Lumail vs Mailgun
Lumail
Mailgun
Transactional email API and SMTP service
Lumail and Mailgun pricing and feature comparison
Free emails / month
Lumail
3,000
Mailgun
100/day
Unlimited subscribers · $0
$0
Paid entry
$20/month, 40,000 included, then $0.60/1,000
Basic from $15/month for 10,000 emails
Pricing basis
Unlimited subscribers; pricing follows email volume
Monthly email allowance plus overage per 1,000; not billed by subscribers
Automation
Graph workflows with triggers, branches, goals, exits, and A/B paths
No visual journeys; sends are triggered from your app
AI and developer access
ChatGPT OAuth, MCP, skills, CLI, SDK, REST API, and visual editor
Local MCP server with 50+ operations; no hosted MCP
Transactional email
Included through API, SMTP, SDK, CLI, and agent tools
Core product, via REST API or SMTP, in US or EU regions
Publishing surface
Capture pages and custom web domains; not a general website builder
Templates and mailing lists; no newsletter editor or hosted pages
Choose Lumail if…
- You want agents to run campaigns, workflows, and subscribers through 89 MCP tools
- You need graph workflows and capture pages on every plan
- You want one subscription with unlimited subscribers instead of add-on products
Choose Mailgun if…
- Sending from application code is all you need, with inbound parsing
- You need dedicated IP pools or inbox-placement testing
- You already send through Mailgun and want its MCP for operations
Weighing more than two tools? Read the best Mailgun alternatives guide, which compares the options side by side.
Where Mailgun is strong
A real alternative, not a straw man.
Mailgun is a developer email service for sending, receiving, and tracking app email by API and SMTP, billed by sending volume. People pick Mailgun when they need developers sending app email who need inbound routing, validation, and dedicated IPs.
- Mature API and SMTP relay with US and EU regions and official SDKs
- Inbound routing, email validation, webhooks, and dedicated IPs
- Local MCP server for sending, domains, and analytics
Don't trust the table. Run one journey.
Checklists lie by flattening the work. Build one real path: a trigger, a wait, a branch, a goal, an exit. Then open one subscriber and see what actually happened. That tells you more than any feature row.
- 1. Import a small, consented sample. Not the whole list.
- 2. Recreate one campaign and the audience it actually hits.
- 3. Publish one automation with a goal you can measure.
- 4. Fire a test and read every event on one person.
- 5. Compare the weekly work, not the setup afternoon.
Try it on a real send
Keep the whole list. Pay when you send.
3,000 emails free, no card. Rebuild one campaign, one workflow, and one transactional message before you move anyone. If it feels worse than Mailgun, stay.
The questions people actually ask
Is Lumail cheaper than Mailgun?
Sometimes. Lumail is $0 for 3,000 emails, then $20 for 40,000. Mailgun's number only makes sense after you know what they cap: contacts, seats, a daily send limit, or a feature they hide behind a paid plan. Read the honest take above, then price a normal month and a launch month on both pages.
What is the main difference between Lumail and Mailgun?
Choose Mailgun when email is infrastructure you call from code and you need inbound parsing and dedicated IPs. Choose Lumail when newsletters, workflows, subscribers, and transactional email should live in one place agents can operate.
Can I migrate from Mailgun to Lumail?
Yes. Don't move the whole list on day one. Export a small consented sample, rebuild one campaign and one automation, authenticate your domain, then watch one subscriber go through the run. If that feels right, move the rest.