediately." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48968614)) "I use it (routing to Gmail, Mailgun SMTP for sending) and it works." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48118657)) - Free tier covers low volume (2 comments): "The volume was so low that I stayed within Mailgun's free tier." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50254725)) "it probably wouldn't even break the free tier" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48087527)) ## What people warn about - Poor abuse handling for untrusted senders (3 comments): "The other newsletter mail services (mailgun/sendgrid/etc.) are just as bad for this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47246781)) "Mailgun isn't designed for non-trusted actors emails sending on your reputation." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49363681)) "Not one of them can either filter their users or actually action abuse reports." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49329443)) - Considered too risky to use (2 comments): "Mailgun isn't designed for non-trusted actors emails sending on your reputation." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49363681)) "Using Mailgun is too risky." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49345651)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [AgentMail](https://hackerapproved.com/p/agentmail.md): 40 recommend - [Resend](https://hackerapproved.com/p/resend.md): 12 recommend - [SendGrid](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sendgrid.md): 8 recommend - [Posthorn](https://hackerapproved.com/p/posthorn.md): 5 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.mailgun.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Mailgun", https://hackerapproved.com/p/mailgun/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).