Amazon SES vs Scaleway Transactional Email (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 1.6.
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, the free plan, features and platforms. They get the same grade on ease of use.
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
Scaleway Transactional Email
Transactional email API and SMTP on Scaleway's European cloud
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 Scaleway Transactional Email if
- Fits if you want email sent from a European cloud for GDPR reasons
- Works for apps with uneven volume that suit paying per 1,000 emails
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free plan or trial, as there is neither
- Pricey if you need a dedicated IP or the SLA, since both sit on the €80 a month Scale plan
- Not for you if you send marketing email, as the page only describes transactional messages
- Watch out: prices are in euros and the page doesn't say whether VAT is added
How we grade them
| 2.8GPAAmazon SESGood | 1.6GPAScaleway Transactional EmailWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CScale is €80 a month for 100,000 emails. That's in the dearest tenth of the category, but Essential has no monthly fee and charges €0.25 per 1,000, which pulls it back to the ordinary range. |
| 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. | FNo free plan or trial. Essential includes 300 emails before it charges, which is a sample, not a plan. |
| 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. | CAPI and SMTP sending, reports and alerts, blocklist handling and webhooks. A managed dedicated IP and the 99.9% SLA need Scale, and it's transactional only. |
| 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. | CNo store rating on record. You add domains and DNS records on a cloud console. |
| 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 console with an API and SMTP. No integrations list on its page. |
| Best for | bulk sending for apps already on AWS | pay-as-you-go transactional email from a European cloud |
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 Scaleway Transactional Email. How we grade
Where they differ
- Amazon SES also covers email verification.
- Scaleway Transactional Email also covers dMARC.
At a glance
| Amazon SES | Scaleway Transactional Email | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Paid |
| Starts at | Not published | €80 per month for 100,000 emails |
| Free plan | None | None |
| 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. | Scaleway |
| Price read from | aws.amazon.com | scaleway.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.
Scaleway Transactional Email
- The Essential plan is pay as you go with no monthly fee shown: 300 emails included, then €0.25 per 1,000 emails.
- A dedicated IP and the 99.9% SLA need the €80 a month Scale plan.
- Prices are in euros and the page does not say whether VAT is added.
- The service is for transactional messages; marketing email is not described on the page.
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.
Scaleway Transactional Email
- API and SMTP sending
- Emails can be sent through an API or over SMTP, which suits notification services, alerts and CMS or application integrations.
- Reports and alerts
- Both plans include reports and alerts for sent email.
- Blocklist handling
- Essential has an automatic blocklist mode; Scale adds a manual blocklist mode.
- Managed dedicated IP
- A managed dedicated IP address is part of the Scale plan.
- Domains and webhooks
- Essential allows 5 domains and 1 webhook per domain; Scale has unlimited of each.
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.
Scaleway Transactional Email
Scale€80
per month for 100,000 emails
Unlimited domains and webhooks, a managed dedicated IP and a 99.9% SLA. Emails beyond 100,000 cost €0.20 per 1,000.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Amazon SES or Scaleway Transactional Email?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Amazon SES publishes no starting price, and Scaleway Transactional Email starts at €80 per month for 100,000 emails.
Which has a free plan, Amazon SES or Scaleway Transactional Email?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither Amazon SES nor Scaleway Transactional Email has a free plan. Amazon SES 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.