# Brew vs Mailgun

## The short version

Choose Brew if you want a fully agentic setup, where your AI agent drives lifecycle marketing to engage and retain customers. Brew designs every email from your brand and runs your automations agentically.

Choose Mailgun if your developers send email from your app over its API or SMTP, route inbound email into your app, and build each email themselves.

Canonical: https://brew.new/compare/brew-vs-mailgun

## Why teams switch from Mailgun to Brew

Brew is fully agentic: your agent designs on-brand emails, sends them and runs your automations. In Mailgun, your app sends each email over the API or SMTP.

### Key differences

| Feature | Brew | Mailgun |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Fully agentic | Yes: Your agent designs, sends and runs automations end to end | Partly: Your agent sends over MCP and writes each email itself |
| Designs finished, on-brand emails | Yes: Layout, copy and images from your brand, ready to send | No: No AI design; drag-and-drop or HTML templates |
| Your agent takes it live | Yes: Sends, schedules and runs automations; OAuth and org-scoped MCP require confirmation, brand API keys do not | Partly: Local MCP server sends emails; no flows to run |
| Remembers your brand for every email | Yes: Brand files your agent reads every time | Partly: Account-level templates you build and reuse |
| Works without a developer | Yes: Connect your tools, design and automate in chat | No: Sending runs through the API or SMTP |
| Unlimited team seats | Yes: No seat limits on any plan | Partly: From Foundation; not on Free or Basic |

### Creating emails

| Feature | Brew | Mailgun |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Visual editor | Yes: Infinite canvas, edit by hand or in chat | Yes: Drag-and-drop or HTML template editor |
| Bring the emails you already have | Yes: HTML, MJML, React Email, Figma or a forwarded email | Yes: Paste your own HTML into a template |

### Automation and data

| Feature | Brew | Mailgun |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Event-triggered automations | Yes: Stripe, Shopify, Clerk, Supabase or your own events | No: None built in; your app decides each send |
| Best send time per contact | Yes: Intelligent Send | Yes: Send time optimization, on Scale |

### Sending and receiving

| Feature | Brew | Mailgun |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Email from your own domain | Yes: Marketing and transactional | Yes: Transactional and bulk, over API or SMTP |
| Inbound email | No: No inbound email | Yes: Inbound routes; full access from Foundation |

### Agents and developers

| Feature | Brew | Mailgun |
| --- | --- | --- |
| MCP server for AI agents | Yes: Every Brew tool, in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Grok | Yes: Local server: sends, templates, lists and stats |
| API | Yes: REST API, typed SDK and CLI | Yes: REST API, SMTP relay and webhooks |

### Pricing

| Feature | Brew | Mailgun |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Billed on | Emails sent and AI credits | Emails a month, plus overage per 1,000 |
| Getting started | Free trial with 500 AI credits and 1,000 sends | Free plan: 100 emails a day |
| First paid plan | Growth, $99/month: 10,000 AI credits and 50,000 sends | Basic, from $15/month: 10,000 emails |
| Next plan | Pro, $249/month: 25,000 AI credits and 200,000 sends | Foundation, $35/month: 50,000 emails |
| Top plan | Enterprise: custom volume and a dedicated account manager | Scale from $90/month; Enterprise on request |

### Security and compliance

| Feature | Brew | Mailgun |
| --- | --- | --- |
| SOC 2 and ISO 27001 | No: Not yet; security review and DPA on request | Yes: Certified |
| HIPAA | No: Not supported | Yes: HIPAA Business Associate Addendum |

## Your agent runs your lifecycle email.

Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Grok over MCP and your agent gets every Brew tool. It designs emails from your brand, builds audiences, runs automations and schedules sends. OAuth and organization-scoped MCP connections ask you to confirm live sends and launches. Brand-scoped API keys can execute permitted calls without the MCP confirmation step.

## Every email designed from your brand.

Paste your website and Brew writes your brand into two files your agent reads for every email. Describe the email and it appears on the canvas, ready to edit by hand or in chat.

## Moving from Mailgun

Keep Mailgun sending until Brew passes your tests. We’ll do the move with you on a call if you like.

1. **Export your contacts**: In Mailgun, go to Sending, then Mailing Lists, open each list and click Export Recipients. Under each domain’s Suppressions, export the Bounces, Complaints and Unsubscribes lists too, and mark those contacts as unsubscribed. If your contacts live in your app, export them from there. Before importing, prepare a Subscribed column: true for opted-in contacts, false for unsubscribed, cleaned or suppressed contacts. Invert any Unsubscribed true/false flag first. Map the column to Subscribed and review the opt-out preview; new contacts default to subscribed if this value is missing.
2. **Bring or redesign your emails**: Most teams have Brew redesign their emails from their brand, which is faster and looks better. You can also paste the HTML of a Mailgun template or forward a sent email to hello@email.brew.new; imports are free.
3. **Rebuild your flows**: With Mailgun, the logic for who gets which email lives in your code. Connect Stripe, Shopify, Clerk or Supabase, or send the same events to Brew’s API, then describe each flow. Brew builds the emails, waits and branches.
4. **Connect your sending domain**: Connect and verify your sending domain, then review its health and inbox placement. For a new domain, select Gradual send to ramp the campaign in configurable batches before a large send. Gradual send is off by default; connecting a domain does not automatically warm it up.

