Mailgun Sends Email.1Lookup Validates It.
Mailgun excels at email delivery but treats validation as a side feature. 1Lookup specializes in validation-first architecture with carrier-grade accuracy, advanced fraud detection, and real-time verification that email platforms can't match.
Platform vs Specialist
Understanding the difference between email platforms and validation specialists
Mailgun: Email Platform
Mailgun focuses on email delivery infrastructure with sending, routing, and analytics. Email validation is an add-on feature to support their delivery services.
1Lookup: Validation Specialist
1Lookup is built exclusively for data validation with accuracy sourced from FCC and carrier data, fraud detection, and real-time verification. Pure focus on validation excellence.
Validation Feature Comparison
How specialists compare to platforms for validation needs
| Feature | 1Lookup | Mailgun | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
Fraud Detection Fraud protection vs. simple validation | Advanced fraud scoring included | Basic validation only | 1Lookup |
Service Focus Focused validation vs. full email platform | Specialized email validation | Email delivery + validation | Different |
Pricing Model Simple validation pricing vs. complex platform costs | Pay-per-validation | Monthly plans + validation costs | 1Lookup |
API Complexity Focused API vs. multi-feature platform | Simple validation API | Complex email platform API | 1Lookup |
Getting Started Quick validation vs. full platform onboarding | Instant validation access | Email platform setup required | 1Lookup |
Disposable Email Detection Stronger disposable email protection | Advanced disposable detection | Basic disposable filtering | 1Lookup |
Every lookup returns a risk signal, not just valid or invalid
A number can be perfectly well-formed and still be a burner, a VOIP line opened this morning, or a number other businesses have already reported. 1Lookup returns a risk score, a spam indicator and line type on the same call as the validation, so the decision to block, challenge or allow can be made in one request.
Real-time Risk Scoring
Instant fraud probability assessment for every number
Pattern Recognition
Detect suspicious behavior patterns across millions of numbers
Adaptive Learning
AI that improves fraud detection accuracy over time
Example response
One credit balance
Every product below draws from the same credits, at $0.00200–$0.00495 per credit depending on plan.
- Phone validation1 credit
- Email verification1 credit
- IP intelligence1 credit
- Spam and risk score1 credit
Buy credits once, spend them on whatever you need to check
Most validation tools sell one channel, so a team checking phones, emails and IPs ends up with three vendors, three invoices and three unused balances. 1Lookup bills all of them from a single credit pool on a monthly plan, with no contract, and leftover credits carry into the next quarter instead of expiring at midnight.
Phone, email and IP on one API
One key, one balance, one integration
Phone data refreshed daily
From FCC and carrier sources
No contract
Monthly plans, with three-month credit rollover
A full line profile, not a status code
The same call returns HLR data, subscriber status, porting history, network type and roaming state. That is the difference between knowing a number is formatted correctly and knowing whether a message sent to it will arrive.
Complete Phone Profile
Simple Migration from Mailgun
What migrating from Mailgun actually involves
Both are REST APIs returning JSON, so the move is a URL, a key and a field mapping rather than a rewrite. The call above is the real shape of each request. Where the work usually goes is the response: our field names differ, and anything you were deriving from a status code may already be a field you can read directly.
One endpoint per channel
Phone, email and IP, same key and same balance
Email Support to Dedicated CSM
Support level rises with the plan, not with a separate fee
Try before you migrate
7-day free trial with credits, no contract to unwind
Mailgun vs 1Lookup FAQ
Common questions about Mailgun and switching to 1Lookup
What is Mailgun?
Mailgun is a transactional email service and email API built for developers to send, receive, and track email at scale over SMTP and a REST API. It handles delivery infrastructure such as routing, analytics, and deliverability, and also offers an email validation add-on. It is commonly used for application email like password resets, receipts, and notifications.
How much does Mailgun cost?
Mailgun uses tiered, volume-based pricing tied to how many emails you send each month. As of publication, it offers a limited free tier plus paid Send plans that start around $15/month (Basic) and rise through Foundation ($35/month) and Scale ($90/month), with custom Enterprise pricing for high volume. Email validation and Mailgun’s deliverability tools are priced separately, so your total cost depends on which products you combine.
What is the best Mailgun alternative?
The best alternative depends on what you are actually trying to do. If your goal is sending email, other email service providers compete with Mailgun on deliverability and price. If your goal is verifying that phone numbers, emails, and IP addresses are real before you use them, a dedicated data-verification API like 1Lookup is a better fit, validating phone, email, and IP through one API and one universal credit system with data sourced from FCC and carrier records.
How is 1Lookup different from Mailgun?
