Simple Amazon SES Alternatives for SaaS (2023 comparison) 🚀

Looking for a simpler alternative to Amazon SES? Need a complete solution for your SaaS? Don’t want to struggle with complicated setup and tricky email configurations? You’re in the right place. We’re bringing you a detailed comparison between Amazon SES and other email providers for 2023.

First, let’s tackle the obvious question… Yes, Sidemail is an alternative to Amazon SES. Yes, we wrote down this comparison of email providers. From talking to people like you who migrated from different email providers, we know well about the struggles. At the end of the day, we also were at the point where you are now. We had a SaaS company and needed to deliver its emails. No service was good enough. Sidemail was built to change that. Now, we’re helping online businesses all around the world to make the whole email game easier.

Amazon SES alternatives comparison

See the tables below for a structured overview of Amazon SES alternatives and their key features and pricing.

Features & Specs:

Pricing:

About Amazon SES

Amazon SES is a part of Amazon Web Services and as its name SES “Simple Email Service” states, it offers the most simple and low-level service from all the alternatives on the list. For its robust infrastructure and reliable delivery, it’s trusted by giants like Netflix, Reddit, and Duolingo.

Amazon SES focuses on the technical side of email sending and offers only a very basic dashboard. As it is more a developer tool than an end-to-end product, it’s suitable for integrations with robust systems that need a lot of flexibility and for companies that can allocate a great amount of resources to developing their own email solution.

👍 Amazon SES Pros

• Affordable solution with a Pay-as-you-go pricing model
• Robust architecture
• Extremely scalable
• Fast and reliable email delivery

👎 Amazon SES Cons

• Do-it-yourself approach. It requires a lot of manual effort from your site to get things running. Amazon provides you with low-level tools for email delivery, but all the integration, email template setup, troubleshooting, analytics, etc. is up to you.
• No support included
• No out-of-the-box features like template editor, premade templates, message history, email automation, or contact management.

💰 Amazon SES Pricing

Amazon SES has pay-as-you-go pricing.

If you count emails only, it is the cheapest email provider by far. 1000 emails cost $0.1.

1. Sidemail

Sidemail is an all-in-one email delivery platform mainly focusing on SaaS businesses. It’s built upon the Amazon SES robust architecture in combination with custom in-house configurations that ensure highly reliable and scalable email delivery. It’s the simplest yet complete solution from this list. Sidemail was founded in 2018 and is based in the EU. It’s one of the younger and more modern email delivery providers, yet covers all email delivery needs in one plan – transactional emails, email marketing, email automation, contact profiles management, and subscribe forms.

👍 Sidemail Pros

• All-in-one email platform. Sidemail is one of the most simple yet complete solutions on the market.
• Specialization in SaaS email delivery
• 5-star rated support
• Fast and reliable email delivery
• Quick integration, simple instructions, intuitive UI. The whole integration process takes about 30 minutes.
• Simple pricing, includes transactional emails, email marketing and automation in one plan.
• Premade email templates and easy-to-use visual template editor
• Personal care and pro-customer approach

For more details and a comparison between Amazon SES, check the section Amazon SES vs Sidemail detailed comparison.

👎 Sidemail Cons

• Not offering a free plan. In email delivery, offering top-quality service and a free plan does not always go well together. To maintain the fastest email delivery and the highest service standards, we decided to pass the free plan and instead offer 7 days as a free trial for testing.
• “Different” approach. Sidemail's main focus is to bring the best email delivery service for SaaS companies and online businesses. It simplifies the whole email game for them so they can focus on their business and not invest tons of resources in emails. However, this approach might not be suitable for others. If you are an offline business or need advanced functionality just for email marketing, other Amazon SES alternatives listed below might be a better solution for your case.

👉 TL;DR: Amazon SES vs Sidemail Conclusion – What To Choose

Overall, Sidemail is the perfect alternative to Amazon SES if you don’t want to do all the legwork yourself, prefer a simple and uncomplicated solution, want to manage everything from one place, and are looking for more personal support.

If you have a SaaS company, Sidemail will be the best solution for you as it is recognized as a top email platform for SaaS. What developers and business owners appreciate the most is its easy integration, intuitive UI, and amazing customer care.

