Mailgun
Shares rank 3 of 5 email APIs by recommenders
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.
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.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 62%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works immediately as SMTP relay
“I came across curl when I tested the mailgun.com smtp relay (mandatory tls + auth) and it worked immediately.”
Comment from 19 Jul 2026 in “curl can be used to send emails with SMTP” “I use it (routing to Gmail, Mailgun SMTP for sending) and it works.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message” Free tier covers low volume
“The volume was so low that I stayed within Mailgun's free tier.”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “Stalwart v1.0: The Fastest Mail Server on the Planet” “it probably wouldn't even break the free tier”
Comment from 10 May 2026 in “Google Broke reCAPTCHA for De-Googled Android Users”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor abuse handling for untrusted senders
“The other newsletter mail services (mailgun/sendgrid/etc.) are just as bad for this.”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Users fume over Outlook.com email 'carnage'” “Mailgun isn't designed for non-trusted actors emails sending on your reputation.”
Comment from 19 Aug 2026 in “Is there room for an AI-powered webmail service built on a single-letter domain?” “Not one of them can either filter their users or actually action abuse reports.”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Self hosted email continues to steeply decline” Considered too risky to use
“Mailgun isn't designed for non-trusted actors emails sending on your reputation.”
Comment from 19 Aug 2026 in “Is there room for an AI-powered webmail service built on a single-letter domain?” “Using Mailgun is too risky.”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Is there room for an AI-powered webmail service built on a single-letter domain?”
Other email APIs people recommend
The four most recommended other email APIs, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 5 email APIs, rankedWhat people said
12 of the 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The volume was so low that I stayed within Mailgun's free tier.”
“Mailgun isn't designed for non-trusted actors emails sending on your reputation.”
“Using Mailgun is too risky.”
“Not one of them can either filter their users or actually action abuse reports.”
“I came across curl when I tested the mailgun.com smtp relay (mandatory tls + auth) and it worked immediately.”
“I use it (routing to Gmail, Mailgun SMTP for sending) and it works.”
“it probably wouldn't even break the free tier”
“Ramp.com and mailgun come immediately to mind”
“After 2.5M it's half the price of SES.”
“The other newsletter mail services (mailgun/sendgrid/etc.) are just as bad for this.”
“Most of that can be mitigated, or at least centrally managed, using an ESP like Mailgun or Sendgrid.”
“sites like Ramp.com and Mailgun that don't work on Firefox”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.