ZapBounce vs Mailgun Email Validation
Mailgun folds address validation into its delivery subscriptions: 5,000 bundled on Foundation and Scale, then a per-hundred overage. ZapBounce is purely a verifier, starting at $5 for 1,000, feeding whichever ESP delivers your campaigns. So decide whether hygiene belongs inside your delivery vendor or upstream of it.
| ZapBounce | Mailgun Email Validation | |
|---|---|---|
| Accuracy reporting | Coverage stated: the share of your list with a definite verdict | Not stated on its pricing page |
| 1,000 addresses | $5 | Inside the 5,000 validations on Foundation and Scale plans |
| 10,000 addresses | $25 | 5,000 included, then from $1.20 per 100 on Foundation |
| 100,000 addresses | $139 | 5,000 included, then from $0.80 per 100 on Scale |
| Free tier | 100 a month, no card | 5,000 validations included with Foundation and Scale plans |
| Credit expiry | Never | Not stated on its pricing page |
| Billed for unknowns | No | Not stated |
Mailgun Email Validation figures read from their own pricing page in September 2026.
How Mailgun Email Validation prices it
Mailgun meters validation per hundred. Foundation and Scale each bundle 5,000; beyond that, Foundation runs from $1.20 per 100 and Scale from $0.80 per 100 (mailgun.com/pricing, read September 2026). ZapBounce quotes whole lists instead: $5 for 1,000, $25 for 10,000 and $139 for 100,000, with no delivery subscription sitting underneath.
Why teams pick ZapBounce over Mailgun Email Validation
What changes when your list runs through ZapBounce instead.
The short version
- An independent verifier: $5 buys 1,000 checks, with no delivery subscription attached and no tie to one ESP.
- Six published tiers running up to $949 for 1,000,000 addresses, each priced per list.
- Unknown rows and repeated addresses in a file cost nothing, stated as a headline on our pricing page.
- Purchased credits carry no expiry date, and each month adds 100 free ones without a card.
- Our own handshake on port 25 quits before DATA, so recipients never receive anything.
Moving off Mailgun Email Validation
Mailgun ties list hygiene to the account that delivers your mail. Agencies juggling several ESPs, or teams scrubbing an imported file before it touches any platform, pay for validation through a delivery subscription built for a different job. ZapBounce runs as an independent step: upload a spreadsheet or hit the endpoint, then route the survivors wherever you like.
Your Mailgun domains, routes, templates and webhooks keep running untouched. Point your registration handler at POST /v1/verify with a Bearer key, or drop older spreadsheets into the dashboard as CSV, TXT or XLSX. Rows return valid, invalid, catch_all or unknown plus a reason code, and only the keepers get imported into Mailgun.
The hard addresses, and how they come back
Questions people ask about Mailgun Email Validation
What's included in Mailgun's validation allowance?
Mailgun's pricing page lists 5,000 validations bundled with Foundation and Scale, then from $1.20 per 100 on Foundation and from $0.80 per 100 on Scale (read September 2026). ZapBounce sells 1,000 checks for $5, no delivery subscription required.
Can ZapBounce sit in front of my Mailgun account?
Yes. Scrub the file here first, by upload or through the API, and import only the keepers. Mailgun domains, routes, templates and webhooks carry on as configured.
Should verification run at registration or before a Mailgun campaign?
Both. Call POST /v1/verify from the registration form to stop dead domains at entry, where the did_you_mean field suggests a fix for typos like gmial.com. Upload older segments before a campaign. Unknowns never cost a credit.
Is ZapBounce cheaper than Mailgun Email Validation?
At 100,000 addresses we list $139 and they list 5,000 included, then from $0.80 per 100 on Scale. Compare the per-address rate rather than the headline, and check what each side does with unknowns: ours are never billed.
Can I test both before deciding?
Yes, and you should. Run the same sample of a few thousand addresses through each and compare how many came back unresolved. That difference matters more than either accuracy claim.
Divide your latest Mailgun validation overage by the addresses it covered, then set that per-address cost beside $25 for 10,000 checks.
Run the same sample through us and Mailgun Email Validation
100 free checks a month, no card, and the unknowns come back labeled.