Why people leave Amazon SES

Amazon SES is the cheapest way to send email. At $0.10 per 1,000 emails, nothing comes close at scale. But "cheapest" often doesn't mean "best value." To understand what complete email platforms offer, read our guide to best email marketing tools for SaaS.

The DIY trap

SES is raw infrastructure. There's no dashboard, no email builder, no subscriber management, no campaigns, no automation. You get an API that sends HTML. Everything else—bounce handling, analytics, templates, unsubscribe flows—you build yourself.

That $5/month sending cost often turns into months of engineering work. Check our Amazon SES comparison for the full breakdown.

AWS complexity

Using SES means living in AWS. You need IAM roles, domain verification through Route53, SNS topics for webhooks, CloudWatch for monitoring. If you're not already an AWS shop, this learning curve is steep.

Alternatives like Resend or Postmark take minutes to set up. No AWS account required. No IAM policy debugging.

The hidden costs

SES is $0.10/1k emails. But add dedicated IPs ($24.95/mo), Virtual Deliverability Manager ($0.07/1k), attachment fees ($0.12/GB), and the math changes. Factor in engineer time to build features, and that "cheap" option gets expensive.

The alternatives, honestly

If you want features without DIY: SendGrid or Mailgun

SendGrid and Mailgun are SES with features attached. Dashboard, templates, basic marketing, better documentation. More expensive per email, but you're not building infrastructure. SendGrid is $19.95/mo for 50k emails. See our SendGrid comparison.

If you want modern DX: Resend

Resend is SES if AWS cared about developers. Beautiful API, React Email integration, modern SDKs. $20/mo for 50k emails—more expensive than SES but includes actual features. Transactional only, no marketing. Check our Resend comparison.

If you want complete marketing: Sequenzy

Sequenzy is the opposite of SES—complete platform with AI-powered sequences, visual email builders, Stripe integration, and marketing automation. $19/mo for 10k emails. Higher per-email cost, but you're not building anything.

Built for SaaS founders who want to send email, not build email infrastructure. See our Amazon SES comparison.

If you want SES pricing + features: Sendy

Sendy is the clever middle ground. Self-hosted newsletter platform ($69 one-time) that sends via Amazon SES. You get SES's $0.10/1k pricing plus an actual email builder, subscriber management, and campaigns. The catch: you host it yourself.

If deliverability is critical: Postmark

Postmark has the best deliverability because they're strict about customers. $15/mo for 10k emails—more than SES but includes a dashboard, analytics, and human support. For critical transactional emails (password resets, 2FA), the reliability is worth it. See our Postmark comparison.

The pricing comparison

At 50,000 emails/month:

• Amazon SES: $5/month (DIY everything)

• Resend: $20/month (transactional, best DX)

• Postmark: $50/month (best deliverability)

• SendGrid Essentials: $19.95/month (marketing + transactional)

• Sequenzy: $19/month at 10k subs (complete platform)

• Sendy + SES: $5/month + $69 one-time (self-hosted)

Note: SES looks cheapest, but add dedicated IPs, engineer time, and feature development—the total cost often exceeds platforms with features included. See our pricing page.

When Amazon SES is still the right choice

SES wins if:

• Cost per email is your only metric

• You have engineers to build email infrastructure

• You're already deep in the AWS ecosystem

• You're sending millions monthly and every cent matters

• You need global regions for data residency

Don't switch if SES is working and you have the engineering resources. But if you're spending engineer time building features that exist elsewhere, or if the DIY approach is slowing you down—the alternatives provide more value. Use our email warmup calculator to plan your transition.