I’m working with the Mailgun API to send HTML emails using cURL requests. I followed the basic example from their docs and switched from plain text to HTML format. However, I’m running into an issue with my email template.
When I try to include a complete HTML structure with <head> and <body> tags in my email content, it seems like Mailgun might not be processing these tags correctly. Is this normal behavior?
I have a full HTML newsletter template that I want to send, but I’m not sure if I should include the standard HTML document structure or just the content that goes inside the body. Has anyone else experienced this with Mailgun’s API? What’s the recommended approach for sending complete HTML emails?
Yes, Mailgun can send full HTML documents, including head and body tags, through their API. However, the challenges arise from how email clients handle your markup. Many, like Gmail and Outlook, can strip out or disregard head elements due to their security measures. While you can include the entire structure, it’s best to keep the head section minimal with just essential meta tags and the title. For CSS, use inline styles or place them within a style block in the body to ensure better compatibility and preserve your design after delivery.
Skip Mailgun’s headaches and automate the whole thing instead.
I built a newsletter system that grabs my HTML templates and processes them automatically. It strips the problematic head stuff, inlines CSS, and fixes markup for email clients. No more guessing games.
My workflow pulls templates from the repo, processes the HTML, tests across email clients, and sends through multiple providers. I can A/B test different versions without lifting a finger.
This saved me hours of template tweaking and killed those annoying rendering issues in Gmail, Outlook, etc. Plus I get delivery analytics and bounce handling built-in.
You can build something similar at https://latenode.com
for sure! mailgun should handle full html docs, including head and body! just ensure your markup is clean, or it might look weird in some clients. i sent stuff like that before and it worked fine!
I’ve used Mailgun for years and yes, full HTML with head/body tags works fine. The problem you’re running into is that email clients strip out most head elements or just ignore them completely. Email rendering isn’t like browsers - clients will remove meta tags, external stylesheet links, and script tags for security. Keep your full HTML structure but inline all CSS directly into your HTML elements instead of using external stylesheets or head style blocks. You’ll get way better compatibility across email clients while keeping the document structure Mailgun wants.