Amazon SES (Simple Email Service)

Affordable, Scalable Email Sending for Businesses & Developers

Emoji icon 3030.svg

Overview

Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is a low-cost, high-volume email-sending platform built for developers, enterprises, and AWS users who need scalable and reliable transactional email delivery.

Unlike SendGrid, Postmark, and Mailchimp, Amazon SES fully integrates with AWS infrastructure, making it a cost-efficient and customizable choice for businesses leveraging AWS services.

Key Features

 - Cost-Effective, High-Volume Email Sending: Built for transactional, marketing, and bulk email delivery with flexible sending configurations.

- Pay-As-You-Go Pricing Model: No upfront commitments—pay only for the emails you send, making it one of the most budget-friendly options available.

- Advanced Deliverability & Compliance: Includes dedicated IPs, SPF/DKIM/DMARC authentication, bounce and complaint tracking, and automated reputation monitoring.

- Transactional Email Support: Optimized for order confirmations, password resets, and event-triggered messages with fast and reliable delivery.

- Security & Compliance: Features TLS encryption, GDPR compliance, built-in spam monitoring, and AWS security controls.

- Seamless AWS Integration: Works natively with Amazon EC2, S3, Lambda, CloudWatch, SNS, and other AWS services.

- API & SMTP Access: Developers can send emails programmatically via AWS SDKs or through a standard SMTP relay.

- Inbound Email Processing: Unique among email providers, SES allows businesses to receive, process, and filter inbound emails for workflows.  

Pricing

 - Free Tier: Includes 62,000 emails per month when sent from an Amazon EC2 instance, making it an ideal choice for AWS users.

- Pay-As-You-Go Pricing: Starts at $0.10 per 1,000 emails, making it one of the cheapest high-volume email services available.

- Notable Plan Differences: No fixed monthly fees—pricing is fully usage-based.

- Dedicated IP Pricing: Available for $24.95 per month per IP address, ideal for businesses needing control over sender reputation.   

Pros

 - Most Affordable High-Volume Email Solution: Businesses can save up to 90% on email costs compared to competitors like SendGrid.

- Highly Scalable & Reliable: Powered by AWS’s global infrastructure, ensuring fast and reliable email delivery at scale.

- Seamless AWS Integration: Ideal for companies already using AWS services.

- Strong Security & Compliance: Includes authentication, monitoring, and built-in AWS security controls.  

Cons

 - Requires Technical Setup: Not beginner-friendly—best suited for developers or businesses with AWS expertise.

- Limited Email Marketing Tools: Lacks built-in automation and campaign management tools found in Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign.

- No Built-In CRM or List Management: Businesses needing advanced segmentation and CRM functionality must use third-party integrations.  

Who is it best for?

 - AWS Users & Developers: Best suited for businesses already using Amazon Web Services looking for a deeply integrated email-sending solution.

- High-Volume Transactional Email Senders: Ideal for businesses needing low-cost, scalable, and reliable email delivery.

- Cost-Conscious Companies: Perfect for businesses that prioritize affordability over feature-rich marketing automation tools.  

Built on Unicorn Platform
Not set