Amazon SES vs SMTP2GO
We give Amazon SES a 2.8 GPA and SMTP2GO a 2.2, out of 4.0. Amazon SES grades higher on value for money and features. They get the same grade on the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
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
SMTP2GO
SMTP relay and email API priced by emails a month, with a free plan
How we grade them
| 2.8GPAAmazon SESGood | 2.2GPASMTP2GOFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. That's far under anything else in this category. Attachments, dedicated IPs and other AWS services cost extra. | CGraded on 50,000 emails a month: Starter is $30 a month at that volume, with two months free if you pay yearly. That sits in the middle of what this category charges for that much sending. A dedicated IP and email testing need Professional at $75. |
| Free plan and trial | CThere's no free allowance: every email is billed from the first one. New AWS customers do get up to $200 in Free Tier credits that work on SES, which goes a long way at these rates. | CFree for good with no card: 1,000 emails a month, but only 200 a day, with 5 days of reports, and extra emails can't be bought. Chat and phone help last 14 days. Fine for a test, tight for a live app. |
| 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 whole job, though alerts and dashboards lean on other AWS services. | CAPI and SMTP sending, automatic SPF and DKIM, delivery reports with bounce alerts, blacklist monitoring, three data regions and subaccounts. It does the sending job fully, but that's a smaller job: nothing on record covers receiving email or templates. |
| 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. | CJudged on how fast a developer sends a first email: copy the SMTP details or use the API, with code examples in five languages, once your domain is added. No rating on record. Sign-up refuses Gmail and Yahoo addresses, so you need a work domain. |
| 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. | BWeb, with an SMTP relay and REST API that work from apps, servers and devices, plus WordPress, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, WHMCS, Laravel and Django. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | the cheapest sending if you already use AWS | relaying email from apps, sites and office printers |
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 SMTP2GO. How we grade
Where they differ
- SMTP2GO has a free plan. Amazon SES does not, though it has a free trial.
- Amazon SES also covers email verification.
At a glance
| Amazon SES | SMTP2GO | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | $15 per month for 10,000 emails, billed monthly |
| Free plan | None | 1,000 emails a month, limited to 200 a day, with 5 days of email reporting and ticket support. Extra emails are not allowed. No credit card needed. |
| 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. | SMTP2GO |
| Price read from | aws.amazon.com | smtp2go.com |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Amazon SES
- Developers already running their apps on AWS
- High-volume senders looking for a low price per email
- Teams comfortable setting up email through code and the AWS console
SMTP2GO
- Small businesses sending app or website email at low volume
- Schools and offices relaying mail from systems, printers and scanners
- IT providers managing sending for several clients
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.
SMTP2GO
- The free plan stops at 1,000 emails a month and 200 a day, and extra emails cannot be bought on it.
- A dedicated IP address and email testing tools start with Professional at $75 a month.
- Email reports are kept for 30 days on paid plans and 5 days on the free plan.
- Sign-up asks for an email address at a private domain; Gmail and Yahoo addresses are refused.
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.
SMTP2GO
- SMTP relay and HTTP API
- Send through SMTP from an app, a mail client, a server or a device, or through a REST API with code examples in JavaScript, Node.js, PHP, Ruby and Python.
- Delivery tracking and reports
- Real-time reports follow each email to delivery and show bounces, spam complaints and unsubscribes, with weekly summaries and alerts on sudden bounce rises.
- Automatic SPF and DKIM
- Domain authentication is handled for you, along with feedback loops, blacklist monitoring and spam trap detection on every plan.
- Data centers in three regions
- Choose to send from and store data in the US, Europe or Australia, with best-path routing to the nearest location.
- Email testing
- Professional adds previews in more than 40 email clients and checks against major spam filters before you send.
- Subaccounts
- Paid plans can split sending into subaccounts, which suits agencies and managed service providers looking after several clients.
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.
SMTP2GO
Free Plan$0
1,000 emails a month and 200 a day, 5 days of reports, ticket support; chat and phone support for the first 14 days only.
Starter$15
per month for 10,000 emails, billed monthly
30 days of reports, ticket, chat and phone support, subaccounts and SMS. Extra emails $1.20 per 1,000. Price rises with volume: $30 a month at 50,000 emails.
Professional$75
per month for 100,000 emails, billed monthly
Adds a dedicated IP address and email testing tools. Extra emails cost $0.85 per 1,000, and the price rises with volume.
PremierCustom
Over 3 million emails a month, with personalized setup and support.
Ways to pay less
Amazon SES
No public discounts listed.
SMTP2GO
- Annual discount
Two months free with yearly billing
Paying yearly gives two months free: Starter at 10,000 emails is $150 a year instead of $180, and Professional at 100,000 is $750 instead of $900.
- Education
30% education discount
SMTP2GO's education page offers schools a 30% discount, with unlimited users and systems on one account.
