Free Mailgun alternatives
Mailgun's free plan is 100 emails a day with one day of log retention — and the retention is the part that hurts. A customer asking on Monday about an email from Friday cannot be answered.
So this page ranks free transactional tiers by how long they keep the logs, rather than by volume. It's the number that decides whether a free plan is usable in production.
How long the logs last
Volume is what vendors advertise. Retention is what decides whether you can answer 'what happened to this email' a week later.
| Provider | Free tier | Log retention on free | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email Bump | 5,000 contacts and 5,000 emails a month | Not tiered by plan — the free plan sees the same history as the top one | Permanent |
| EmailLabs | STARTUP — up to 9,000 emails a month, capped at 300 a day | 7 days on the paid Essential tier; the free plan is a shared IP | Permanent |
| Maileroo | 3,000 emails and 1,000 inbound a month, 2 domains, free dedicated IP | Full analytics, plus a free dedicated IP with automatic warm-up | Permanent |
| Mailjet | 6,000 emails a month, capped at 200 a day, 1,000 contacts | Basic statistics; 200 a day is the harder limit | Permanent |
| SMTP2GO | 1,000 emails a month, capped at 200 a day and 25 an hour until your domain is verified | 5 days on free — 30 days on the $10 Starter plan | Permanent |
| Mailtrap | 4,000 emails a month, capped at 150 a day, 3 days of logs | 3 days on free, 5 on Basic | Permanent |
| Mailgun | 100 emails a day, with 1-day log retention | 1 day on Free and Basic, 5 on Foundation, 30 on Scale | Permanent |
| Resend | 3,000 emails a month capped at 100 a day, 1 domain — plus a separate 1,000-contact marketing free plan | 30 days on every plan, including the free one | Permanent |
| Sweego | 100 emails a day, unlimited domains, 7 days of logs | 7 days on free, climbing to 90 on Scaleup | Permanent |
| AhaSend | 1,000 emails a month, unlimited domains, no card required | 14 days on Pro, 30 on Max | Permanent |
| MailPace | A 100-emails-a-month plan, available on request | 30 days on every plan — you have to ask for the free one | Permanent |
| Postmark | 100 emails a month | 45 days by default, up to 365 on Pro and Platform | Permanent |
| SendLayer | A 200-email trial, plus a 14-day money-back guarantee | 3 days on Starter, 30 on Growth | Trial |
| Elastic Email | 1,000 contacts and 3,000 emails a month | Tracking and analytics included; support is a paid add-on | Permanent |
| MailerSend | 500 emails a month, 1 domain, 1 template | 7 days of API logs even on Professional | Permanent |
From each vendor's own pricing page. Free tiers change more often than paid ones — check before you commit a launch to one.
One day is not a debugging tool
The whole point of paying a hosted provider rather than calling Amazon SES directly is being able to answer 'what happened to this email'. Mailgun keeps one day of logs on Free and Basic, five on Foundation, and thirty only on Scale at $90/mo.
That means the plan most small teams are on cannot answer a question asked on a Monday about an email sent on a Friday. It isn't a deliverability problem — the mail arrives — it's a support problem, and it shows up as an apology rather than an answer.
The outliers worth knowing: SMTP2GO gives 30 days on a $10 plan, MailPace gives 30 on every plan, Postmark gives 45 by default and up to 365, and here retention isn't a plan feature at all.
And the volume, since you asked
EmailLabs gives 9,000 emails a month at 300 a day, on European servers. Mailjet gives 6,000 a month at 200 a day. Email Bump gives 5,000 contacts and 5,000 emails with no daily cap. Mailtrap gives 4,000 at 150 a day. Maileroo gives 3,000 plus 1,000 inbound.
All of those beat Mailgun's 100 a day. The daily ceiling is the thing to check on any of them — a monthly headline with a daily cap behaves very differently the moment you import a list.
Mailgun alternatives, asked and answered
What is the best free Mailgun alternative?
On volume, EmailLabs at 9,000 emails a month or Mailjet at 6,000. On retention — which is the thing Mailgun actually rations — SMTP2GO's 30 days on a $10 plan, MailPace's 30 on every plan, or Email Bump, where retention isn't tiered at all.
Maileroo is the most complete free transactional tier here: 3,000 emails, 1,000 inbound, two domains and a free dedicated IP.
Why does Mailgun keep only one day of logs?
It's a plan feature rather than a technical limit — 1 day on Free and Basic, 5 on Foundation, 30 on Scale. Longer retention is one of the things the higher tiers sell.
If debugging matters, that's the number to compare rather than the send allowance.
Does Mailgun's free plan have an EU option?
Mailgun offers US or EU sending from a single account, which is one of the main reasons European teams choose it over Resend or Postmark.
If EU hosting is the requirement, EmailLabs, AhaSend, Scaleway TEM, MailPace, Lettermint, Sweego and Mailjet are all European and several have larger free tiers.
The free plan sees the same history as the top one
5,000 contacts and 5,000 emails a month, no daily cap, unlimited domains — with campaigns, flows, SMTP and inbound on the same key.