Transactional Email · decision tool

Mailgun vs SendGrid — for your send volume

Mailgun or SendGrid at your monthly email volume? The verdict, monthly cost and deliverability tradeoffs update live from verified pricing.

Prices verified 2026-07-15 against official pricing pages · fit weights are our estimates (see methodology) · share the URL to share your configuration

As of Jul 2026, with 20,000 emails/month, a $30 budget for this slot, SendGrid ranks first for these inputs at 83% fit and a StackSays-estimated $19.95/month (Mailgun: 69% fit, $33.00/month). Fit weights are our estimates; prices trace to official pages. Change any input below and the verdict recomputes.

Your situation

The verdict updates as you move these.

Emails / month (thousands)20 = 20,000 emails; count receipts, magic links, notificationsBudget for this slot ($/mo)what you'd accept paying for the email provider layerTeam size1 = solo; bundled platforms save glue time for small teams

Clear pick for your inputs

SendGridfit 83% · est $19.95/mo

The legacy volume player — cheap per email at scale, no more permanent free tier

vs Mailgun: fit 83% against 69%, est $19.95 against $33.00 per month

SendGridfit 83%

$19.95/mo

Mailgunfit 69%

$33.00/mo

Comparing 2 tools head-to-head. Open the full field (5 options) →

The decision, in plain words

For a solo builder at 20,000 emails/month and a $30.00/mo budget for the email provider slot, SendGrid leads at 83% fit and $19.95/mo. The two rules doing the work: budget fit (~$19.95/mo is 66% of your $30/mo budget); batteries included (Bundles marketing email, template tooling, inbound parsing — fewer services to glue at team size 1).

The gap to Mailgun (69% fit) is wide at these inputs — you'd need to change your requirements, not your taste, to flip it.

Honest weak spot of the pick: no free tier — paying from day one.

Generated from the calculation above — every number traces to the sourced data; nothing here is written by an AI making things up.

Why SendGrid scores 83%

Budget fit (weight 30, our estimate) — ~$19.95/mo is 66% of your $30/mo budget+25.05

Batteries included (weight 12, our estimate) — Bundles marketing email, template tooling, inbound parsing — fewer services to glue at team size 1+12

Exit cost (weight 4, our estimate) — Standard SMTP + API — switching providers is a config change plus warmup+3.2

Ecosystem maturity (weight 8, our estimate) — established — our estimate from ecosystem age, docs and hiring pool+8

Free-tier runway (weight 10, our estimate) — No free tier — paying from day one-6

Total (lines sum exactly)42.25

Possible range −64…+64 (sum of active rule weights) · fit % = (total + max) / (2 × max)(42.25 + 64) / 128 = 83%

How the $19.95/mo estimate is calculated

Essentials base$19.95

Note — up to 100K emails/month$0

Monthly total (lines sum exactly)$19.95

What could change this verdict

Cost risk

Estimated now (StackSays estimate, not your final bill)$19.95/mo · Essentials

Free-tier statusNo free tier — paid from the first unit

Next known billing thresholdEssentials caps at 100K emails — beyond that you change plans

Official prices verified 2026-07-15; calculation is deterministic code over those prices.

At a glance

Tool	Free tier	Paid entry	Verified
Mailgun	100 emails/day	Basic $15/mo	2026-07-15
SendGrid	No free tier	Essentials $19.95/mo	2026-07-15

Where did you land?anonymous, one click

Data sources

Tool	Source	Verified
Mailgun	Mailgun pricing page	2026-07-15
SendGrid	Third-party 2026 pricing tracker (official page redirect-loops)	2026-07-15

A monitor re-checks these pages for changes; when a vendor moves a price, the date updates and every verdict recomputes.

Keep deciding