Amazon SES vs MailChannels (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 MailChannels if

• Fits if you run a platform that sends mail for many customers
• Works for developers who want a free tier to prototype on

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want email support on a small plan, as it is listed only from 300,000 emails a month
• Tight if you stay free, because it stops at 100 emails a day with no overage
• Watch out: the page says no tier sits between the free plan and the 10,000-email paid plan
• Watch out: Outbound Filtering for hosting providers is a separate product from $99.99 a month
• Not for you if you want open and click tracking for free, as it comes with the paid plan

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.

MailChannels

• The free plan has no overages and stops at 100 emails a day.
• The page says there is no tier between the free plan and the 10,000-email paid plan.
• Email support is listed only for plans of 300,000 emails a month and up; lower plans list community support.
• Outbound Filtering for hosting providers is a separate product, from $99.99 a month for 40,000 emails.

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.

MailChannels

REST API and SMTP relay

Mail goes out through a REST API or an SMTP relay with the same controls on either path.

Sub-account isolation

Each tenant, workspace or AI agent gets its own sender identity, with reputation, limits and policy scoped to it.

Bounce and complaint webhooks

Webhooks report delivery events, including feedback-loop complaints, so a platform can retry, pause or suspend a single sender.

Inline threat filtering

Outbound messages are scanned for phishing, malware and known abuse patterns before they leave the network.

Approval hooks for agents

A human or programmatic checkpoint can be placed in the send path, which the vendor suggests for AI agents sending high-risk messages.

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.

MailChannels

• Free$0

  Up to 3,000 emails a month and 100 a day, REST API and SMTP, up to 3 domains and community support.

• Pay as You Grow$10

  per month for up to 10,000 emails, billed monthly

  Adds open and click tracking and up to 1,000 domains. Price rises with volume: $30 a month at 100,000 emails, $300 at 1,000,000.

• CustomCustom

  For 1,500,001+ emails a month, with custom policies and domain limits. Contact sales.