Amazon SES
Transactional Email · aws.amazon.com
Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is a pay-as-you-go email sending and receiving service billed on the volume of emails sent and processed.
Switching to MailerSend saves $1260 / year and covers 100% of the compared capabilities.
Find my alternative
Way less money.
Top Amazon SES alternatives
We compared 7 products and found 7 cheaper alternatives · vs Amazon SES Pro at $105/mo · scenario: 1,000 emails/month, 1 seat, monthly billing, USD.
Amazon SES’s own free plan covers this scenario. If you’re paying for features you don’t use, downgrading beats switching. The paid comparison below is for when you’ve outgrown free tiers — the “Free plans” view shows alternatives if you want free with different limits.
Amazon SES costs $105/mo on the Pro plan at 1,000 emails/month, 1 seat, monthly billing. We found 7 assessed alternatives that are cheaper in this scenario; 4 of them cover at least 75% of the 4 compared capabilities. The cheapest option that covers everything we compared is MailerSend at $0/mo (Free plan), 100% less. Amazon SES's own free plan covers this scenario, so downgrading may beat switching.
| Product | Match | Price | Annual savings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
TOP PICK MailerSend Hobby plan | 100% | $7/mo how? ⓘ | $1176 / year 93% cheaper | |
SMTP2GO Starter plan · missing: Inbound email parsing, Email address validation | 50% | $10/mo how? ⓘ | $1140 / year 90% cheaper | |
Mailgun Basic plan | 100% | $15/mo how? ⓘ | $1080 / year 86% cheaper | |
Postmark Basic plan · missing: Email address validation | 75% | $15/mo how? ⓘ | $1080 / year 86% cheaper | |
Twilio SendGrid Essentials plan · missing: Dedicated IP, Inbound email parsing, Email address validation | 25% | $19.95/mo how? ⓘ | $1020.60 / year 81% cheaper | |
Resend Pro plan · missing: Email address validation | 75% | $20/mo how? ⓘ | $1020 / year 81% cheaper |
Which Amazon SES alternative for which situation
Picked by the numbers in this scenario — same subtype unless stated, assessed products only.
- Best full coverage
- MailerSend — $0/mo (Free plan) · covers 100%
- Best free plan
- MailerSend — $0/mo (Free plan) · covers 100%
- Best paid drop-in
- Postmark — $15/mo (Basic plan) · covers 75%
- Need transactional email API, dedicated IP, inbound email parsing or email address validation?
- MailerSend — from $0/mo (Free plan)
What you give up
Capabilities Amazon SES has that the top alternatives lack.
- Inbound email parsing — Parse incoming email into your application.Missing from SMTP2GO.
- Email address validation — Validate an email address before sending to it.Missing from Resend, SMTP2GO.
Feature comparison
Amazon SES vs the top alternatives, on the 4 compared capabilities.
| Capability | Amazon SES | MailerSend | Mailgun | Resend | SMTP2GO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transactional email API from À la carte | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dedicated IP from À la carte | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Inbound email parsing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Email address validation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Scenario price cheapest qualifying plan | $105/mo Pro | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free |
✓ means the product offers the capability — possibly only on a higher tier than the plan priced below it. The price row shows the cheapest plan that qualifies for our comparison scenario, with its plan name; a $0 free plan may not include every checked capability.
What Amazon SES covers
The capability set used for comparison. Grey entries are not available on self-serve plans.
- ✓ Transactional email API — from À la carte
- ✓ Dedicated IP — from À la carte
- ✓ Inbound email parsing
- ✓ Email address validation
Price ladder
Observed prices from the official pricing page.
Sources
Every claim traces to an official source and a check date.
- https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/ (official_pricing, checked 2026-09-07)
- https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/#aws-page-content-main (official_pricing, checked 2026-09-07)
Frequently asked
How much does Amazon SES cost?
Amazon SES's Pro plan costs $105/mo in our scenario (1,000 emails/month, 1 seat, monthly billing). A free plan exists.
Is there a free Amazon SES alternative?
Yes. MailerSend has a free plan that covers 100% of the 4 capabilities we compared against Amazon SES.
What is the cheapest Amazon SES alternative?
In our scenario (1,000 emails/month, 1 seat, monthly billing), MailerSend is the cheapest assessed alternative at $0/mo (Free plan).
What is the cheapest Amazon SES alternative with Email address validation?
MailerSend covers Email address validation and costs $0/mo (Free plan) in our scenario.
Does Amazon SES have a free plan?
Yes. Amazon SES's free plan exists; its limits are not stated on the pricing page.
When were these prices checked?
Between 2026-08-31 and 2026-09-07, on the vendors' official pricing pages.