Amazon SES vs Mailer To Go (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 Mailer To Go if

• Fits if you run an app on Heroku and want SMTP email
• Works for developers who are fine with SMTP and no REST API yet

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you want a free plan, as there isn't one
• Skip it if you need a REST API, which is still in development
• Tight if you add a dedicated IP, which is $30 a month on Growth and Scale
• Watch out: plans bought through Heroku, Addons.io or Build.io are billed and priced separately

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.

Mailer To Go

• There is no free plan; every plan is paid.
• The pages say a REST API is in development, so sending today is over SMTP.
• A dedicated IP is a $30 per month add-on on Growth and Scale, on request.
• Plans bought through Heroku, Addons.io or Build.io are billed there and priced separately from the direct plans.

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.

Mailer To Go

SMTP sending

Standard SMTP on port 587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (SSL), so framework mailers work by pointing them at the dashboard credentials.

Delegated DNS

Publish one NS record and the service publishes and rotates SPF, DKIM and DMARC records for a dedicated sending subdomain.

Suppression handling

Hard bounces and spam complaints are added to a suppression list automatically.

Delivery webhooks

Webhook URLs receive delivered, bounced, opened and clicked events.

Inbound routing

Inbound mail can be forwarded by rule or delivered to an app as a webhook.

Marketplace add-ons

Available as an add-on on Heroku, Addons.io and Build.io, which sets SMTP credentials as config variables.

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.

Mailer To Go

• Starter$15

  per month for up to 25,000 emails, billed monthly

  5 sending domains, 30 days of event history, email support. Extra email is $1.00 per 1,000.

• Growth$50

  per month for up to 250,000 emails, billed monthly

  25 sending domains, 90 days of event history, priority support. Extra email is $0.60 per 1,000.

• Scale$150

  per month for up to 1,000,000 emails, billed monthly

  Unlimited sending domains, 12 months of event history, priority support. Extra email is $0.40 per 1,000.

Amazon SES

No public discounts listed.

Mailer To Go

• Annual discount

  20% off with annual billing

  The plans page says annual billing saves 20% on the direct plans.