On the other hand, if you need a solution with very use-case-specific and advanced functionality and don’t mind investing more resources into configuring and managing emails, Amazon SES or the alternatives listed below might be a better solution for your case.

Amazon SES vs Sidemail Detailed Comparison – What It Solves

⭐ Simplicity over complicated functionality
Amazon SES provides you with low-level tools for email delivery, but all the integration, email template setup, troubleshooting, analytics, etc. is up to you.

Sidemail as an Amazon SES alternatives does all the heavy lifting for you. We handle for you all the tricky email stuff like IP reputation, suppression list, blocklist, feedback loops, HTML email structure, email template responsibility, and inbox optimization, and provide you with the best practices and delivery possible. Simple instructions. Quick setup.

All Sidemail plans include everything you need for delivering transactional and marketing emails, sending product updates, setting up email automation, collecting your subscribers' information, and managing your contacts. Everything is nicely packed in one neatly organized place.

⭐ Intuitive UI & quick integration
Sidemail was built with first principles in mind. It’s one of the most simple yet complete Amazon SES alternatives.

With Sidemail the whole integration process takes about 30 minutes. Sidemail is known for its clean and intuitive UI. To write a product update is as simple as writing a message in Gmail, yet comes with all essential features like scheduled delivery, delivery by recipients’ timezones, email variables, recipient segmentation, etc.

In the long term, Sidemail focuses on developing features that make the work of developers and product owners easier. To name one of the recently added features, Sidemail came with the possibility to send email content with markdown making it one of the easiest ways to deliver beautiful branded emails on the market. You can read more here.

⭐ 5-star rated support experience
If you are looking for an Amazon SES alternative with more personal customer support, Sidemail is a great choice for you. Founders themselves answer more than 95% of all support emails to ensure you get the best possible personal help and expertise. A satisfied customer is the highest priority in Sidemail.

⭐ Individual approach
Customization matters. In giant corporations like Amazon, it’s almost impossible to demand any kind of customization or individual approach.

Sidemail is an independent company with a strong background and a flexible team, which enables us to adapt quickly to new trends and offer a truly individual approach. We're pleased to continually work side-by-side with our customers to develop additional features based on their specific needs while improving the whole product for everyone.

2. Mailgun (+ Mailjet)

Mailgun is another Amazon SES alternative. In previous years, Mailgun was a popular choice for developers as it is an API-first solution with solid transactional emails.

Today, after a number of acquisitions in 2021, Mailgun is a part of Sinch company. Sinch company now also owns Mailjet which you can use for email marketing and email automation. Even though they are part of a large enterprise now, both Mailgun and Mailjet are still standalone services. So if are looking for a solution for sending all your emails, you will need to pay for two separate services.

👍 Mailgun Pros

• Pay-as-you-go option that you can activate before you find a monthly plan that fits your sending needs
• Solid functionality for managing transactional emails
• 99.99% uptime SLA offered even on lower plans

👎 Mailgun Cons

• Uncertain deliverability results. Some customers reported issues with the deliverability and sending speed of their transactional emails.
• Mixed customer support ratings. In the last 3 years, there is a notable rise in customers that report frustrating experiences with Mailgun support team.
• You need to pay for 2 separate services for transactional emails and email marketing. Combined, it is a more expensive solution compared to providers that include transactional emails and marketing + automation in one service.

💰 Mailgun Pricing

Mailgun has monthly plans-based pricing with a free trial.

If you want to send both transactional emails and email marketing + automation, you need to pay for 2 separate services. Mailgun plans (for sending transactional emails) start at $35 per month.

Mailjet plans (for sending marketing emails and email automation) start at $25 per month.

3. Sendgrid

SendGrid is one of the largest Amazon SES alternatives, mainly focusing on sending transactional emails, now also providing broad-spectrum of services for email marketing and email automation. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Denver, Colorado. As one of the oldest email providers, it’s used by large tech companies like Uber, Booking, Yelp, Spotify or Airbnb. In 2019 SendGrid was acquired by Twilio.

