Are you looking for some reliable but cheap Amazon SES alternatives?
As surprising it may sound, but yes, just like you, there are some email marketers or even beginners who are exploring different alternatives to Amazon SES.
Reason? Well, each of its users may have their own reasons but pricing isn’t one.
It’s true that Amazon SES is the undisputed SMTP service known for its awesome email deliverability. But this high deliverability is maintained by strict guidelines and restrictions.
If you have still not figured it out then allow me to tell you that Amazon SES is notoriously famous for banning its users if they don’t comply with their guidelines. They offer no second chances!
With that being said, you should be glad and feel lucky as I have prepared a list of 9 cheap Amazon SES alternatives to give your email marketing a tender cushion.
Have a quick look at what’s in store…
Overview Of Amazon SES Alternatives
- Brevo – Send 9,000 emails/month for free.
- SendPulse – Free 12,000 emails every month.
- Elastic Email – Free 100 emails/day & pricing starts at $0.09/1000 emails.
- Moosend – Send unlimited emails at $8/month.
- SMTP2GO – 1,000 emails/month for free and paid plans start at $15.
- Pepipost – For the first 30 days, free 30,000 emails then free 100 emails/day. Plans start at $17.5/month*.
- turboSMTP – Easily send 6,000 emails every month (with 200 emails/day sending limit) for free. Premium plans start at $14.95/month.
- Postmark – Start sending 100 emails/month for free. Then upgrade to premium plans starting at $10/month.
- Mailjet – Send 6,000 emails/month (with 200 emails/day limit). Subcription plans start at $9.65/month.
With these alternatives to Amazon SES, you don’t have to worry about spending too much. Not to forget, each of the mentioned SMTP services is known to provide some top-notch bulk emailing experience.
And, unlike Amazon SES, they are relatively lenient..!!
So, without any further delay, let’s dive into details –
1. Brevo (Best Amazon SES Alternative)
Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Free Package – 9,000 emails/month (300 emails/day)
Price – Starts at $25/month
Brevo is a typical but highly efficient email marketing software. But the reason for mentioning Brevo here is its revolutionary SMTP service.
In my opinion, there isn’t any better Amazon SES alternative than Brevo. Just like me, many big marketers and reputed websites recommend Brevo.
Features Of Brevo
- It offers the most flexible options for integrating itself. Meaning, Brevo can be used to send emails after connecting it via API, through eCommerce plugin, and of course, SMTP.
- Brevo is regarded as an ideal service to send transactional, as well as marketing emails. Just like Amazon SES!
- Since Brevo is a complete email marketing application, you won’t have to rely on other applications for email building, contact management, automation, and other advanced features.
Brevo Pricing
Another reason behind labeling Brevo as the best Amazon SES alternative is its inexpensive pricing plans.
- Free – Brevo is allowing you to send free 300 emails/days without any subscriber limit.
- Starter – Brevo will charge you $25/month for 20,000 emails/month sending quota. Mind you, the daily email sending limit is lifted in this and subsequent plans.
- Brevo – This is the most popular plan of Brevo as it offers access to some advanced features like marketing automation, landing pages, A/B testing, multi-user access, send time optimization, and telephonic support. The plan start at $65/month for 20,000 emails/month.
- BrevoPlus – If you require higher email sending and feature needs then you must get in touch with the Brevo sales team.
In totality, Brevo can prove to be a reliable and inexpensive alternative to Amazon SES, provided you do not have high daily email sending needs.
2. SendPulse (Top Amazon SES Alternative)
Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.8/5
Free Package – 12,000 emails per month
Price – Starts at $5.75/month
Ever since its launch in January 2015, SendPulse has grown to become a leading email marketing and also an SMTP relay solution.
Due to its popularity, many Amazon SES users have migrated and started using SendPulse as a reliable Amazon SES alternative.
Features Of SendPulse
- In the modern email marketing world, SendPulse is regarded as the best transactional email service. Thanks to its API and SMTP relays.
- SendPulse also takes your email delivery very seriously. Hence, it uses SPF and DKIM authentication in order to drop your emails in subscribers’ inbox.
- Along with simple open and click tracking, SendPulse also handles unsubscribes automatically so that you won’t send them emails again.
SendPulse Pricing
SendPulse being a complete marketing suite for any business offers different pricing structures and plans. I am quite sure that this will help you decide if it is really your ideal alternative to Amazon SES.
- Basic – The Basic plan is divided into 3 sub-plans. At first, there’s a free plan that would allow you to send 12,000 emails for free in a month. Next, by paying $5.75/month you can send 25,000 emails/month, followed by 50,000 emails/month by paying $10.95/month.
