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Pharos vs Mailgun
Mailgun covers more of the email lifecycle: inbound Routes, a US or EU region for each domain from one account, official SDKs in six languages, and separate products for address validation, inbox placement tests and email previews. Pharos sends transactional email only, keeps 120 days of events on every plan where Mailgun keeps logs for 1 to 30 days by plan, and costs less at each of the four volumes priced below.
Prices and features checked 17 September 2026.
The short answer.
Pick Mailgun if you receive email through Routes, need message data kept in the EU, want an official SDK, or want address validation and inbox placement tests from the same vendor.
Pick Pharos if you send only transactional email and want 120 days of events, unlimited sender domains and every feature on every plan, including a free plan of 3,000 emails a month.
What decides most cases is inbound mail and data region. If you use neither Routes nor the EU region, the comparison comes down to event history and the bill: at 150,000 emails a month Mailgun’s cheapest route is $130 with 5 days of logs, and Pharos is $79 with 120 days of events.
Side by side.
Transactional sending only. Where a row says "not offered", that is the plain answer, not a gap in the research.
| Mailgun | Pharos | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free, Basic, Foundation and Scale plans at set monthly volumes, with Enterprise by quote. Extra emails are billed per 1,000, at a rate that falls on larger plans, at the start of the next month. | Monthly plans by volume up to 500,000. On a paid plan, going over moves you to the next plan for that month, with an email telling you. |
| Free tier | 100 emails a day, 1 sending domain, 1 day of logs, 1 inbound route and 1 user | 3,000 emails a month, 100 a day, every feature, no card, no expiry |
| Feature gating | Sending domains: 1 on Basic, 1,000 from Foundation. Multiple users, user roles and an uptime SLA from Foundation. SAML single sign-on, dedicated IP pools, send time optimization, and chat and phone support on Scale. | None. Every feature is on every plan, including free. |
| REST API | Yes. Up to 1,000 recipients per call with recipient variables, delivery scheduled up to 7 days ahead on plans that store messages that long, and a test mode that is billed like a send. | Yes, with idempotency keys |
| SMTP relay | Yes, on ports 25, 587 and 2525 with STARTTLS, or 465 with TLS. Credentials are issued per sending domain. | Yes, on port 587 with STARTTLS. Same events and log as the API. |
| SDKs | Official for Go, Node.js, PHP, Java, Ruby and Python | None. Plain HTTP and SMTP, nothing to install. |
| Templates | Handlebars templates with versions, up to 100 per account or per domain and 40 versions each | Versioned, with variables and conditionals, on every plan |
| Webhooks | Signed with HMAC-SHA256, with a TLS client certificate as a second check. Set per account or per domain. Failed posts are retried for about 8 hours, except delivered events. | Signed. Retried with backoff until your endpoint returns 2xx. Separate per domain. |
| Inbound email | Routes match on recipient or header, then forward the message to a URL or an address, or store it for up to 3 days. 1 route on Free, 5 on Basic, full routing from Foundation. | Not offered |
| Event history | Logs kept 1 day on Free and Basic, 5 days on Foundation and 30 on Scale. Message content kept 1 day on Foundation and 3 to 7 days on Scale. | 120 days on every plan, queryable with GET /v1/events |
| Sending IPs | Shared IPs on Free and Basic. A dedicated IP available on Foundation at 50,000 and included from 100,000 and on Scale, with more at $59 a month each. | Shared between Pharos customers, all sending transactional mail only under the acceptable use policy. Never a public pool. An isolated IP on request. |
| Deliverability tools | Email validation as an add-on, with 5,000 included on Scale. Inbox placement tests and blocklist and spam trap monitoring in Mailgun Optimize, and email previews in Mailgun Inspect, each priced separately. | Forward-confirmed reverse DNS and blocklist monitoring on every plan. No address validation, inbox placement tests or email previews. |
| Data regions | US or EU, chosen per domain within one account. Messages, logs, suppressions and routes stay in that region. | No region choice and no guaranteed data residency |
| Certifications | SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001, as listed on Mailgun’s security page. Hosted on Google Cloud. | None held |
| AI agent integration | An open-source package run locally, with over 50 API operations across sending, domains, suppressions, webhooks and routes. No hosted version. | Not offered. An agent can call the REST API directly. |
What it costs.
The cheapest published way to send each monthly volume, billed monthly, in US dollars. Mailgun charges $0.40–$1.80 per 1,000 extra emails, by plan and volume. Its free plan sends 100 emails a day. Pharos: on the Starter, Growth and Scale plans, going past the allowance moves you to the next plan for that month, with an email telling you. The free plan stops at 3,000. For more than 500,000 emails a month, talk to us.
| Emails a month | Mailgun | Pharos |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $15 Basic, 10,000 included | $9 Starter, 10,000 included |
| 50,000 | $35 Foundation, 50,000 included | $29 Growth, 50,000 included |
| 150,000 | $130 Foundation 100,000 ($75) + 50,000 × $1.10 per 1,000 | $79 Scale, 150,000 included |
| 500,000 | $400 Scale, 500,000 included | $199 Volume, 500,000 included |
Mailgun prices Foundation at 50,000 and 100,000 and Scale at steps from 100,000 to 2,500,000, and the larger plans charge less for extra emails. At 150,000 the cheapest route is Foundation 100,000 plus overage.