👍 Sendgrid Pros

• One of the oldest and largest platforms for email delivery
• Free plan with basic functionality
• Advanced features for testing & email analytics
• Broad-spectrum of tools and integrations not only for email delivery but also for SMS and WhatsApp

👎 Sendgrid Cons

• Occasional issues with deliverability. Since the acquisition in 2019, there has been a notable rise in customer complaints regarding issues with email deliverability and quality of support, resulting in a significant increase in negative reviews.
• Bad support experience reported by many customers even on paid add-on plans.
• No premade email templates for transactional emails
• Complicated pricing with a lot of add-ons and extra fees for features

💰 SendGrid Pricing

Twilio SendGrid has freemium pricing. If you want to send both transactional emails and email marketing + automation, you need to pay for 2 separate plans.

For sending transactional emails Sendgrid offer a free plan with 100 emails/day and limited functionality. Paid Essentials Transactional plan starts at $19.95 per month. The Pro plan which includes more than 1 team member, 7 days of data history, and 1 dedicated IP starts at $89.95 per month.

For sending marketing emails and email automation Sendgrid also offer a very limited free plan. Then there are two paid plans – Basic and Advanced. With the Basic plan, you can not set up any email automation. The Advanced Marketing plan starts at $60 per month and includes both email marketing and email automation and up to 15 subscribe forms.

4. Postmark

Postmark is another Amazon SES alternative but only for transactional emails. Similarly to Amazon SES, it does not offer software for email automation. For email marketing, in May 2023 Postmark introduced Broadcast Streams, but the functionality is very limited. So, if you need to cover all email delivery, you have to find another email marketing and automation service or choose an alternative that has an all-in-one solution.

👍 Postmark Pros

• Responsive support. Postmark is known for its solid support experience. The support team is available between 3 am and 7 pm EST, Monday to Friday, not on weekends.
• Solid delivery of transactional emails
• Unlimited team members

👎 Postmark Cons

• Missing functionality for email marketing and automation. If you have a SaaS and need a service to cover all your email-sending activities, you have to find another email marketing and automation service. It lacks features for writing product updates, sending automated emails, setting up welcome email sequences, contact management, and collecting new subscribers.
• No visual editor. Postmark does not have a visual editor for email templates. To create your templates, you have to write the code yourself. And coding emails that do not break is a tough and resource-expensive job.
• Support unavailable on weekends

💰 Postmark Pricing

Postmark has monthly plans-based pricing with a free trial.

100 emails per month are free. Then, the paid plans start at $15 per month.

5. Mailchimp (+ Mandrill)

Mailchimp is the most expensive Amazon SES alternative from this list. As the opposite of Amazon SES, it is an email marketing first platform. In 2016 Mailchimp merged with Mandrill and started offering also transactional emails as a Mandrill paid add-on. In 2021 Mailchimp was acquired by Intuit and become a part of their global technology platform. Following the acquisition, Mailchimp suffered a number of data breach incidents in 2022 and 2023.

If you are looking for a solution with advanced features for email marketing, Mailchimp could be a good solution for you.

👍 Mailchimp Pros

• Advanced email marketing features
• Landing page builder included
• Solid free plan for email marketing

👎 Mailchimp Cons

• The most expensive alternative.
• Uncertain transactional emails. Even though Mailchimp now offers plans not only for email marketing but also for transactional emails, since the Mailchimp + Mandrill acquisition, it seems like the transactional part of the product is not receiving much focus and development. Some former Mandrill customers report technical issues with the delivery and are migrating to other alternatives.
• Previous data breach issues. Following the Intuit acquisition, Mailchimp suffered a number of data breach incidents in 2022 and 2023.

💰 Mailchimp Pricing

Mailchimp is the most expensive Amazon SES alternative. It has monthly plans-based pricing with a free email marketing plan.

If you want to send transactional emails, you have to pay for a Standard or Premium marketing plan + purchase Transactional email as an extra add-on. The transactional email costs start at $20 per month.

For email marketing, Mailchimp offers a free plan with up to 500 subscribers and 1000 emails sent per month. The Standard marketing plan starts at $20 per month.

Choosing an Amazon SES Alternative

I hope this detailed overview of Amazon SES alternatives gave you a better overview of what would be the right option for you. All of the listed Amazon SES alternatives offer at least a basic functionality for sending transactional emails (and email marketing). From there, it is a matter of what approach you prefer and what are the specifics of your use-case. If you have questions or need help with your email delivery, feel free to reach us at [email protected].