Staxly

Mailgun vs Helicone

Email API for developers with deep deliverability tooling
vs. Open-source LLM observability — 1-line integration via proxy

Mailgun websiteHelicone website

Pricing tiers

Mailgun

Free
100 emails/day. 1 custom domain, 1-day log retention, 1 inbound route. No credit card.
Free
Basic
$15/month. 10,000 emails/month, no daily limit, 5 inbound routes.
$15/mo
Foundation
$35/month (1st month free). 50,000 emails/month, 1,000 custom domains, 5-day retention.
$35/mo
Scale
$90/month. 100,000 emails/month, SAML SSO, 5,000 email validations, dedicated IP pools, 30-day retention.
$90/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Deliverability services, managed onboarding.
Custom
Mailgun website

Helicone

Hobby (Free)
10,000 requests/month. 7-day retention. 1 seat. Basic monitoring.
Free
Startup Discount
<2 years, <$5M funding: 50% off first year.
$0 base (usage-based)
Self-Hosted (OSS)
MIT-licensed. Run Helicone yourself for free.
$0 base (usage-based)
Pro
$79/month. 10k free + usage-based. Unlimited seats. Alerts, reports, HQL query language. 1-month retention.
$79/mo
Team
$799/month. 5 orgs, SOC-2 + HIPAA compliance, dedicated Slack, 3-month retention.
$799/mo
Enterprise
Custom MSA, SAML SSO, on-prem deploy, bulk discounts, forever retention.
Custom
Helicone website

Free-tier quotas head-to-head

Comparing free on Mailgun vs hobby on Helicone.

MetricMailgunHelicone
No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers.

Features

Mailgun · 14 features

  • Batch SendingSend up to 1,000 recipients per API call via recipient variables.
  • Dedicated IPsIP pools with auto warmup. Scale+ tier.
  • Deliverability SuiteInbox placement testing, DMARC reporting, seed lists.
  • Email LogsSearchable log of all send attempts + events.
  • Email TemplatesTemplate builder + variables + versioning.
  • Email ValidationReal-time email verification (syntax, MX, role accounts, disposable).
  • EU RegionData stored in EU for GDPR-sensitive customers.
  • Inbound RoutingRoute incoming emails to URLs/SMTP. Attachment forwarding.
  • Mailing ListsUnlimited mailing lists with bulk subscribe/unsubscribe.
  • Open/Click TrackingHTML + text tracking with configurable tracking domain.
  • SAML SSOScale+ tier.
  • Send APIREST/SMTP send with MIME + tracking.
  • TagsTag messages to slice stats.
  • Webhook Eventsdelivered, opened, clicked, unsubscribed, complained, permanent_fail, temporary_

Helicone · 16 features

  • AlertsThresholds on error rate, latency, cost, usage. Pro+.
  • Async LoggingLog AFTER the LLM call via SDK — zero added latency.
  • Cost TrackingAutomatic cost calculation per call by provider/model.
  • DashboardRequest tables, aggregate metrics, cost breakdowns.
  • EvaluatorsLLM-as-judge + custom evaluators on runs.
  • ExperimentsA/B test different models/prompts.
  • HQL (SQL over traces)Query your logged data with SQL. Pro+.
  • PII RedactionAutomatically scrub emails, credit cards, etc. from logs.
  • Prompt CachingCache identical requests → save money.
  • Prompts & VersionsStore + version + A/B test prompts.
  • Proxy Mode1-line integration via base URL swap. Captures all requests.
  • Rate LimitingPer-user + per-key rate limit policies.
  • ReportsScheduled email reports with KPIs.
  • Self-HostingDocker + k8s deployment.
  • SessionsGroup related calls (chat sessions, agent runs).
  • User MetricsPer-user cost + usage segmentation.

Developer interfaces

KindMailgunHelicone
CLIHelicone CLI
SDKmailgun.js (Node), mailgun-php, mailgun-python, mailgun-rubyhelicone (npm), helicone-python
RESTMailgun REST APIAsync Logging API, Helicone Proxy, Query API (HQL)
OTHERInbound Routing, SMTP Relay, WebhooksHelicone Dashboard, Webhooks
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Mailgun and Helicone may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.

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