Glossary

Email gateway

Email gateway

An email gateway is a server or service that acts as a checkpoint for email traffic, scanning and routing all inbound and/or outbound messages between a sender and recipient. It helps enforce security, compliance, and delivery policies before messages reach their destination. 

There are two common types: 

  • Inbound gateways (used by recipients) filter incoming mail for spam, phishing, and malware before it hits internal inboxes. 
  • Outbound gateways (used by senders) monitor and route outgoing mail, often adding headers, enforcing authentication, or logging activity. 

Email gateways are commonly used in enterprise environments and often include advanced security features like DLP (Data Loss Prevention), link rewriting, and sandboxing of attachments. 

Many Mailgun senders deliver email to recipients protected by third-party inbound gateways like Proofpoint, Mimecast, Barracuda, or Google’s Enterprise security layer. These gateways often apply stricter filtering than consumer inboxes and can block messages that: 

  • Fail SPF, DKIM, or DMARC alignment 
  • Appear suspicious due to malformed headers or poor HTML hygiene 
  • Include links or attachments flagged by reputation databases 
  • Originate from IPs or domains with limited history or questionable reputation 

Understanding how gateways work and reviewing bounce responses and filtering rules can help troubleshoot delivery issues. When in doubt, analyze headers and rejection messages to pinpoint which gateway made the call. 

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