Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Mailgun VS Parse

Compare Mailgun VS Parse and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Mailgun logo Mailgun

A set of powerful APIs that enable you to send, receive and track email from your app effortlessly whether you use Python, Ruby, PHP, C#, Node.js or Java.

Parse logo Parse

Build applications faster with object and file storage, user authentication, push notifications, dashboard and more out of the box.
  • Mailgun Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-16
  • Parse Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-17

Mailgun features and specs

  • Scalability
    Mailgun can handle high volumes of emails efficiently, making it ideal for businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises.
  • API Flexibility
    Mailgun offers a robust and flexible API that is developer-friendly, allowing for easy integration and customization to fit specific needs.
  • Deliverability
    Mailgun has strong email deliverability rates due to its reputation and infrastructure, which helps ensure emails reach recipients' inboxes as intended.
  • Analytics and Tracking
    It provides comprehensive email analytics and tracking features, allowing businesses to monitor open rates, click-through rates, and other vital statistics.
  • SMTP Relay
    Mailgun supports SMTP Relay, making it versatile for sending emails from a variety of applications and systems.
  • Support and Documentation
    Mailgun offers extensive support and documentation, which helps in troubleshooting and enhances the user experience.

Possible disadvantages of Mailgun

  • Cost
    Mailgun pricing can become expensive for high-volume email senders, especially when compared to some other email service providers.
  • Complex Setup
    Initial setup and configuration of Mailgun can be complex, particularly for users who are not very technical.
  • Spam and Bounce Management
    While deliverability is generally strong, some users have reported challenges with spam and bounce management, which can affect email performance metrics.
  • Learning Curve
    For those new to email APIs or less tech-savvy, there might be a steep learning curve to effectively use all of Mailgun's features.
  • Customer Support Response Time
    Some users have reported slower response times from customer support, which can be a drawback if immediate assistance is needed.

Parse features and specs

  • Open Source
    Parse Platform is open-source, which means it is free to use and can be customized to fit the needs of your application without any licensing fees.
  • Rich Feature Set
    Parse provides a wide range of built-in features such as a robust database system, real-time notifications, user authentication, cloud functions, and file storage, reducing the amount of development work needed.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Parse supports multiple platforms including iOS, Android, JavaScript, .NET, and more, enabling easier development across different types of applications.
  • Community and Documentation
    There is a strong community around Parse with extensive documentation and numerous tutorials, which can help developers quickly resolve issues and learn best practices.
  • Unified Backend
    Parse allows developers to manage database, server code, and user authentication in one unified platform, simplifying backend management.

Possible disadvantages of Parse

  • Self-Hosting Complexity
    While Parse is open-source, it requires self-hosting, which involves managing and maintaining your own server infrastructure, adding operational complexity.
  • Performance
    Depending on your server setup and scaling needs, you might encounter performance issues, especially for high-traffic applications, requiring constant monitoring and fine-tuning.
  • Limited Scalability
    Parse might not be as scalable as other backend solutions like Firebase, particularly for apps that need to handle massive amounts of data and users.
  • Initial Setup Time
    The initial setup of a Parse server and its environment can be time-consuming and challenging, particularly for those without DevOps experience.
  • Feature Limitations
    While Parse offers a rich feature set, some advanced features available in other modern backend-as-a-service (BaaS) platforms may lack, necessitating custom development.

Analysis of Mailgun

Overall verdict

  • Mailgun is a solid choice for businesses looking for a dependable and scalable email service provider. Its feature-rich platform and ease of integration make it stand out in the industry.

Why this product is good

  • Mailgun is considered a reliable choice for email delivery due to its robust set of features tailored for transactional and marketing emails. It offers powerful APIs for easy integration, high deliverability rates, detailed analytics, and comprehensive logging. Its scalability meets the needs of both small startups and large enterprises. Mailgun also provides excellent support and documentation, making it accessible for developers.