Source: Mailgun pricing, read on 17 September 2026. Pharos's full ladder is on the pricing page.
Where Mailgun is better.
A US or EU region for each domain
Mailgun runs its service in both the US and the EU, and one account and bill can hold domains in each. Messages, event logs, suppressions, routes and IP addresses stay in the region where a domain was created. Account details, users, billing, API keys and domain names are replicated globally. Each region has its own API, SMTP and inbound hostnames. Pharos has no region option, so a hard EU data requirement rules it out.
Inbound Routes
A route pairs a filter, such as a recipient pattern, a header match or a catch-all, with actions: forward the message to a URL or an address, store it for up to 3 days, or stop evaluating lower-priority routes. A message forwarded to a URL arrives as a signed POST with its attachments, and with the quoted reply text and signature split out. Free allows 1 route and Basic 5, with full routing from Foundation. Pharos does not receive mail, so reply-by-email and support-ticket flows need another provider.
Deliverability products from the same vendor
Mailgun Validate checks addresses in real time at signup, or in bulk from an uploaded CSV file. Mailgun Optimize adds inbox placement tests, spam trap and blocklist monitoring and a deliverability services team. Mailgun Inspect previews a message in more than 100 email clients and devices and flags accessibility issues. Each is priced apart from sending, and Scale includes 5,000 validations. Pharos lists blocklist monitoring on every plan but offers no address validation, placement tests or previews.
Official SDKs in six languages
Mailgun maintains SDKs for Go, Node.js, PHP, Java, Ruby and Python. Pharos publishes no library: you write the HTTP request or fill in SMTP settings in the mailer you already use.
SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001 and a DPA
Mailgun’s security page lists SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001 certification, and the Sinch trust centre announces a SOC 2 Type II report covering Mailgun, Mailjet and Email on Acid for August 2024 to July 2025. Mailgun’s GDPR page offers a data processing agreement that includes the EU standard contractual clauses. Pharos holds no certification and has no published DPA, as its security page states.
AI agent integration
Mailgun’s open-source AI agent integration runs locally and exposes over 50 API operations, from sending and stats to suppressions, webhooks and inbound routes, against either the US or the EU region. It leaves out delete operations. Pharos has none. An agent can still send through the Pharos REST API with a tool definition.
Where Pharos is better.
A lower bill at every volume priced here
Pharos costs $9 for 10,000 emails a month against Mailgun Basic at $15, and $29 against Foundation at $35 for 50,000. At 150,000 Mailgun’s cheapest route is $130, a Foundation plan of 100,000 plus 50,000 extra emails, against $79. At 500,000 the two are $199 and $400, which is Mailgun’s Scale plan at that volume.
120 days of events on every plan
Every Pharos plan keeps 120 days of events, and GET /v1/events returns them by message, event type or date. Mailgun keeps logs and bounce classifications for 1 day on Free and Basic, 5 days on Foundation and 30 days on Scale. The log entry for a bounce from last week is gone on Basic or Foundation, and still there on Pharos, the free plan included.
No plan holds a feature back
On Mailgun, Free and Basic allow 1 sending domain, and 1,000 domains start at Foundation. Pharos puts every feature on every plan, free included: unlimited sender domains with separate API keys and webhooks for each, forward-confirmed reverse DNS and blocklist monitoring.
Switching from Mailgun.
The step-by-step version, with Mailgun's DNS records, suppression export and webhook events mapped: moving from Mailgun to Pharos.
Questions.
Is Pharos cheaper than Mailgun?
Yes, at each volume compared here, as of 17 September 2026. At 10,000 emails a month Pharos is $9 and Mailgun Basic is $15. At 50,000 it is $29 against Mailgun Foundation at $35, at 150,000 $79 against $130, and at 500,000 $199 against $400. Mailgun’s 150,000 figure is a Foundation plan of 100,000 plus 50,000 extra emails.
Can Mailgun or Pharos keep email data in the EU?
Mailgun can, as of 17 September 2026. A domain created in its EU region keeps messages, event logs, suppressions and routes in the EU, sends through api.eu.mailgun.net and smtp.eu.mailgun.org, and sits in the same account and bill as US domains. Pharos has no region option and no guaranteed data residency.
Can I run Mailgun and Pharos side by side?
Yes. Mailgun signs with its own DKIM selectors, such as pdk1 and pdk2 under its automatic key rotation, so a Pharos selector does not collide and both can sign for one domain while traffic moves. Export the bounces, unsubscribes and complaints of every sending domain and import them into Pharos before its first send. Leave Mailgun’s MX records in place while any route still receives mail, and keep its tracking CNAME for as long as recipients may click links in mail it already sent.
Does Pharos have an equivalent to Mailgun Routes?
No, as of 17 September 2026. Pharos does not receive mail. Mailgun Routes match incoming mail by recipient or header and forward it to your URL or another address, or store it for up to 3 days, with 1 route on Free, 5 on Basic and full routing from Foundation. If your application reads replies through a route, keep Mailgun’s MX records and routes for that and move only sending to Pharos.
Try it next to Mailgun.
3,000 emails a month free, every feature included, no card. Enough to verify a domain and send alongside whatever you run today.
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