Short answer
Groundmail costs less than Mailgun at 50,000 and 100,000 emails a month ($20 and $35 against $35 and $75 on Mailgun Foundation) and slightly less at 500,000 and 1 million. Mailgun bundles a dedicated IP from 100,000 emails on Foundation and on Scale, and keeps 30 days of logs on Scale.
Groundmail sends from our own mail servers and our own IP space, on a shared pool that carries transactional mail only, and offers dedicated IPs and fully dedicated mail servers built and warmed by our team.
On this page
At a glance
| Groundmail | Mailgun | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 3,000/month, 100/day, 1 domain | 100/day, 1 domain |
| 50,000 emails/month | $20 (Pro) | $35 (Foundation) |
| 100,000 emails/month | $35 (Pro) | $75 (Foundation) |
| Dedicated IP | Dedicated IPs (talk to us); dedicated server from $299/mo | Included at 100k+ on Foundation and on Scale; extra IPs $59/IP/month |
| Log retention | Not published | 1 day (Free, Basic), 5 days (Foundation), 30 days (Scale) |
Mailgun details from the Mailgun pricing page.
Last checked on each vendor's public page.
Groundmail's two differences are infrastructure and isolation. We run our own mail servers on our own IP space, operated by a team that has run mail servers at scale and worked with Google Postmaster and Spamhaus directly. And when you outgrow a shared pool, you can move to dedicated IPs or to a dedicated server: your own mail server and IPs, nothing shared with other customers.
Pricing at 50k, 100k, 500k and 1M emails
Mailgun's paid plans are Basic, Foundation and Scale; Groundmail's are Pro and Scale, plus Dedicated. The table shows the cheapest published plan on each side that covers the volume.
| Emails per month | Groundmail | Mailgun |
|---|---|---|
| 50,000 | $20 (Pro) | $35 (Foundation) |
| 100,000 | $35 (Pro) | $75 (Foundation) |
| 500,000 | $350 (Scale) | $400 (Scale) |
| 1,000,000 | $650 (Scale) | $700 (Scale) |
Mailgun prices from the Mailgun pricing page, monthly billing. Groundmail prices from our pricing page.
Last checked on each vendor's public page.
Overage
Over your plan's included volume, Mailgun charges $1.30 per 1,000 on Foundation 50k, $1.10 on Foundation 100k and Scale 100k, and falls to $0.75 on Scale 500k and $0.50 on Scale 1M. Basic is $15 for 10,000 emails with $1.80 per 1,000 over.
Groundmail Pro is $0.90 per 1,000 over, and Scale overage falls from $0.90 at 100,000 to $0.70 at 500,000, $0.65 at 1 million and $0.46 at 2.5 million. At high volume with heavy overage, Mailgun's Scale per-1,000 rate is lower, so check the tier you'd actually land in.
Free plans
Mailgun's free plan allows 100 emails a day on one domain, with 1 day of logs. Groundmail's Free plan allows 3,000 emails a month, capped at 100 a day, on one domain, with every feature. To send from Free you need a verified domain and a credit card on file; the card isn't charged. Mailgun also lists Foundation as free for the first month.
Logs and retention
Mailgun publishes its retention by plan. Log retention is 1 day on Free and Basic, 5 days on Foundation and 30 days on Scale. Message retention is listed separately: 1 day on Foundation and up to 7 days on Scale (3 by default).
| Mailgun plan | Log retention | Message retention |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 1 day | |
| Basic | 1 day | |
| Foundation | 5 days | 1 day |
| Scale | 30 days | Up to 7 days (default 3) |
From the Mailgun pricing page.
Last checked on each vendor's public page.
Groundmail doesn't publish a retention figure. Whatever provider you use, the dependable way to keep delivery history for as long as you need is to store it yourself: subscribe a webhook to email.delivered, email.bounced, email.complained and email.failed and write each event to your own database. Groundmail webhooks are signed with HMAC-SHA256 and arrive as one JSON event per request. See webhooks.
Dedicated IPs and dedicated servers
Mailgun's Foundation plan gives access to a dedicated IP at 50,000 emails and includes one from 100,000; Scale includes one dedicated IP. Additional IPs are $59 per IP per month.
Groundmail offers two levels of isolation above the shared pool. Dedicated IPs give you reputation that's yours alone and fixed IPs customers can allowlist; we warm them with you before traffic moves, and pricing is quoted by our team. A dedicated server is your own mail server and IPs, built, warmed and managed by us, from $299/mo including 250,000 emails and $0.80 per 1,000 after. Nobody else's traffic shares your queue, which also answers security reviews that ask about shared mail infrastructure.
| Groundmail | Mailgun | |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated IP availability | Available, warmed with you by our team; talk to us | Access at Foundation 50k; included at Foundation 100k+ and on Scale |
| Additional IPs | Quoted with your setup | $59/IP/month |
Mailgun details from the Mailgun pricing page.
Last checked on each vendor's public page.
Not sure you need either? A dedicated IP only helps with steady daily volume; below that, a clean shared pool usually delivers better. See shared vs dedicated IP.