Recommended for

  • Developers and tech startups requiring programmable email solutions
  • Companies seeking reliable transactional email services
  • Organizations looking for detailed analytics and reporting on email performance
  • Businesses requiring scalable solutions for sending both small and large volumes of emails
  • Users who need robust APIs for seamless email service integration

Analysis of Parse

Overall verdict

  • Parse is a good choice for developers looking for a flexible and scalable backend solution that can be deployed on their own servers or using cloud services. It is particularly beneficial due to its active community and extensive documentation.

Why this product is good

  • Parse is a popular open-source backend-as-a-service framework that simplifies app development by handling server-side components, freeing developers to focus on front-end development. It offers features like push notifications, cloud functions, social media integration, and a real-time database.

Recommended for

  • Developers who want an open-source solution with the freedom to self-host.
  • Teams building mobile or web applications that require a robust backend service.
  • Projects that need strong support for relational data and real-time functionalities.
  • Developers looking to avoid the overhead of writing custom backend code.

Mailgun videos

Introducing the new Mailgun

More videos:

  • Review - Why Emails are sent to Spam! Even with Premium Services Like Amazon SES, Sendgrid, Gsuite, Mailgun
  • Review - Getting Started with Mailgun

Parse videos

No Parse videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Mailgun and Parse)
Email Marketing
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Email Marketing Platforms
Realtime Backend / API
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Mailgun and Parse. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Mailgun and Parse

Mailgun Reviews

Transactional email providers for indie businesses 2020
Mailgunโ€™s one dedicated IP address starts with the Foundation plan ($35) for 100k emails and up ($75). You might consider going for the growth plan ($80) already with 1000 email address validations included.
10 Top Mailgun Alternatives | Most Affordable Competitors 2019
Mailgun SMTP is receiving 5 star reviews from people around the world. They are showering all the love, and support on Mailgun for their excellent service, features and usability.
Source: www.formget.com
The 36 Best Marketing Automation Tools to Use in 2020
Mailgun is an email infrastructure and transactional email platform built for developers that need a simple email API integration to send, receive, and track email with their app regardless of what programming language they use. Mailgun offers a flexible pricing model that starts at as low as $5/month for 10,000 emails.
Source: encharge.io
8 Most Reliable Mandrill Alternative SMTP Relays
Mailgun can push a webhook to the userโ€™s app ( like EasySendy Pro), whenever an action takes place on the sent emails. The MailGun API offers much more than just sending the emails. Users can send up to a thousand personalized email messages with a single API call, making it effortless to send out bulk mailings from an app. Moreover, users can use tags to segregate their...
Source: easysendy.com
7 Best Transactional Email Services: Sendgrid vs. Mandrill & More
Hi, I use Mailgun for sending transactional mails and send around 2k mails per week and we are on shared IP and so, I am facing some issues like ESP throttling issues, because of the others who are using the same as I do. I have to get my shared IP changed every time I ran into these kind of issues. Mailgun recommends to use a dedicated IP when you send more than 5k mails...

Parse Reviews

10 Top Firebase Alternatives to Ignite Your Development in 2024
If youโ€™re looking for a Firebase alternative that gives you full control and the freedom to tinker, Parse Platform is your jam. Again, itโ€™s a popular open-source framework loved by developers who want to build custom backends without being tied to a specific provider.
Source: genezio.com
Top 7 Firebase Alternatives for App Development in 2024
Back4App is a backend-as-a-service (BaaS) platform that uses Parse Server, the open-source version of the Parse backend. It simplifies backend development and management, providing developers with a robust platform for building modern applications.
Source: signoz.io
What is AWS Amplify? - AWS Amplify Alternatives
It is well-known for making the development process quick, easy, and simple. Using Parse, you may complete a day's worth of work in a few hours.
Source: mindmajix.com
2023 Firebase Alternatives: Top 10 Open-Source & Free
Community Support โ€“ If Firebase comes with the backing of Google, then Parse is also tested and trusted by Facebook. Yes, Facebook is the parent company of Parse. Therefore, it has a big community. You can find resources and solutions regarding Parse on GitHub, Stack Overflow and several other programming forums.
12 Best Open-source Database Backend Server and Google Firebase Alternatives
Parse server is an open-source database backend solution which speed up application building. It features database, user management, authentication, file upload and push notification.I used Parse for a few times, and I was satisfied with the speed and productivity it offers, especially in terms of developer tools as it comes with dozens of SDKs, libraries and sample code to...
Source: medevel.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Parse should be more popular than Mailgun. It has been mentiond 21 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Mailgun mentions (11)

