Loops vs Mailgun
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Loops and Mailgun.
Quick Verdict
3.9/5
Loops
0 reviews
3.7/5
Mailgun
0 reviews
Loops is rated higher (3.9 vs 3.7). Loops is an email platform for SaaS companies that combines marketing, transactional and lifecycle email, priced by subscribed contacts with unlimited sends on paid plans. Mailgun is a developer-focused email API service owned by Sinch. Inbound email parsing, email validation API, and detailed analytics. Popular for startups building email features into their apps.
Loops Email platform for SaaS: marketing, transactional and lifecycle email in one | Mailgun Email API for developers — by Sinch | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.9 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.7 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best for | SaaS teams that want marketing, lifecycle and transactional email in one developer-friendly product with unlimited sends and predictable contact-based pricing — especially those with engaged, modest-sized lists. | Developers and SaaS teams sending transactional email from applications who also need inbound email parsing, validation, and deliverability tooling |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tierapi access | free tierapi access |
| Visit Loops → | Visit Mailgun → | |
Loops
Pros
- + Unlimited marketing and transactional sends on every paid plan, priced by contacts
- + Marketing and transactional email share one platform and one contact model
- + Free plan stores unlimited contacts and includes all platform features
- + No per-seat charges and no credit card required to start
- + Refreshingly candid pricing documentation, including machine-readable pricing
- + Developer-first API with SDKs for transactional and marketing sends
Cons
- - Steep jump from the free plan (1,000 contacts) to the first paid tier ($49/month)
- - Dormant subscribed contacts cost money every month — list hygiene is mandatory
- - Thinner automation and segmentation depth than mature marketing platforms
- - Small vendor (YC W22, roughly a dozen people) with a short track record
- - No published SLA outside Enterprise; infrastructure and deliverability details are scarce
Mailgun
Pros
- + Inbound email parsing on every plan, including Free — the strongest developer-side feature in this category
- + Published four-tier pricing with explicit overage rates ($15/$35/$90 per month tiers)
- + Credit-backed 99.99% availability SLA on API, SMTP, and outbound delivery
- + US or EU (Ireland) sending regions per account, with GDPR/HIPAA/SOC/ISO 27001 compliance paperwork
Cons
- - One day of log retention on Free and Basic — debugging old delivery issues is impossible without exporting logs
- - Chat and phone support only on the $90/month Scale tier; support quality under Sinch ownership draws community criticism
- - Dedicated IPs cost extra below high volumes (third-party listings quote ~$59/IP/month)
- - US operating entity under a Swedish parent — CLOUD Act exposure remains for privacy-sensitive EU buyers
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