## Questions

### Is Brew a good Mailgun alternative?

Yes, if you want an agent to design and run your email, not only an API to send it. Brew designs finished, on-brand emails from your brand, sends them and runs your automations from your AI agent, and holds your contacts, audiences and unsubscribes. Brew has no inbound email, so replies your app parses stay with another tool.

### Can I use Brew alongside Mailgun?

Yes. Connect Mailgun in Brew with your region, sending domain and an API key, and Brew saves any email straight into Mailgun as a template, ready for your transactional and marketing sends. Many teams design in Brew and keep Mailgun sending from their app.

### How is Brew’s agent different from using Mailgun’s MCP server?

Brew’s agent designs the finished email from your brand files, builds audiences, runs automations and sends, so what goes out is on-brand without anyone writing HTML. Mailgun’s MCP server runs on your own machine and gives your agent Mailgun’s API: it sends emails, saves templates, manages mailing lists and reads delivery stats, and your agent writes each email’s HTML itself.
OAuth and organization-scoped MCP connections ask you to confirm live sends and launches. Brand-scoped API keys can execute permitted calls without the MCP confirmation step.

### Can Mailgun design on-brand emails for me?

No. Mailgun has no AI that designs emails: your team builds each template in its drag-and-drop or HTML editor, or your agent writes the HTML and sends it through the MCP server. That is the work Brew’s agent takes over. Brew designs the whole email, layout, copy and images, from brand files your agent reads every time, so it goes out on-brand.

### Will Brew cost more or less than Mailgun?

It depends on what you use Mailgun for. Mailgun bills on emails a month: Basic starts at $15/month for 10,000 emails, Foundation is $35/month for 50,000 and Scale is $90/month for 100,000, with overage per 1,000 emails. Brew bills on sends and AI credits with unlimited contacts, and its price covers design, campaigns and automations. Start with the free trial and compare at your own numbers.

### Do I need a developer to use Brew?

No. Connect Stripe, Shopify, Clerk or Supabase, design emails on the canvas or in chat, and describe each automation. Developers can still send events over the REST API, typed SDK or CLI, and import HTML or React Email templates.

### Is Brew SOC 2 certified?

Not yet. We complete security reviews and sign a DPA on request, and our privacy policy, DPA, GDPR page and subprocessor list are public at docs.brew.new/legal.

### How long does it take to move from Mailgun?

Your first on-brand email is ready the day you start the trial. The rest depends on how much of your email your app sends: contacts import from Mailgun’s mailing list exports and opt-outs from its suppression lists, most teams have Brew redesign their emails rather than import them, and each flow is rebuilt by describing it. Keep Mailgun sending until Brew passes your tests.
Before importing, prepare a Subscribed column: true for opted-in contacts, false for unsubscribed, cleaned or suppressed contacts. Invert any Unsubscribed true/false flag first. Map the column to Subscribed and review the opt-out preview; new contacts default to subscribed if this value is missing.

### Do you help with the move?

Yes. We get on a call to import your contacts and unsubscribe list, bring over or redesign your emails, rebuild your flows and connect your sending domain.

## Sources and review

Brew publishes this comparison. Brew Team reviewed the linked first-party documentation. This is a documentation review, not a claim of hands-on testing of every product. Pricing and plan limits can change.

Work at Mailgun? If anything on this page is wrong or out of date, email support@brew.new and we will correct it. We want to compete on the product, not on a mistaken comparison.

Updated October 2026

- [Mailgun pricing](https://www.mailgun.com/pricing/)
- [Mailgun MCP server](https://documentation.mailgun.com/docs/mailgun/mcp)
- [Information about Sinch Mailgun](https://www.mailgun.com/ai-info/)
- [Mailgun Email Templates Editor](https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/6923289387675-Email-Templates-Editor)
- [Mailgun security](https://www.mailgun.com/security/)
- [Mailgun compliance and security](https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/13402314405275-Compliance-Security)
- [Exporting Mailgun mailing lists and suppressions](https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007512013-Can-I-transfer-my-domain-to-another-region-US-to-EU-EU-to-US)
- [Brew MCP server](https://brew.new/mcp)
- [Mailgun integration](https://brew.new/browse/integrations/mailgun)
- [Public email templates](https://brew.new/browse/templates)
- [Brew pricing](https://brew.new/pricing)