I recently switched my website to Ghost and tried setting up my existing Mailgun account for email delivery. However, I keep getting this error message:
421 Domain is not allowed to send: Free accounts are for test purposes only. Please upgrade or add the address to your authorized recipients.
I contacted their support team but they kept transferring me between different agents. Eventually, they told me I need to upgrade to a paid plan. They explained that the free tier only works with sandbox domains and authorized recipients, while paid plans let you use custom domains without restrictions.
The problem is I can’t find the pay-as-you-go option anymore. It seems like they removed it and now the cheapest plan costs $15 per month. For a small blog that’s just starting out, this cost doesn’t make sense.
Update: I discovered that deleting your Mailgun account completely will show you the “Flex (Pay as you Go)” option when you sign up again. But when I try to switch to this plan, I get an error saying to contact support.
Has anyone else experienced this issue? Is there still a way to access the flexible pricing model?
Hit this same issue three months back setting up email for my photography site. The flex plan’s still there, but Mailgun hides it now. Don’t create a new account - log into an existing one and go straight to billing. Look for a tiny link in pricing that says “usage-based pricing” or “consumption billing” - that’s flex. You’ll need to verify a payment method first, which might trigger a small charge. I paid about $2 my first month sending 200-300 emails. The 421 error disappears once you’re on any paid tier, including flex. Support pushes monthly plans because they want predictable revenue.
yeah i feel ya! mailgun’s been a pain for a lotta users. try sendgrid, it’s been so much easier for me to set up everything without all the hassles.
Same thing happened to me six months ago during my WordPress to Ghost migration. Mailgun changed their pricing and made the flex plan way harder to get for new users. I contacted their sales team (not regular support) and they manually enabled pay-as-you-go on my account. Worth trying that approach. If it doesn’t work, check out Postmark or Amazon SES for true pay-per-email pricing. SES costs basically nothing for small volumes and works great with Ghost - just a bit more technical to set up. That 421 error is normal for free accounts using custom domains, so you’ll need to upgrade no matter which plan you pick.
Had this exact headache last year migrating our company blog. Mailgun’s pricing changes suck, but automation saved me here.
Skip wrestling with email providers and their sneaky pricing - I used Latenode for automated email handling. You connect multiple services as backups. Start with one, and it auto-switches if that one fails or gets too pricey.
I built a workflow that picks services based on volume and cost. Small blogs get the cheapest option. Scale up? It switches to better rates automatically.
Best part? No more support tickets or digging through confusing pricing pages. Set your rules once and forget it. Works with Mailgun, SendGrid, SES, Postmark - whatever.
Saved me 10+ hours and keeps costs low. Check it out: https://latenode.com