Mailgun is primarily an email delivery platform, while 1Lookup is a data-verification API focused on confirming that contact data is valid and safe to use. 1Lookup unifies phone validation, email verification, and IP and fraud intelligence in a single API with one shared credit system, and also offers carrier/HLR lookup and reverse lookup. The two can be complementary — you might send with Mailgun and verify your list with 1Lookup — but 1Lookup’s edge is unified phone, email, and IP verification rather than delivery.
Can I try 1Lookup for free?
Yes. 1Lookup offers a 7-day free trial so you can test phone, email, and IP verification against your own data before committing. You can sign up and start validating through the same universal credit system that powers every lookup type.
Is Mailgun email validation worth it in 2026?
Mailgun's validation add-on makes sense if you already send through Mailgun: validation, suppression management, and deliverability tooling live in one account, and published volume tiers take the price from $12 per 1,000 down to $2.50 per 1,000 at the 250k+ tier. The catch is that it is an add-on, not a standalone product: validations are unavailable on the $0 Free plan, you need a paid sending plan (Basic starts at $15/mo) even if you only want validation, and the included 5,000 validations per month come only with the $90/mo Scale plan. Entry pricing is also comparatively high at $1.20 per 100 for the first 5,000. Validation-only buyers, or teams that also need phone and IP checks, usually get a cleaner fit from a multi-channel per-lookup API like 1Lookup with no sending subscription attached.
Choose Validation Excellence
Use Mailgun for email delivery. Use 1Lookup for email validation. Get the best of both worlds with specialized tools built for their purpose.
1Lookup vs Mailgun (email validation): the same criteria, side by side
Both products measured on identical criteria, with Mailgun (email validation)’s numbers taken from its own published pricing.
1lookup1lookup.ioMulti-channel validation- Phone
- IP
mailgun.comEmail verification- Mailgun (email validation) · Starts at
- $1.20 per 100 validations ($12.00/1,000) for the first 5,000, as an add-on to a paid sending plan (Basic starts at $15/mo); Scale plan ($90/mo) includes 5,000 validations/mo with overage from $0.80/100
- 1Lookup: $99/mo for 20,000 credits ($4.95 per 1,000, down to $2.00 on Enterprise)
- Mailgun (email validation) · Cheapest published per 1,000
- $3.64 at their largest published tier
- 1Lookup: $2.00 per 1,000 at 1,000,000 lookups/mo
- Mailgun (email validation) · Free trial
- Foundation ($35/mo) and Scale ($90/mo) sending plans are "Free for 1 month"; Scale includes the 5,000 validations/mo allowance. Mailgun's $0 Free plan does not include email validations (marked unavailable in the comparison table).
- 1Lookup: 7-day free trial on every plan: $5 of credits on Starter, $20 on Growth, Professional, and Enterprise (card required, nothing charged up front)
- Mailgun (email validation) · Do credits expire?
- No prepaid credits to expire, validations are metered and billed at the start of each month for the previous month's usage; Scale's included 5,000 validations/mo is a monthly allowance (resets monthly, no rollover stated)
- 1Lookup: Unused monthly credits roll over for 3 months; separately purchased credits last 1 year
| Criteria |  1Lookup | |
|---|---|---|
| Contact-data coverage | EmailPhoneIP | EmailPhoneIP |
| Pricing model | Monthly plans with universal credits; core phone, email and IP lookups cost 1 credit, enrichment and intelligence products cost more | Metered add-on to Mailgun email-sending plans: tiered pay-as-you-go per-validation pricing (quoted per 100 validations) billed monthly in arrears, with 5,000 validations/mo bundled only into the Scale sending plan. No standalone prepaid credit packs on the public pricing page. |
| Starting price | $99/mo for 20,000 credits ($4.95 per 1,000, down to $2.00 on Enterprise) | $1.20 per 100 validations ($12.00/1,000) for the first 5,000, as an add-on to a paid sending plan (Basic starts at $15/mo); Scale plan ($90/mo) includes 5,000 validations/mo with overage from $0.80/100 |
| Free option | Free single lookups via the online tools at 1lookup.io/tools, no account required | None published |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial on every plan: $5 of credits on Starter, $20 on Growth, Professional, and Enterprise (card required, nothing charged up front) | Foundation ($35/mo) and Scale ($90/mo) sending plans are "Free for 1 month"; Scale includes the 5,000 validations/mo allowance. Mailgun's $0 Free plan does not include email validations (marked unavailable in the comparison table). |
| Do credits expire? | Unused monthly credits roll over for 3 months; separately purchased credits last 1 year | No prepaid credits to expire, validations are metered and billed at the start of each month for the previous month's usage; Scale's included 5,000 validations/mo is a monthly allowance (resets monthly, no rollover stated) |
Cost per 1,000: Mailgun (email validation) and 1Lookup
Published rates only, drawn on one shared scale that starts at $0.
