Full stack receipt#16 · On the bench · reviewed 2026-10-22
#16Transactional Email Delivery
Mailgun
On the bench
1. What we use it for: We merged Mailgun as the transactional email sender for contact and gift-certificate inquiries on a members’ dinner club site once the domain sending key is provisioned.
2. Client use case · A members' dinner clubState: pending
Problem
Contact and gift-certificate inquiries submitted on `/contact` needed a dedicated domain email sender inside the Cloudflare Worker.
What the tool did
Wrote and merged the Mailgun provider implementation (`commit ec90b1e`, `docs/mailgun-inquiry-email.md`) alongside a temporary Gmail API sender so launch would not block on DNS/key handoff.
Result
Code merged (`pending` the client’s domain sending key while the temporary Gmail API sender handles inquiries).
3. What it costs us or the client
$0–$15/month on Flex/entry volume tiers (Foundation plan starts at $35/month for 50,000 emails) (as of 2026-10-22).
4. Setup notes (how it is wired in)
Wired inside the Cloudflare Worker inquiry route (`worker/inquiries.ts`) behind an environment secret so provisioning the domain sending key switches delivery over without code changes.
5. What broke & how it was handled
The domain sending key was not ready by the 2026-10-08 DNS cutover, requiring a temporary Gmail API sender (chosen in Codex, commit `e30bd28`) with no automated delivery receipt inspection until Mailgun is switched on.
6. What we compared it against & why we picked it
Compared against Resend (our default on new builds) and the temporary Gmail API sender currently active on the club site.
7. Last reviewed: 2026-10-228. Video / tutorial: Moves to main stack once the domain sending key is switched on
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