  • The 7 best transactional email services for developers in 2023
    Mailgun from Sinch is a well-established, developer-focused email service that's been in business since 2010. It powers email delivery for some large, well-known companies including Lyft, American Express, and Wikipedia. As a developer-focused tool, Mailgun is fast to get started with and integrate into your product. It's an excellent offering if you're looking for a reliable, easy-to-use product. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Mailgun REST API integration from serverless node.js
    In this Mailgun integration example we'll show how easy it is to create and deploy a complete serverless backend that integrates with the Mailgun SaaS API for sending email messages to your users. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Self-hosted email is the hardest it's ever been, but also the easiest
    Another solution to this problem is relaying through services which will do the heavy lifting for you (this was been discussed in the original thread, here and in the article I wrote). So far people have suggested - ImprovMX (https://improvmx.com) - Mailgun (https://mailgun.com) As any others come in I will update this comment (until I can't, anyway) and the article as a reference. - Source: Hacker News / almost 4 years ago
  • Anyone else getting bombarded with invoice spam emails? Iโ€™m using a custom domain. These have been relentless for months.
    Sure. I have an account with mailgun, though I have heard good things about sendgrid as well. It costs me $35/mo, but I use the account as part of the management of a phpbb forum I host, but I have a patreon for that that covers the expenses. If I didn't have that patreon, I would have to think pretty hard about how to proceed. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • SWBC wants to spoof emails in our domain to our customers, and wants us to add them to our SPF records
    As you can see, "mailgun.com" the "leading email delivery service for companies around the world" is included in their SPF despite not being them, precisely so they can spoof being Edward Jones, presumably in some marketing effort:. Source: about 4 years ago
View more

Parse mentions (21)

  • Supabase Alternatives ๐Ÿ”„ in 2025 ๐Ÿ˜ผ
    Parse deserves mention primarily for its historical significance as the precursor that inspired the entire backend-as-a-service space. Founded in 2011, Parse pioneered many concepts that we now take for granted in modern BaaS platforms. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • The 2024 Web Hosting Report
    Backend as a Service (BaaS) goes back to early 2010โ€™s with companies like Parse and Firebase. These products integrated everything a backend provides to a webapp in a single, integrated package that makes it easier to get started and enables you to offload some of the devops maintenance work to someone else. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • How to set up a Parse Server backend with Typescript
    Parse Server is a great way to quickly spin up a backend for your project. Parse is a Node based utility that sits on top of ExpressJS. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Free online DB for production app
    You can try https://parseplatform.org/, it is self-hosted if you need. And also there are a number of cloud services with compatible API, like https://www.back4app.com/ It has dart-friendly generated API client, much simpler than firebase and is built on top of postgresql and mongodb. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Supabase Series B
    Not to crash the party or anything. Supabase is great and all but in terms of feature completeness and getting actual products built, it doesn't come close to Parse[0]. Same with Appwrite. Both of these are very popular but they either lack essential features or have them behind a subscription wall. For example, the OSS version of Supabase (last I checked) doesn't include the edge functions which are really... - Source: Hacker News / almost 4 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Mailgun and Parse, you can also consider the following products

MailChimp - MailChimp is the best way to design, send, and share email newsletters.

Firebase - Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications for mobile and web.

Twilio - Brings voice and messaging to your web and mobile applications.

AWS Amplify - JavaScript library for app development using cloud services

Brevo - Innovative online Email Marketing solution to manage your contacts, create & send your newsletters and track your results. More than 80 000 clients. Best prices and attractive features.

Back4App - Low code backend to build apps faster and scale easily.