- 1Lookup rate card
- Mailgun (email validation) published tiers
Mailgun (email validation), per published tier
10,000 validations
$10.0050,000 validations
$8.40100,000 validations
$6.70500,000 validations
$3.64
1Lookup, reference band (a range, not a bar from $0)
All 4 plans, 20,000 lookups/mo to 1,000,000 lookups/mo
Cost per 1,000
| Product | Volume tier | Price | Cost per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailgun (email validation) | 10,000 validations | $100.00 (first 5k @ $1.20/100 + next 5k @ $0.80/100) | $10.00 |
| Mailgun (email validation) | 50,000 validations | $420.00 (tiered: $1.20/$0.80 per 100) | $8.40 |
| Mailgun (email validation) | 100,000 validations | $670.00 (tiered down to $0.50/100) | $6.70 |
| Mailgun (email validation) | 500,000 validations | $1,820.00 (tiered down to $0.25/100 at the 250k tier) | $3.64 |
| 1Lookup | 20,000 lookups/mo | $99/mo (Starter) | $4.95 |
| 1Lookup | 85,000 lookups/mo | $299/mo (Growth) | $3.52 |
| 1Lookup | 250,000 lookups/mo | $799/mo (Professional) | $3.20 |
| 1Lookup | 1,000,000 lookups/mo | $1,999/mo (Enterprise) | $2.00 |
What Mailgun (email validation) costs at volume
| Volume | Mailgun (email validation) price | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 validations | $100.00 (first 5k @ $1.20/100 + next 5k @ $0.80/100) | $10.00 |
| 50,000 validations | $420.00 (tiered: $1.20/$0.80 per 100) | $8.40 |
| 100,000 validations | $670.00 (tiered down to $0.50/100) | $6.70 |
| 500,000 validations | $1,820.00 (tiered down to $0.25/100 at the 250k tier) | $3.64 |
For scale: 1Lookup’s plans work out to $4.95 per 1,000 lookups on Starter down to $2.00 per 1,000 on Enterprise, with every lookup type (phone, email, IP, spam) drawing from the same credits. Pricing models differ (subscription vs pay-as-you-go), so compare at your real monthly volume.
The same month, priced both ways
Pick one of Mailgun (email validation)’s own published volumes. Their figure is their published price at that tier; ours is the cheapest plan on our rate card that covers it. Nothing here is interpolated.
1Lookup
$299/mo
The Growth plan, 85,000 credits a month at $3.52 per 1,000. Using 50,000 of them is 59% of the plan, so $5.98 per 1,000 effective.
Mailgun (email validation)
$420
Their published price for “50,000 validations”, at $8.40 per 1,000.
At 50,000 a month, 1Lookup is $121 cheaper, and the credits also cover phone, email and IP rather than one of them.
Mailgun (email validation) rates as published on mailgun.com, verified July 2026. Pricing models differ (a monthly plan is not a credit pack), so a like-for-like month depends on your real mix of lookups. Check their pricing page
Mailgun’s pricing page, as we read it
Every Mailgun figure above is taken from this page. It is reproduced here so you can check the numbers against the source instead of trusting our transcription of them, and the caption links straight to it. Prices change; the capture date says how fresh this is.
Before you sign: Mailgun (email validation) and 1Lookup on the operational terms
The terms that decide what a year actually costs, rather than what the first month does. A blank means we could not verify it on either product’s published pages, not that the answer is nothing.
| Term | 1Lookup | Mailgun (email validation) |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum commitment | None. Monthly plans with no contract and no minimum volume; cancel any time | None published for self-service plans; billing is monthly and the pricing page has no annual-commitment toggle. Enterprise is quote-only ('Request a quote'). |
| Cost per extra seat | — | No per-user charge above Basic: 'Every Mailgun plan (except free and basic) allows you to add as many users as you need to your account at no additional cost.' 'Free plans are limited to 1 user per account.' The comparison table marks 'Multi-user Access' as unavailable on Free and Basic and available on Foundation and Scale. |
| Going over your quota | — | Billed per additional unit, at a rate that improves with plan and volume. Messages: Basic 10k $1.80/1,000; Foundation 50k $1.30 and 100k $1.10; Scale 100k $1.10, 250k $0.90, 500k $0.75, 750k $0.60, 1M $0.50, 2.5M $0.40. Validations: first 5k $1.20/100, next 45k $0.80, next 50k $0.50, next 150k $0.35, next 250k $0.25, with the first 5,000 included on Scale. Overages are billed in arrears: 'your monthly plan cost and any extra emails and validations you use will be billed at the start of each month for the previous month.' |
| API access | Included on every plan and during the free trial; there is no tier that unlocks it | API on every tier including Free: the Free plan lists 'RESTful email APIs and SMTP relay' and '2 API keys'. Basic is limited to 1 custom sending domain; 'Full access to RESTful email APIs and SMTP relays' is listed as a Foundation feature. |
