How to Connect Ashby with Mailgun (2026)

Why Connect Ashby with Mailgun

Ashby is a modern recruiting platform that combines applicant tracking (ATS), recruitment CRM, scheduling, and analytics into a single tool designed for high-growth companies. Mailgun is a transactional email delivery service that provides APIs for sending, receiving, and tracking emails at scale. Connecting Ashby with Mailgun allows recruiting teams to enhance their candidate communication with reliable, trackable email delivery, custom domain sending, and advanced email analytics that go beyond what a standard ATS email feature provides.

For companies that send high volumes of candidate communications, such as outreach campaigns to passive candidates, application acknowledgments, interview scheduling confirmations, and offer letters, Mailgun's infrastructure ensures these messages are delivered reliably and provides detailed tracking of opens, clicks, and bounces.

What This Integration Does

An Ashby-Mailgun integration enables:

• Send candidate emails triggered by Ashby recruitment events (application received, interview scheduled, offer extended) through Mailgun's high-deliverability infrastructure.
• Use custom sending domains configured in Mailgun for Ashby communications, maintaining brand consistency and improving deliverability.
• Track email engagement metrics (opens, clicks, bounces, spam complaints) in Mailgun for all candidate communications sent from Ashby workflows.
• Build custom candidate outreach campaigns that combine Ashby's candidate data with Mailgun's templating and sending capabilities.
• Process inbound candidate replies through Mailgun's routes feature and sync responses back to Ashby candidate profiles.

Native vs Third-Party Integration

Ashby and Mailgun do not have a native direct integration. Ashby has its own built-in email capabilities for candidate communication, but teams that need more control over email delivery infrastructure, custom domains, or advanced email analytics may want to supplement with Mailgun.

To connect the platforms, Zapier and Make can trigger Mailgun email sends based on Ashby events. Zapier supports Ashby triggers such as "Candidate Stage Changed" and can send emails through Mailgun's API. Make offers Ashby and Mailgun modules with more granular control over email content and delivery options. n8n provides both Ashby and Mailgun nodes for self-hosted automation.

For a more robust setup, a custom integration using Ashby's webhooks and Mailgun's API provides the most flexibility, allowing you to configure email sending rules, manage templates, and handle inbound replies.

Step-by-Step Setup

Step 1: Configure Mailgun

Log into Mailgun and set up a sending domain. Navigate to Sending > Domains and add your recruiting domain (for example, recruiting.yourcompany.com). Follow Mailgun's DNS verification process, which requires adding SPF, DKIM, and CNAME records to your domain's DNS settings. Once verified, generate an API key from Settings > API Security. This key will be used to authenticate API calls from your automation platform.

Step 2: Configure Ashby Webhooks

In Ashby, navigate to the integrations or developer settings. Set up webhooks for the candidate events you want to trigger emails: application submitted, candidate moved to a new stage, interview scheduled, offer sent, and candidate rejected. If connecting through Zapier or Make, use their Ashby integration module which handles webhook configuration automatically.

Step 3: Create Email Templates in Mailgun

In Mailgun, go to Sending > Templates and create email templates for each type of candidate communication. Use Mailgun's template variables for personalization: candidate name, position title, interview date, interviewer name, and company details. Create templates for application confirmation, interview invitation, interview reminder, offer notification, and rejection notification.

Step 4: Build the Automation Workflows

In your automation platform, create workflows for each candidate communication. For example, when a candidate moves to the "Phone Screen" stage in Ashby, trigger a Mailgun API call that sends the interview scheduling email using the appropriate template, populated with the candidate's name, the role they applied for, and the interviewer's calendar link. Map Ashby candidate fields to Mailgun template variables in each workflow.

Step 5: Set Up Tracking and Monitoring

In Mailgun, configure event webhooks to track email delivery status. Set up webhook endpoints that receive delivery, open, click, bounce, and complaint notifications from Mailgun. Route these events back to a dashboard or logging system so your recruiting team can see which candidates have opened their emails, clicked links, or experienced delivery issues. This information can also be synced back to Ashby as candidate notes.

Common Use Cases

• Candidate outreach at scale: Use Ashby's sourcing data combined with Mailgun's sending infrastructure to run large-scale passive candidate outreach campaigns with reliable delivery and detailed engagement tracking.
• Branded candidate communications: Send all Ashby-triggered candidate emails through a custom Mailgun domain that matches your employer brand, improving trust and deliverability.
• Interview scheduling confirmations: When interviews are scheduled in Ashby, automatically send detailed confirmation emails through Mailgun with calendar attachments, office directions, and interviewer bios.
• Offer letter delivery: Send offer letters triggered by Ashby's offer stage through Mailgun with delivery confirmation tracking, ensuring you know exactly when the candidate receives and opens the offer.
• Rejection email optimization: Use Mailgun's engagement tracking to test and optimize rejection email templates, ensuring they maintain a positive candidate experience even for unsuccessful applicants.

Tips and Best Practices

• Warm up your sending domain: If you are setting up a new Mailgun domain, gradually increase sending volume over two to four weeks. Sending too many emails from a new domain immediately can trigger spam filters.
• Use dedicated IPs for high volume: If you send more than 50,000 candidate emails per month, consider Mailgun's dedicated IP addresses for better deliverability control.
• Monitor bounce rates closely: Recruiting emails often go to personal email addresses that may be abandoned. Monitor Mailgun's bounce rates and clean your candidate contact data in Ashby when bounces occur.
• Personalize beyond the name: Use Ashby's rich candidate data to personalize Mailgun emails with role-specific details, team information, and relevant company achievements. Generic emails have lower engagement rates.
• Respect unsubscribe requests: Include unsubscribe links in outreach emails and honor opt-out requests promptly. Sync unsubscribe events from Mailgun back to Ashby to prevent future outreach to opted-out candidates.
• Test email rendering: Before launching new templates, use Mailgun's preview feature or a tool like Litmus to test how your candidate emails render across different email clients and devices.