- Pro – If you want a dedicated IP address for sending emails, SendPulse’s Pro plan would be ideal for you. Again, this plan is split into 3 sub-plans. For sending 100,000 emails, you’d be charged $48.65/month. For 200,000 emails – $81.15/month and lastly, 300,000 emails – $113.65/month.
- Enterprise – Unlike all the other plans, the Enterprise plan comes with a scrollable pricing calculator for large emailing volume. The plan starts at the first milestone of sending up to 500,000 emails/month at the rate of $178.65/month. The final milestone in this plan is 5 million emails/month that would cost you $1,186.15/month.
Please note that the pricing mentioned above will be charged annually. If you wish to subscribe to a monthly plan, the prices would go up. Having said that, SendPulse also offers a “Pay As You Go” plan that starts at $15 for sending up to 10,000 emails. With so many options to choose from, SendPulse earns its place as one of the best alternatives to Amazon SES.
3. Elastic Email (Cheap Amazon SES Alternative)
Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0/5
Free Package – 3,000 emails/month with 100 emails/day limit
Price – Starts at $0.09/1000 emails
Over many years, Elastic Email has been regarded as the optimal bulk emailing service by many marketers and SaaS businesses.
And, not long ago, it overcame all the deliverability issues and improved its functionality to become one of the leading Amazon SES alternatives.
Features Of Elastic Email
- Unlike other alternatives to Amazon SES, Elastic Email allows you to send marketing emails, in addition to the transactional emails.
- As said earlier, Elastic Email has significantly improved its deliverability by including SPF and DKIM records in every email. Also, if you are very serious about your sending reputation, Elastic Email offers private or dedicated IP addresses.
- Elastic Email can be used as a complete email marketing solution or just as a delivery engine. If choosing the latter one, you have the option to send emails through its SMTP server or API.
Elastic Email Pricing
Apart from all the efficient features, you could look at Elastic Email’s pricing plans and see why it is considered to be a cheap Amazon SES alternative.
- Email API – Elastic Email would charge you $0.09 per 1000 emails. In addition to this, you’d also get an email designer, web forms, analytics & reports, and SMS API.
- Email API Pro – If you need advanced functionalities like inbound email processing, webhooks, custom fields, logs, etc. then you can use this plan at the price of $0.10 per 1000 emails.
As you can see, both the plans are of “Pay As You Go” nature, just like Amazon SES. But mind you, most of the advanced features come at additional costs, starting at $1/day.
Don’t forget to check out some of the reliable alternatives to Elastic Email.
4. Moosend (Free Amazon SES Alternative)
Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 3.9/5
Free Package – Unlimited emails to 1,000 subscribers (no SMTP included)
Price – Starts at $8/month
If I tell you that you can use Moosend as a free Amazon SES alternative, would you believe it? Yes, with the recent changes in its pricing plans, you can use Moosend for free and send unlimited emails to 1,000 subscribers.
But to avail the free plan, you must use Moosend’s complete email marketing application. The SMTP server is available only in its Pro plan.
Features Of Moosend
- Moosend claims to be an all-in-one email marketing application. So you would be able to send marketing emails, use automation, opt-in forms, subscriber management module, etc.
- If opted for SMTP servers, you should be relieved to know that they have a great reputation and claims for optimal email delivery.
- Moosend is also known for its highly descriptive reports. With the help of this, you could easily track your email campaign’s performance.
Moosend Pricing
Moosend is one of the rarest Amazon SES alternatives that can allow you to send unlimited emails for free (using the email marketing tool). But as said earlier, the SMTP servers are not offered in the free plan.
- Free – A forever free plan that allows you to send limitless emails to 1,000 subscribers. SMTP integration isn’t included in this plan.
- Pro – Moosend offers a pricing calculator that calculates the monthly fees after inputting the number of subscribers. For example, you’d be charged $8/month to send unlimited emails to 2,000 subscribers. And, yes, this plan would grant you access to SMTP.
- Enterprise – If you have over 200,000 subscribers then Moosend invites you to request a custom plan.
With the option to literally send unlimited emails, Moosend comes out to be one of the ideal Amazon SES alternatives. And, the inexpensive pricing structure backs up its claim.
5. SMTP2GO (Reliable Amazon SES Alternative)
Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.2/5
Free Package – 1,000 emails/month
Price – Starts at $15/month
SMTP2GO is one of the underrated SMTP services that isn’t known to the common email marketer. But I assure you, it is highly efficient and packs all the necessary features to be a reliable Amazon SES alternative.
If you are still not sure about using SMTP2GO then you should be relieved to know that HP (Hewlett Packard) uses it for sending their emails.
Features Of SMTP2GO
- SMTP2GO is the only SMTP service that talks about and mostly overcome the daunting problem of email throttling.
