Amazon SES vs Hyvor Relay (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, we pick Amazon SES: it is second in our ranking of email sending services, and it grades higher too, 2.8 against 1.8.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Amazon SES grades higher on value for money, features, ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Amazon SES
AWS email sending and receiving, paid per 1,000 emails
Hyvor Relay
Open-source email API you can self-host
Which one is for you
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 Hyvor Relay if
- Fits if you can run your own mail servers and want no per-email fee
- Works for teams that need the open-source license for compliance
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you do not run servers, as self-hosting leaves deliverability to you
- Watch out: the hosted cloud plan is a waitlist and its €30 a month is an estimate, not final
- Pricey if you need to avoid the AGPL-3.0, since the Enterprise License starts at €10,000 a year
- Tight if you need long logs, with delivery logs kept for 30 days
How we grade them
| 2.8GPAAmazon SESGood | 1.8GPAHyvor RelayWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AGraded on 50,000 emails a month, worked out from the listed rates: $0.16 per 1,000 on Essentials is $8 a month, and $0.10 per 1,000 à la carte is $5, far under the rest of this category. Attachments, dedicated IPs and other AWS services cost extra. | CFree only if you host it yourself, which needs servers and IPs, so it sits in the middle. The Enterprise License starts at €10,000 a year, and the cloud plan is an unconfirmed estimate. |
| Free plan and trial | CThere's no free allowance: every email is billed from the first one. New AWS customers get up to $200 in Free Tier credits that work on SES, and once those are spent every email is paid for. | CThe open-source edition is free with unlimited usage, but you must run it yourself, and there is no hosted free tier. |
| Features | BAPI, SMTP and AWS SDKs, receiving and routing with Mail Manager, address validation, shared, dedicated or your own IPs, deliverability insights, tenants and two-region sending. It covers the job, though alerts and dashboards lean on other AWS services billed separately. | CEmail API, DKIM domains, webhooks, bounce and complaint handling, projects and observability. Delivery logs last 30 days. |
| Ease of use | CJudged on how fast a developer sends a first email: verify a domain in AWS, then you're in a sandbox that only sends to verified addresses until AWS approves a limit increase. No rating on record. It's the slowest start in this category. | DNo rating on record. Self-hosting means servers, DNS, IP reputation and deliverability are yours to run. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an API, SMTP and AWS SDKs, and it plugs into Amazon S3, SNS, CloudWatch and EC2. Outside AWS you're wiring it up yourself. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. | CWeb interface and API, with Prometheus, Grafana and Docker Swarm hooks. No apps. |
| Best for | bulk sending for apps already on AWS | self-hosted open-source email sending |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Amazon SES and Hyvor Relay. How we grade
Where they differ
- Hyvor Relay is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Amazon SES also covers email verification.
At a glance
| Amazon SES | Hyvor Relay | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | €10,000 per year and up (Enterprise License) |
| Free plan | None | Self-hosted open-source edition: free with unlimited usage under AGPL-3.0 and community support. |
| Free trial | New AWS customers get up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits, usable on SES | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Amazon Web Services, Inc. | Hyvor |
| Price read from | aws.amazon.com | relay.hyvor.com |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
Hyvor Relay
- The cloud plan is on a waitlist, listed at an estimated €30 per month for 300,000 emails and not yet final.
- Self-hosting means running servers, IPs and deliverability yourself.
- Delivery logs are kept for 30 days.
- The page states the Enterprise License starts at €10,000 a year and is priced by volume.
Key features
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.
Hyvor Relay
- Email API
- A REST API with idempotent sends, HTML and plain text, attachments, custom headers and multiple recipients.
- Domains and DKIM
- Multiple sending domains with enforced DKIM signing and an in-built DNS server.
- Webhooks
- Event webhooks for deliveries, bounces and domain verification.
- Bounce and complaint handling
- Bounces, complaints and suppressions are managed automatically.
- Projects
- Isolated projects each with their own domains, keys and webhooks.
- Observability
- Prometheus and Grafana integrations and health checks for servers, DNS and IP reputation.
Plans
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.
Hyvor Relay
Self-Hosted Open-Source$0
You host it yourself under AGPL-3.0, with all features and community support.
Enterprise License€10,000
per year and up
The same features without AGPL-3.0 obligations, with volume-based pricing, enterprise support and SLA options.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Amazon SES or Hyvor Relay?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Amazon SES publishes no starting price, and Hyvor Relay starts at €10,000 per year and up (Enterprise License).
Which has a free plan, Amazon SES or Hyvor Relay?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Hyvor Relay has a free plan. Amazon SES does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.