A shared pool that carries transactional mail only
On a shared pool, your reputation is pooled with everyone else's. Groundmail's pool carries transactional mail only: password resets, sign-in codes, receipts, alerts and invites. Marketing, newsletters and cold email aren't allowed on our IPs under our Acceptable Use Policy, and the pool is warmed and monitored by us. That keeps the mail around yours the same kind as yours: expected, personal and quickly opened.
Moving a send call from Mailgun
Mailgun's HTTP send API is POST https://api.mailgun.net/v3/<your-domain>/messages (api.eu.mailgun.net for EU domains) with form fields and HTTP basic auth, username api and your API key as the password. Groundmail takes JSON at a single endpoint with a bearer key; the sending domain comes from the from address.
Mailgun
curl -s --user "api:$MAILGUN_API_KEY" \
https://api.mailgun.net/v3/acme.com/messages \
-F from="Acme <no-reply@acme.com>" \
-F to=ada@example.com \
-F subject="Reset your password" \
-F text="Your reset link: https://acme.com/reset/abc123"Groundmail
curl -X POST https://api.groundmail.dev/emails \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $GROUNDMAIL_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"from": { "email": "no-reply@acme.com", "name": "Acme" },
"to": "ada@example.com",
"subject": "Reset your password",
"text": "Your reset link: https://acme.com/reset/abc123"
}'| Mailgun | Groundmail |
|---|---|
POST /v3/<domain>/messages | POST /emails |
Basic auth api:<key> | Authorization: Bearer gm_... |
| Form fields | JSON body |
from | from (string, or { email, name }) |
to (repeat the field for each recipient) | to (string or array) |
subject, text, html | subject, text, html |
Mailgun fields from Mailgun's send-via-HTTP docs.
Last checked on each vendor's public page.
Official Groundmail SDKs are available for Node (npm install groundmail) and Go. If your app sends over SMTP, point it at smtp.groundmail.dev on port 587 (STARTTLS) with username groundmail and an SMTP credential (gmsmtp_...) from the dashboard. See SMTP.
When Mailgun is the better fit
- You want a dedicated IP bundled at 100,000 emails. Foundation 100k at $75/mo includes one, at a published price. Groundmail dedicated IPs are quoted by our team.
- You want long, published log retention. Scale keeps 30 days of logs. Groundmail doesn't publish a retention figure, so you'd store events from webhooks yourself.
- You send millions with heavy overage. Mailgun Scale's overage falls to $0.50 per 1,000 at 1M and $0.40 at 2.5M.
- You're already integrated and happy. If delivery is good and your team knows the API, switching has a cost of its own.
When Groundmail is the better fit
- You send 50,000 to 100,000 emails a month. $20 or $35 on Pro, against $35 or $75 on Foundation.
- You want a larger free plan to build on. 3,000 emails a month with every feature, against 100 a day on Mailgun Free.
- You want a pool that only carries transactional mail, on servers and IPs the provider owns and operates.
- You need a dedicated server, not only a dedicated IP: your own mail server and IPs from $299/mo, built and warmed by us.
Create a free account and send your first email in a few minutes, or read the quickstart.
Frequently asked questions
Is Groundmail cheaper than Mailgun?
At the published plan prices, yes: $20 vs $35 at 50,000 emails a month, $35 vs $75 at 100,000, $350 vs $400 at 500,000 and $650 vs $700 at 1 million. Mailgun's Scale overage rates are lower at high volume, and Mailgun includes a dedicated IP from Foundation 100k, so compare the plan you'd actually use.
Does Mailgun include a dedicated IP?
Mailgun's pricing page lists dedicated IP access at Foundation 50k, one included from Foundation 100k and on Scale, and additional IPs at $59 per IP per month. Groundmail offers dedicated IPs quoted by our team, and dedicated servers from $299/mo including 250,000 emails.
How long does Mailgun keep logs?
Per Mailgun's pricing page: 1 day on Free and Basic, 5 days on Foundation and 30 days on Scale. Groundmail doesn't publish a retention figure; if you need long history, store webhook events in your own database.
What do the free plans include?
Mailgun Free allows 100 emails a day on one domain with 1 day of logs. Groundmail Free allows 3,000 emails a month, up to 100 a day, on one domain with every feature, and needs a verified domain and a card on file (not charged) to send.
Can I send marketing email on Groundmail?
No. Groundmail is for transactional email only. Marketing, newsletters and cold email aren't allowed on our IPs, which keeps the shared pool limited to the kind of mail recipients expect.
How do I switch my Mailgun send calls?
Replace POST https://api.mailgun.net/v3/<domain>/messages with POST https://api.groundmail.dev/emails, swap basic auth for a Bearer gm_ key, and send from, to, subject, text and html as JSON instead of form fields. SMTP users change host, username and password to smtp.groundmail.dev, groundmail and a gmsmtp_ credential.
Sources
Facts on this page about other companies' products, prices and policies come from these public pages. They change, so check them before you decide.