- It also assures maximum email delivery as it uses SPF & DKIM records, feedback loops, and also ensures spam trap detection.
- All of its servers are located across the globe so that your emails are sent at a blazing fast speed, even when there’s an internet outage. Of course, each email sent is protected by TLS & SSL encryption.
SMTP2GO Pricing
Great things come at a price, and deservingly, so does SMTP2GO and its services. If you opt for this alternative to Amazon SES, you would in the same elite club of 35,000 other reputable users.
- Free – In this, you would be able to send 1,000 emails in a month.
- Starter – The subsequent plan of SMTP2GO would allow you to send 40,000 emails in a month at the rate of $15/month.
- Professional – This plan has many internal tiers that start at 100,000 emails/month at the cost of $75/month. The last tier offers 1 million emails sending capability at the price of $520/month.
- Premier – If you require a high volume of emails (above 3 million) then you must get in touch with the support team for a custom plan.
In the first instance, SMTP2GO may seem pricey but it’s definitely not. With so many other Amazon SES alternatives available, SMTP2GO definitely stands out with the help of its premium performance.
Don’t forget to check out some of the top alternatives to SMTP2GO.
6. Pepipost (Unparalleled Amazon SES Alternative)
Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.5/5
Free Package – First 30,000 emails in the initial 30 days then 100 emails/day
Price – Starts at $17.5/month
Another big name that emerges in the topic of best Amazon SES alternatives is Pepipost. It offers Email API and SMTP servers for bulk email sending.
And, if you are thinking that it is just a random service then allow me to tell you that Pepipost will offer you an extensive guide to migrate from Amazon SES.
Features Of Pepipost
- It is known to integrate with almost all the email marketing services that allow external SMTP integration.
- Pepipost excels in the sector of delivering transactional emails and that too at a lightning-fast speed.
- Pepipost is very serious about email delivery. Hence it enforces the use of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC policy.
Pepipost Pricing
Being one of the renowned Amazon SES alternatives, Pepipost has managed to keep the pricing on the cheaper side. Pepipost offers a pricing calculator to calculate the monthly fees. Here are the most common milestones of Pepipost pricing –
- Free – It’s a forever free plan that offers free 30,000 emails, applicable for the first 30 days. After this, you are allowed to send 100 emails/day.
- Next, if you want to send up to 150,000 emails in a month then you’d have to pay $17.5/month.
- The next milestone allows you to send 400,000 emails at the cost of $59.5/month.
- Followed by this, 600,000 monthly email sending quota comes at the price of $101.5/month.
- If you want to send up to 1,000,000 emails then you would have to subscribe to a $171.5/month plan.
- After this, a sending quota of 2,000,000 emails can be purchased at a price of $311.5/month.
- Lastly, if you have over 2 million email sending requirements, you’d have to get in touch with the sales team for a custom plan.
As you can clearly see, Pepipost offers maximum flexibility when it comes to pricing plans. And, not to forget that it has already made a mark by being a good Amazon SES alternative.
7. turboSMTP (Easy Amazon SES Alternative)
Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.3/5
Free Package – 6,000 emails per month with 200 emails/day limit
Price – Starts at $14.95/month
Would you believe it if I tell you that turboSMTP has the capability to offer up to 99% email delivery? As unbelievable as it may sound but trust me, turboSMTP is known to offer high deliverability. And, hence, it is regarded as the top Amazon SES alternative.
You’d be glad to know that due to its unparalleled delivery and SMTP servers, turbo SMTP is catering to some notable clients like Audi, Samsonite, Telefonica, etc.
Features Of turboSMTP
- The team behind turboSMTP ensures that your emails will be sent at lightning-fast speed with adequate security protocols.
- Unlike a few other Amazon SES alternatives, turboSMTP comes with an email validation or email list cleaning tool for the removal of invalid emails.
- One of the greatest benefits of using turboSMTP is that we would have 24×7 support from the turboSMTP team and that too in multiple languages.
turboSMTP Pricing
In spite of being super-efficient and superior in its performance, turboSMTP has managed to keep its pricing extremely economical. There are 3 different plans (with monthly and yearly billing cycles) and an Enterprise plan for high emailing volume.
- Free – You are entitled to use turboSMTP free and send 6,000 emails in a month but with a 200 emails/day sending limit.
- Basic – As the name suggests, this turboSMTP plan offers basic features and statistics. However, this plan is divided into many sub-plans on the basis of the number of emails sent. For instance, to send up to 50,000 emails in a month, you’d be charged $14.95/month. Similarly, to send 100,000 emails, you’d have to pay just $29.95/month.
