Amazon SES alternatives
Providers that compete with Amazon SES on at least one of: Transactional
Cheapest at scale, most setup work.
Best AWS SES alternatives: a hand-picked, ranked list with rationale per position.
Switching as early-stage startups
At an early stage the deciding factors are what the free tier actually covers, what the first paid invoice looks like, and how much of a founding engineer's week the setup costs. Feature depth that only matters at a million sends a month is noise until it is not.
Amazon SES does not cover best published rate per 1,000, operating track record, scheduling, and webhook coverage. Loops, Resend, and MailerSend close that gap. The order below weighs this audience's priorities first, so it differs from a general popularity ranking.
ranked for early-stage startups
- 01
Loops
Marketing TransactionalModern lifecycle and broadcast email for SaaS.
Adds scheduling and webhook coverage over Amazon SES, with nothing given up on these priorities.
1,000 contacts and 4,000 sends/mo on the Free plan · $49/mo for 5,000 contacts - 02
Resend
TransactionalEmail API tightly coupled to React Email.
Adds scheduling and webhook coverage over Amazon SES, with nothing given up on these priorities.
3,000/mo permanent, capped at 100/day, one domain · $20/mo for 50,000 emails - 03
MailerSend
TransactionalModern transactional API with a clean UI.
Adds scheduling and webhook coverage over Amazon SES, with nothing given up on these priorities.
500/mo permanent · $7/mo for 5,000 emails - 04
Mailgun
TransactionalDeveloper-leaning email infra, owned by Sinch.
Adds scheduling and webhook coverage over Amazon SES, with nothing given up on these priorities.
100/day permanent free plan · $15/mo for 10,000 emails (Basic) - 05
Brevo
Transactional MarketingAll-in-one with a generous daily free tier.
Adds scheduling and webhook coverage over Amazon SES, with nothing given up on these priorities.
300/day permanent · $9/mo for 5,000 emails - 06
Postmark
TransactionalTransactional-only, fast and well-delivered.
Adds webhook coverage over Amazon SES, with nothing given up on these priorities.
100/mo developer plan · $15/mo for 10,000 emails - 07
Mailtrap
Transactional TestingOriginally a staging inbox, now a sender too.
Adds webhook coverage over Amazon SES, with nothing given up on these priorities.
4,000/mo (sending), free testing tier · $15/mo for 10,000 sending - 08
Cloudflare Email Service
Inbound TransactionalFree routing, programmable inbound via Workers, sending in beta.
Matches Amazon SES on every priority weighed here, so the decision is price and preference.
Email Routing free; Email Workers on Workers Free plan · Sending: $0.35 per 1,000 messages (Workers Paid required, $5/mo)
Amazon SES and its alternatives, side by side
Columns are the priorities early-stage startups weigh, in order. Amazon SES is the first row so the trade in each direction is readable at a glance.
| Provider | Best published rate per 1,000 | DX score | Operating since | Scheduling | SDKs | Webhooks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon SES | $0.10 | 4/10 | 2011 | No | node, python, go, ruby, php, java, rust, dotnet | No |
| Loops | Tiers not published in comparable form | 9/10 | 2022 | Yes | node, python, go, ruby, php | Yes |
| Resend | $0.35 | 8/10 | 2023 | Yes | node, python, go, ruby, php, rust, java, elixir, cli | Yes |
| MailerSend | Tiers not published in comparable form | 8/10 | 2020 | Yes | node, python, go, ruby, php | Yes |
| Mailgun | $0.70 | 7/10 | 2010 | Yes | node, python, go, ruby, php, java | Yes |
| Brevo | Tiers not published in comparable form | 7/10 | 2012 | Yes | node, python, go, ruby, php, java, dotnet | Yes |
| Postmark | $1.50 | 9/10 | 2010 | No | node, python, go, ruby, php, java, elixir, rust, dotnet | Yes |
| Mailtrap | Tiers not published in comparable form | 8/10 | 2014 | No | node, python, go, ruby, php, elixir | Yes |
| Cloudflare Email Service | Tiers not published in comparable form | 8/10 | Not published | No | node | No |
Loops, Resend, and MailerSend add capability without giving anything up on these priorities. The rest trade one thing for another.
before you switch
Amazon SES pricing, tier by tier
All 4 paid tiers with effective cost per 1,000 emails. Worth checking whether the cost curve, rather than the feature set, is what is prompting the switch.