Transactional vs Mailgun

Compare Transactional and Mailgun side-by-side. See which email API is right for your application.

Our Verdict

Transactional offers better reliability, simpler pricing, and superior support.

DETAILED COMPARISON

Feature by Feature

Category	Transactional	Mailgun
Pricing	$0.50/1,000 emails flat rate	$0.80/1,000 emails, tiered pricing
Uptime SLA	99.99% uptime guarantee	99.9% uptime (more downtime allowed)
Log Retention	30 days on all plans	5 days on Flex, more on higher tiers
Email Validation	Included	Separate pricing
Inbound Parsing	Included	Included
API Stability	Versioned with clear deprecation policy	Frequent breaking changes
Data Residency	US and EU options included	EU costs extra
Mailing Lists	Not included (transactional focus)	Included

CODE COMPARISON

See the Difference

TRANSACTIONAL

import { Transactional } from '@transactional/sdk';

const client = new Transactional({
  apiKey: process.env.TRANSACTIONAL_API_KEY,
});

const { data, error } = await client.emails.send({
  from: 'hello@example.com',
  to: 'user@example.com',
  subject: 'Order Confirmation',
  html: '<h1>Thank you for your order!</h1>',
});

if (error) {
  console.error('Failed:', error.message);
}

MAILGUN

const formData = require('form-data');
const Mailgun = require('mailgun.js');

const mailgun = new Mailgun(formData);
const mg = mailgun.client({
  username: 'api',
  key: process.env.MAILGUN_API_KEY,
});

try {
  await mg.messages.create('example.com', {
    from: 'hello@example.com',
    to: 'user@example.com',
    subject: 'Order Confirmation',
    html: '<h1>Thank you for your order!</h1>',
  });
} catch (err) {
  console.error(err);
}

In-Depth Comparison

Reliability

Transactional guarantees 99.99% uptime, compared to Mailgun's 99.9%. That might seem like a small difference, but it means Mailgun allows 10x more downtime per year.

For transactional emails like password resets and order confirmations, every minute of downtime matters.

Pricing Transparency

Mailgun's pricing page shows attractive starting prices, but costs add up quickly:

Email validation: Additional cost per verification
Higher tiers required for longer log retention
EU data residency: Premium pricing
Dedicated IPs: Additional monthly fee

Transactional includes all features in one simple price.

SDK Quality

Mailgun's SDK requires additional dependencies like form-data. Transactional's SDK is self-contained with zero peer dependencies.

API Stability

Mailgun has deprecated and removed features multiple times, requiring code changes. Transactional maintains backwards compatibility and provides 12-month deprecation notices.

Migration Effort

Migrating from Mailgun to Transactional typically takes 1-2 hours:

Install the Transactional SDK
Update your send calls (similar structure)
Update DNS records for your sending domain
Test in sandbox mode
Switch to production

Sources & References

[1]Mailgun API Documentation — Mailgun (Sinch)
[2]Mailgun Pricing Plans — Mailgun (Sinch)
[3]G2 Mailgun vs Competitors — G2

Ready to Make the Switch?

Join thousands of developers who have chosen Transactional for reliable email delivery.