- Professional – This turboSMTP plan offers most of the advanced features like advanced stats, APIs, SMTP relays, premium support, etc. The plan focuses on higher email sending requirements. Hence, in order to send up to 200,000 emails every month, you’d have to pay $79.95/month. Similarly for sending up to 700,000 and 1,400,000 emails, you’d be charged $199.95/month and $399.95/month respectively. Lastly, 1.5 million emails can be sent at a rate of $699.95/month.
- Enterprise – For even higher email sending needs, you must get in touch with the turboSMTP team for custom pricing.
As you can see, turboSMTP is the most flexible and affordable alternative to Amazon SES. But if you do not want any monthly or yearly commitments, you can purchase turboSMTP’s “Pay As You Go” plans.
8. Postmark (Top SES Alternative)
Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.2/5
Free Package – 100 emails per month
Price – Starts at $10/month
If you want to simply fulfill your transactional emailing needs then you will love Postmark. This AWS SES alternative is built specifically to cater to transactional email needs only.
Since its launch in 2010, Postmark has continuously improved its services. So much that it caters to some of the biggest organizations like IKEA, Minecraft, Asana, LiveChat, and more.
Features Of Postmark
- The best characteristic of Postmark is that it delivers your transactional emails at a very fast speed. After all, that’s what transactional emails need.
- Postmark keeps 45 days of historical data, logs, and statistics like opens, clicks, etc. along with link tracking.
- To make your task of migrating from Amazon SES to Postmark easier, the team offers an extensive Amazon SES migration guide. And, unlike Amazon SES, Postmark offers transactional email templates too.
Postmark Pricing
Another key characteristic that Postmark one of the best SES alternatives is its cheap pricing structure. Just like Amazon SES, Postmark charges you on the number of emails sent in a month. For this, it offers multiple monthly email sending quotas or tiers.
- Free Trial – The free trial is actually a forever free plan that allows you to send 100 emails in a month.
- For sending up to10,000 emails in a month, you’d have to pay $10/month + $1.25 per 1,000 extra emails.
Similarly, here are subsequent pricing tiers –
- $50/month for 50,000 emails/month.
- $100/month for 125,000 emails/month.
- $200/month for 300,000 emails/month.
- $400/month for 700,000 emails/month.
- $700/month for 1,500,000 emails/month.
- $900/month for 3,000,000 emails/month.
- $1,200/month for 5,000,000 emails/month.
As you can see, if you have higher emailing needs, Postmark becomes cheaper than Amazon SES.
9. Mailjet (AWS SES Alternative)
Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.1/5
Free Package – 6,000 emails per month with 200 emails/day limit
Price – Starts at $9.65/month
I think it would be any surprise if I mention Mailjet as a decent Amazon SES alternative. The French SMTP service has been recently acquired by Mailgun and hence, helping it to improve its deliverability.
Because of this acquisition and Mailjet’s past performance, over 130,000 users rely on Mailjet to send marketing as well as transactional emails. Some of the notable names in its clientele include Kia, DHL, American Express, etc.
Features Of Mailjet
- The transaction emailing API of Mailjet is backed up by a translation SMS sending feature to ensure the required notifications reach your customers.
- You can integrate the Mailjet SMTP server with your site, SaaS, apps, etc. with the help of its API library, built in 8 programming languages.
- Mailjet allows you to keep an eye on your emailing performance by giving reports on all the actionable insights.
Mailjet Pricing
Despite offering many features, Mailjet remains fairly cheap. But before you purchase the plan, you should know that Mailjet SMTP is available as a part of the complete email marketing suite.
All the subscription plans have five sub tiers with different emailing quotas and feature set.
But for the sake of simplicity, I am going to give you an overview of the pricing for 30,000 emails/month sub tier –
- Free – The forever free plan allows you to send 6,000 emails/month with 200 emails per day sending limit.
- Basic – $9.65/month with a custom branding option.
- Premium – $20.95/month for A/B testing, segmentation, automation, etc.
- Enterprise – This plan is valid for emailing requirements higher than 900,000 emails/month. For this, you’d have to get in touch with the sales team for custom pricing.
All Done. Now What?
Now that you have explored and got to know all the Amazon SES alternatives, it’s time for you to pick one.
If you haven’t already noticed, the above-mentioned list has been curated based on the monthly cost. Meaning, the cheapest alternative to Amazon SES is listed on top, and so on…
I hope that this would have been beneficial for you to make a sound decision.
But if you are still unsure about which service to pick, I would like to recommend Brevo. I’ve been using Brevo for quite a while now and it has never disappointed me.
(Check out my unbiased Sendinblue (now Brevo) Review)
Although, if you think that Brevo isn’t your cup of tea then you could definitely try SMTP2GO or SendPulse.
Lastly, if you wish to continue exploring, here are a couple of blogs that would be helpful to you –
- Best SMTP services for better email delivery.
- Free email marketing services to send free emails, forever.