Amazon SES is 100% cheaper
than Mailgun
$0/mo (Essentials) vs Mailgun Basic at $15/mo — covering 33% of the 12 compared capabilities.
Same job. Way less money.
Comparison scenario
Every cheaper-than claim is tied to a defined scenario — never a bare list price.
1,000 emails/month, 1 seat, monthly billing · USD · prices as observed on official pricing pages.
Basic plan at $15/mo, the cheapest paid plan.
Essentials: 0 USD/monthly.
Mailgun costs $15/mo on the Basic plan at 1,000 emails/month, 1 seat, monthly billing. We found 1 assessed alternative that is cheaper in this scenario; 0 of them cover at least 75% of the 12 compared capabilities.
Capability comparison
Amazon SES covers 33% of the 12 capabilities compared against Mailgun. ✓ native · ◐ via integration · ✗ not found.
| Capability | Amazon SES | Mailgun |
|---|---|---|
| Transactional email API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email templates | ✗ | ✓ |
| Dedicated IP | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom sending/tracking domain | ✗ | ✓ |
| Send-time optimization | ✗ | ✓ |
| SSO (SAML) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Event tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Analytics API | ✗ | ✓ |
| Email address validation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Inbound email parsing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Event webhooks | ✗ | ✓ |
| Deliverability SLA / support | ✗ | ✓ |
What you give up
Capabilities Mailgun has that Amazon SES lacks.
- Email templates — Start a campaign from a pre-built email template.Missing from Amazon SES.
- Custom sending/tracking domain — Send and track email from your own domain.Missing from Amazon SES.
- Send-time optimization — Automatically send each email at the recipient's best time to open it.Missing from Amazon SES.
- SSO (SAML) — Sign in through your company's SAML SSO.Missing from Amazon SES.
- Event tracking — Track specific user actions like clicks or sign-ups.Missing from Amazon SES.
- Analytics API — Pull analytics data programmatically via an API.Missing from Amazon SES.
- Event webhooks — Get notified of email events like opens or bounces via webhook.Missing from Amazon SES.
- Deliverability SLA / support — Get a guaranteed deliverability service-level agreement.Missing from Amazon SES.
Plans & pricing, side by side
Advertised prices in USD as observed on the official pricing pages — per-seat and transaction-fee plans are marked.
| À la carte | Contact sales |
| Essentials | Free |
| Pro | $105/mo |
| Enterprise | $500/mo |
| Free plan (AWS Free Tier) | Free |
| Free | Free |
| Basic | $15/mo |
| Foundation | $35/mo |
| Scale | $90/mo |
| Enterprise | Contact sales |
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Frequently asked
How much cheaper is Amazon SES than Mailgun?
100% cheaper in our scenario (1,000 emails/month, 1 seat, monthly billing): $0/mo on Essentials vs $15/mo on Basic. That is $180 a year.
What does Amazon SES lack compared with Mailgun?
Email templates, Custom sending/tracking domain, Send-time optimization, SSO (SAML), Event tracking, Analytics API, Event webhooks, Deliverability SLA / support — 8 of the 12 compared capabilities.
When were these prices checked?
Mailgun: 2026-09-07; Amazon SES: 2026-09-07 — on the official pricing pages.
Sources & freshness
- https://www.mailgun.com/pricing/ (official_pricing, checked 2026-09-07)
- https://www.mailgun.com/pricing/#navSearch (official_pricing, checked 2026-09-07)
- Amazon SES data last verified 2026-09-07