What is Amazon SES?
Nov 20, 2022
A few years back Amazon quietly changed the email sending landscape with Amazon SES.
Amazon SES is a cloud based email sending service. SES is an API that can be used by developers to send email at an extremely cheap price. The difference if price between SES and Mailchimp for example is so enormous that it is atleast 100 times cheaper to send via SES than using Mailchimp.
Its also extremely reliable because of Amazon's externsive infrastructure.
How it works
Developers use Amazon SES SDK in their applications to send marketing and transactional emails using software integrated into their systems. Amazon then sends the emails to the relevant service providers using all the relevant best practices and protocols. SES also keeps track of all bounces, complaints and spam reports and uses the Amazon SNS service to communicate it back to the developer's script so they can take relevant action.
There is no customer end interface for the Amazon SES service. However, you can use SendNet to use the powerful Amazon SES backend and send emails at ridiculously low rates.
What are the benefits of Amazon SES
The benefits of sending email using amazon SES are...
Full control over the sending process because of their API.
High Deliverability
Extremely cost effective
Full control over the sending process because of their API
The Amazon SES can be integrated into any programming language and developers can use it within their workflow however they want allowing for full control and customizability.
High Deliverability
Amazon achieves this because of their powerful infrastructure and also by enforcing extremely strict rules in email quality and restriction of bad email practices. Amazon will immediately and automatically bar anyone seen practicing shady business email practices. It has a threshold for number of spam reports, bounces or complaints triggering a warning before swiftly suspending accounts that violate its poilicies.
Extremely cost effective
Amazon SES charges $1 per 10,000 emails. Mailchimp charges around $200 for the same. The difference is astounding.
What are the cons?
The biggest con is that it has no interface where you can create lists, forms, segment them, create campaigns, send/schedule them, create autoresponders etc. But you can use a service like SendNet which acts as a complete email sending interface built on top of Amazon SES and enjoy the best of both worlds while saving a ton of money.
Who is it for?
You can use it if you are in need of sending...
Transactional Emails
Great for this as typically trasactional emails need to be built into your application. The SES SDK makes it super easy to send and get metrics about your emails.
Marketing Emails
As long as it is not spam, Amazon SES is great for marketing emails like enwsletters and even promotional offers.
Who is not for?
Cold emails
If you plan to send a lot of cold emails, this is not for you as Amazon is super strict with that and there is literally no way around it and you will immeditely get blocked.
Emails using bought lists
These will bounce quite often and will get marked as spam and SES will terminate your account after a single warning so its a waste of time.
Frequently asked questions about Amazon SES
Does Amazon SES supply email templates?
No. Amazon does not have an interface. Its a API only service.
Is there an email editor?
No. Same as above.
Is there a way to use Amazon SES if you are not a developer?
Luckily yes. You can use SendNet to send emails like in any other service providers but with the power and cost-effectiveness of the Amazon SES backend.
What kind of emails can I send with Amazon SES?
Both transactional and marketing communications.