| Rate limit | 1,000 requests per minute on standard accounts, with higher limits available on request | No numeric limit published. The API overview documents only the mechanism: headers X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Reset, the error 'Rate limits exceeded. Retry as defined in response headers defined below', and the statement 'Time windows may vary by API depending on resource usage.' Buyers are told to 'Contact support if limits need adjustment.' |
| Uptime SLA | — | 99.99% monthly: 'the Services (meaning any or all of the API, SMTP and Outbound Delivery services listed on our status page) will be available 99.99% of the time in any given monthly billing period, excluding maintenance.' Credit is 5% of the monthly fee per 30 minutes of unavailability, capped at 50% of that period's fees, and must be claimed by ticket within 30 days. The pricing comparison table marks 'Guaranteed Uptime SLA' as unavailable on Free and Basic and available on Foundation and Scale. |
| Compliance | — | 'Sinch Mailgun is SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001 Certified' and GDPR compliant (mailgun.com/security). The Enterprise page additionally states 'GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC I & II compliant'. Certification documents are gated behind a security portal request. |
| Support | Starter: Email Support; Growth: Priority Email & Chat Support; Professional: Chat + Live Meeting; Enterprise: Dedicated CSM | Ticket support on Free, Basic and Foundation. Chat Support and Phone Support are marked available only on Scale ('Live phone & chat support'). Enterprise adds 'Variable, guaranteed response time frames and communication methods'. |
Mailgun (email validation) fine print worth reading twice
Published terms that change what Mailgun (email validation) costs or what you can do with it. Each one links to the Mailgun (email validation) page it was read on, because a claim about somebody else’s contract should be checkable in one click.
The 99.99% uptime SLA is marked unavailable on the Free and Basic plans and available only from Foundation ($35/mo) upward.
Read it on Mailgun (email validation)’s siteFree and Basic accounts cannot add users: 'Free plans are limited to 1 user per account' and unlimited users apply to 'Every Mailgun plan (except free and basic)'.
Read it on Mailgun (email validation)’s siteAdditional dedicated IPs cost $59/IP/month; one dedicated IP is included only with Foundation 100k, Growth and Scale plans.
Read it on Mailgun (email validation)’s siteThe per-message overage rate is higher on cheaper plans: $1.80 per 1,000 extra emails on Basic versus $1.10 on Scale and $0.40 at the Scale 2.5M tier.
Read it on Mailgun (email validation)’s siteLog retention and bounce classification are 1 day on Free and Basic, 5 days on Foundation, and 30 days only on Scale ($90/mo).
Read it on Mailgun (email validation)’s siteChat and phone support are marked available only on the Scale plan; Free, Basic and Foundation are ticket support only.
Read it on Mailgun (email validation)’s siteEmail validations are not available at all on Free, are 'Available as add-on' on Basic and Foundation, and are billed separately from $1.20 per 100 (First 5k $1.20, Next 45k $0.80, Next 50k $0.50, Next 150k $0.35, Next 250k $0.25); 5,000 validations are included only on Scale.
Read it on Mailgun (email validation)’s siteSAML SSO is listed only under the Scale plan's feature set, so single sign-on requires the $90/mo tier.
Read it on Mailgun (email validation)’s site
Mailgun’s API reference
Their public developer documentation, so you can judge the integration before you start one.
1Lookup
Mailgun
Where Mailgun (email validation) wins
- Deeply integrated with a major sending platform (Sinch Mailgun, which states it is trusted to send over 600 billion emails a year), validation, suppression management, and deliverability tooling live in one account
- Steep volume discounts published transparently: per-validation cost falls from $12/1k to $2.50/1k at the 250k+ tier, with EUR and GBP price lists also published
- Both real-time single-validation API and bulk CSV list validation, with mailbox/MX checks, role-based and disposable address detection, RFC grammar checks, typo suggestions, and per-address risk scoring
- Mailgun cites customers lowering bounce rates by 21% using Validate; US or EU data residency available from a single account
Where 1Lookup wins
- Phone, email, and IP validation in one API with one universal credit balance
- Phone data refreshed daily from FCC and carrier sources
- Carrier/HLR lookup, line type, spam score, and reverse lookup included alongside validation
- Self-serve plans with no contracts and 3-month credit rollover
Mailgun (email validation) pricing and product facts verified against mailgun.com as of July 2026. Prices change; always confirm on the vendor’s site. 1Lookup numbers come from the live rate card.
Who this is for
A quick, honest read on which tool fits your use case.
Choose 1Lookup if: your goal is verifying that phone numbers, emails, and IP addresses are real before you use them, all in one API.
Consider Mailgun instead if: your goal is actually sending, receiving, and tracking application email at scale over SMTP and a REST API.