How much can I save versus Mailgun?

Broadcast is $250 once, plus your sending provider and a small server. Pointed at Amazon SES (~$0.10 per 1,000 emails), the ongoing cost is usually well below Mailgun's monthly plans at scale.

Self-hosted — one-time license

The self-hosted Mailgun alternative

Mailgun is a solid developer-first sending service, but it’s hosted infrastructure that prices by volume, and the marketing features sit behind separate paid plans. Broadcast is the marketing platform you run on your own server for a one-time license — lists, campaigns, automations, and unsubscribe handling — and it sends through Mailgun, Amazon SES, Postmark, or any SMTP.

Buy Broadcast — $250 Calculate your savings

The short answer

For a like-for-like transactional sending swap, the closest Mailgun alternatives are Amazon SES (cheapest), Postmark (easiest), and SendGrid. For the marketing side — managing subscribers and sending newsletters and automations — Broadcast is the self-hosted, one-time-purchase ($250) alternative: unlimited subscribers, no per-contact billing, and it sends through Mailgun or any other ESP underneath. It’s the only one here you own outright.

At a Glance

What it is

Mailgun: Sending API + SaaS

Broadcast: Owned marketing platform

Pricing

Mailgun: Monthly, by volume

Broadcast: $250 one-time

Sending

Mailgun: Their infrastructure

Broadcast: SES, Postmark, Mailgun, SMTP

Data & residency

Mailgun: Their servers

Broadcast: Your server

Straight answer: if you use Mailgun purely as a transactional sending API, Broadcast isn’t a direct swap — Amazon SES, Postmark, or SendGrid are. Broadcast replaces the marketing layer: the lists, campaigns, segmentation, and automations you’d otherwise bolt on. And since Broadcast brings its own delivery integration, you can keep Mailgun as the SMTP relay and just move the platform you own onto your own server. Pick the delivery backend on price and deliverability; own the marketing platform either way.

Feature Comparison

Broadcast vs Mailgun for marketing email

Feature	Broadcast	Mailgun
Self-hosted	Yes — your server	No (SaaS only)
Pricing	$250 one-time	Monthly, by volume
Subscribers/contacts	Unlimited	Marketing tiers by count
Transactional Email API	Use your ESP for that	Core strength
Campaigns & templates	Built-in	Separate marketing plan
Automations / sequences	Built-in	Limited
Choice of sending provider	SES, Postmark, Mailgun, SMTP	Mailgun only
Developer API	RESTful	Extensive
Data ownership / residency	Your server (EU-friendly)	Their SaaS (US/EU regions)
Setup & maintenance	You self-host	Fully managed

Mailgun wins on managed transactional infrastructure and API depth. Broadcast wins when you want to own the marketing platform and keep the sending provider flexible. Compare backends in our SES vs Postmark vs Mailgun guide.

Who Should Choose What

Choose Broadcast if you…

• Used Mailgun’s marketing features and want to own them
• Are tired of volume/contact-based monthly pricing
• Want lists, campaigns, and automations in one place
• Want to choose or switch your sending provider freely
• Prefer a one-time license to a subscription

Stay on Mailgun (or SES/Postmark) if you…

• Need a managed transactional Email API for app mail
• Don’t want to run any server yourself
• Rely on Mailgun’s inbound routing or validation tools
• Send purely transactional volume with no marketing layer

Tip: keep Mailgun for app mail and run Broadcast on top for the marketing list.

Frequently Asked Questions

For Mailgun’s marketing features, yes. For its transactional sending API, no — Broadcast is a marketing platform, not a raw sending service. Many teams keep Mailgun (or move to SES) for app mail and run Broadcast for the marketing list.

Yes. Point Broadcast at Mailgun’s SMTP and keep your existing sending setup — or switch to Amazon SES, Postmark, or SendGrid whenever it suits you. The delivery backend is decoupled from the platform.

For raw sending, Amazon SES is the cheapest backend and open-source list managers like Listmonk are free. Broadcast is a one-time-purchase, source-available platform that adds automations, segmentation, templates, and support on top of whatever ESP you choose. See our self-hosted comparison.

Broadcast is $250 once, plus your sending provider and a small server. If you point it at Amazon SES (~$0.10 per 1,000 emails), the ongoing cost is usually well below Mailgun’s monthly plans at scale. Estimate it on the savings calculator.