Amazon SES vs FluentSMTP (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Amazon SES if

• Fits if your app already runs on AWS and you know your way around its console
• Works for teams that send in volume and also need to receive, route and archive incoming mail

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you need to email customers today, since new accounts start in a sandbox with daily limits
• Not for you if you'd rather not set things up through code and the AWS console
• Watch out: there's no free monthly allowance, so every email is billed once the $200 of credits is gone
• Pricey if you want managed dedicated IPs, as Pro is $105 a month per region and a second region doubles it
• Watch out: attachments, standard dedicated IPs at $24.95 each and AWS services like S3 and CloudWatch bill separately

Pick FluentSMTP if

• Fits if you run WordPress and want logs and a fallback without paying
• Works for sites already on Amazon SES or Mailgun that need a way to connect

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you don't run WordPress, as it only works inside it
• Not for you if you want a sending service: it's a connector and deliverability depends on the provider you pick
• Watch out: you need a separate provider account, which has its own pricing
• Watch out: Zoho Mail connects through SMTP, not an API

Amazon SES

• Every email is billed: $0.10 per 1,000 on à la carte pricing or $0.16 per 1,000 on Essentials, with no free monthly allowance.
• New accounts start in a sandbox that only sends to verified addresses, with daily limits, until AWS approves a limit increase.
• Pro and Enterprise fees are charged per account per region, so sending from two regions doubles the fixed fee.
• Other AWS services used alongside it, such as S3 storage, SNS notifications or CloudWatch dashboards, are billed separately.

FluentSMTP

• Runs only inside WordPress; it needs an account with a separate email provider, which has its own pricing.
• It is a connector, not a sending service, so deliverability depends on the provider you choose.
• Zoho Mail is connected through SMTP rather than an API, according to the plugin listing.

Amazon SES

API, SMTP and AWS SDKs

Send transactional and marketing email from any application through the SES API, an SMTP interface or an AWS SDK, after verifying your domain or address.

Virtual Deliverability Manager

Delivery and engagement insights with recommendations for reputation problems; the paid plans extend it to inbox placement tests and blocklist monitoring.

Dedicated, shared or your own IPs

Send from shared IPs, standard dedicated IPs at $24.95 a month each, managed dedicated IPs that SES warms up for you, or IP ranges you bring.

Mail Manager for incoming email

Receive email and route, allow or block it with rule sets, add security scanning from approved vendors, and archive sent and received mail.

Email validation

Checks recipient addresses before sending, at $0.01 per address checked through the API, or included up to a monthly allowance on Pro and Enterprise.

Tenants and global endpoints

Tenants keep each sender's reputation separate inside one account, and global endpoints spread sending across two AWS regions.

FluentSMTP

Provider connections

Connects to Amazon SES, Gmail and Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Brevo, SparkPost, SMTP2GO, Elastic Email and any SMTP server.

Multiple connections and routing

Several providers can be connected at once, and each email is routed to one based on its From address.

Fallback connection

A secondary connection takes over when the primary one fails.

Email log and resend

Logs sent emails with headers, body and the server's response, and lets you resend a logged email.

Failure alerts

Notifies you by email, Telegram, Slack, Discord or Pushover when delivery fails, according to the plugin listing and the vendor site.

Migration from other plugins

Imports settings from WP Mail SMTP or Easy WP SMTP, and works with WP-CLI.

Amazon SES

• À la carte$0

  No plan or minimum fee: $0.10 per 1,000 emails sent or received, plus $0.12 per GB of attachments; features such as dedicated IPs are bought separately.

• Essentials$0

  No fixed fee: $0.16 per 1,000 emails up to 10 million a month, then less. Deliverability insights included; new accounts start on it from July 21, 2026.

• Pro$105

  per month, plus $0.22 per 1,000 emails

  Per account and region. Adds managed dedicated IPs, 2,500 address validations a month, deliverability tracking beyond SES and Trend Micro scanning.

• Enterprise$500

  per month, plus $0.23 per 1,000 emails

  Per account and region. Adds global endpoints across two regions, tenants, an open inbound endpoint, 5,000 validations and Spamhaus scanning.

FluentSMTP

• Free$0

  All features and integrations, with no paid edition. The vendor says it is free and open source, and pledges that it stays free.