Private and open-source alternatives to Mailgun
8 email sending services rated against the same public privacy criteria as Mailgun, with our picks first.
What is the best private alternative to Mailgun?
Forward Email has the highest score among these alternatives: 92 out of 100 (grade A). Disclosure. Privacy Ratings is maintained by the team behind Forward Email. This entry is scored by the same criteria as every other entry in this category, and changes to it are reviewed under the published conflict-of-interest rules.
Why look for an alternative?
- Open source: no. Closed source.
- No trackers or telemetry: no. The privacy policy lists Google Analytics and Optimizely on the website.
- Independent audit: partial. SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified, but the audit reports are not public.
- Security headers: partial. Grade B (75/100+)
- Modern web standards: no. Score 47%
- Message content deleted after delivery: partial. Messages are kept for up to 3 days by default, depending on the plan, and retention can be set to 0 days for each domain.
The alternatives
Forward Email Grade A
Email service whose paid plans include outbound SMTP and an email API for sending from apps and websites with a custom domain. Message bodies are purged after delivery by default.
Disclosure. Privacy Ratings is maintained by the team behind Forward Email. This entry is scored by the same criteria as every other entry in this category, and changes to it are reviewed under the published conflict-of-interest rules.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). Forward Email scores 92 out of 100 (grade A) on the email sending services criteria. It meets 11 of 13 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit, tells users about requests, TLS configuration, security headers, modern web standards, message content deleted after delivery, open and click tracking off by default and encrypted delivery can be enforced.
Resend Grade D
Email API for developers with SMTP support, React Email templates, broadcasts and webhooks.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). Resend scores 44 out of 100 (grade D) on the email sending services criteria. It meets 4 of 13 criteria: no ads or data sales, TLS configuration, open and click tracking off by default and encrypted delivery can be enforced.
Customer.io Grade F
Messaging automation platform for email, push, SMS and in-app messages, with a transactional email API, US and EU regions and open and click tracking.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). Customer.io scores 38 out of 100 (grade F) on the email sending services criteria. It meets 3 of 13 criteria: tells users about requests, TLS configuration and EU data location.
Brevo Grade F
Marketing and transactional email platform, formerly Sendinblue, with an SMTP relay, email API, SMS and a CRM. Data is hosted in the EU.
Based in France (Nine Eyes). Brevo scores 30 out of 100 (grade F) on the email sending services criteria. It meets 2 of 13 criteria: TLS configuration and EU data location.
MailerSend Grade F
Transactional email API and SMTP relay from the makers of MailerLite, with templates, inbound routing and SMS.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). MailerSend scores 28 out of 100 (grade F) on the email sending services criteria. It meets 2 of 13 criteria: TLS configuration and EU data location.
Postmark Grade F
Email API and SMTP service from ActiveCampaign for transactional and broadcast email, with separate message streams and 45 days of message history by default.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). Postmark scores 26 out of 100 (grade F) on the email sending services criteria. It meets 2 of 13 criteria: TLS configuration and open and click tracking off by default.
SMTP2GO Grade F
SMTP relay and email API for transactional and bulk email, with an EU data center in Amsterdam and optional email archiving.
Based in New Zealand (Five Eyes). SMTP2GO scores 24 out of 100 (grade F) on the email sending services criteria. It meets 3 of 13 criteria: TLS configuration, open and click tracking off by default and EU data location.
SMTP.com Grade F
Email relay and API service from Ziff Davis for transactional and marketing email, with dedicated IP addresses and delivery reports.
Based in Canada (Five Eyes). SMTP.com scores 8 out of 100 (grade F) on the email sending services criteria. It meets 1 of 13 criteria: TLS configuration.