Staxly

Mailgun vs Render

Email API for developers with deep deliverability tooling
vs. Unified cloud for apps, databases, and static sites

Mailgun websiteRender website

Pricing tiers

Mailgun

Free
100 emails/day. 1 custom domain, 1-day log retention, 1 inbound route. No credit card.
Free
Basic
$15/month. 10,000 emails/month, no daily limit, 5 inbound routes.
$15/mo
Foundation
$35/month (1st month free). 50,000 emails/month, 1,000 custom domains, 5-day retention.
$35/mo
Scale
$90/month. 100,000 emails/month, SAML SSO, 5,000 email validations, dedicated IP pools, 30-day retention.
$90/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Deliverability services, managed onboarding.
Custom
Mailgun website

Render

Postgres — Free
30-day limit. 256 MB RAM, 0.1 CPU, 1 GB storage. Rotates.
Free
Hobby (Free)
Free workspace. 1 project, 2 envs, 100 GB bandwidth. Includes free Web Services + static sites + dev DB.
Free
Key Value (Redis) — Free
25 MB. Ephemeral.
Free
Web Service — Free
Free (spins down with idle). 512 MB RAM, 0.1 CPU.
Free
Postgres — Basic
256 MB RAM, 0.1 CPU. Always-on.
$6/mo
Web Service — Starter
Always-on. 512 MB RAM, 0.5 CPU.
$7/mo
Key Value — Starter
256 MB RAM.
$10/mo
Professional
$19/user/month. Unlimited projects, 500 GB bandwidth, up to 10 team members.
$19/mo
Web Service — Standard
Always-on. 2 GB RAM, 1 CPU.
$25/mo
Organization
$29/user/month. Unlimited members, 1 TB bandwidth, compliance certs.
$29/mo
Postgres — Pro
4 GB RAM, 1 CPU.
$55/mo
Web Service — Pro
Always-on. 4 GB RAM, 2 CPU.
$85/mo
Web Service — Pro Plus
Always-on. 8 GB RAM, 4 CPU.
$175/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Centralized team management, dedicated support.
Custom
Render website

Free-tier quotas head-to-head

Comparing free on Mailgun vs hobby on Render.

MetricMailgunRender
No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers.

Features

Mailgun · 14 features

  • Batch SendingSend up to 1,000 recipients per API call via recipient variables.
  • Dedicated IPsIP pools with auto warmup. Scale+ tier.
  • Deliverability SuiteInbox placement testing, DMARC reporting, seed lists.
  • Email LogsSearchable log of all send attempts + events.
  • Email TemplatesTemplate builder + variables + versioning.
  • Email ValidationReal-time email verification (syntax, MX, role accounts, disposable).
  • EU RegionData stored in EU for GDPR-sensitive customers.
  • Inbound RoutingRoute incoming emails to URLs/SMTP. Attachment forwarding.
  • Mailing ListsUnlimited mailing lists with bulk subscribe/unsubscribe.
  • Open/Click TrackingHTML + text tracking with configurable tracking domain.
  • SAML SSOScale+ tier.
  • Send APIREST/SMTP send with MIME + tracking.
  • TagsTag messages to slice stats.
  • Webhook Eventsdelivered, opened, clicked, unsubscribed, complained, permanent_fail, temporary_

Render · 13 features

  • AutoscalingMetric-based autoscale of instances.
  • Background WorkersProcess queue workers. No HTTP entrypoint.
  • Blueprints (render.yaml)Infrastructure-as-code config for all services.
  • Cron JobsScheduled Docker jobs.
  • Custom DomainsFree SSL, automatic cert renewal.
  • DDoS ProtectionBuilt-in.
  • Persistent DisksAttach persistent SSD to services.
  • Preview EnvironmentsPer-PR preview envs with their own DB and services.
  • Private ServicesInternal services not exposed to the public internet.
  • Render Key Value (Redis)Managed Redis-compatible key-value store.
  • Render PostgresManaged PostgreSQL with automated backups.
  • Static SitesGit-backed static hosting with global CDN, free SSL.
  • Web ServicesLong-running HTTP services with auto-scale + health checks.

Developer interfaces

KindMailgunRender
CLIRender CLI
SDKmailgun.js (Node), mailgun-php, mailgun-python, mailgun-ruby
RESTMailgun REST APIRender REST API
MCPRender MCP
OTHERInbound Routing, SMTP Relay, Webhooks
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Outbound links to Mailgun and Render are plain references to their official websites. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.

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