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Amazon SES vs Mailgun
Short answer: Pick Amazon SES if you want scalable email sending with pay-as-you-go pricing; pick Mailgun if you want transactional email delivery and validation. Amazon SES is paid, with a free trial; Mailgun has a free plan, paid from $15/month.
Amazon SESBulk and transactional email sending from AWS
MailgunEmail API for sending, receiving and tracking emailWhich to pick
Pick Amazon SES if you want…
- Scalable email sending with pay-as-you-go pricing
- Integrations with API (on Amazon SES's list, not Mailgun's)
Pick Mailgun if you want…
- Transactional email delivery and validation
- Email API with inbound parsing
- A free plan to start with
- Integrations with HTTP API, Webhooks or Email template builder (on Mailgun's list, not Amazon SES's)
Side by side
- What it is
- Amazon SES:Amazon SES is a fully managed cloud service for sending and receiving high-volume transactional, marketing and bulk email via API or SMTP.
- Mailgun:Mailgun provides APIs for sending, receiving, validating and tracking transactional emails.
- Best for
- Amazon SES:Scalable email sending with pay-as-you-go pricing
- Mailgun:Transactional email delivery and validation
- Who it’s for
- Amazon SES:Developers and businesses needing scalable email sending and inbound processing.
- Mailgun:Developers building email-enabled applications and services.
- Pricing
- Amazon SES:Paid
- Mailgun:Freemium
- Starting price
- Amazon SES:—
- Mailgun:$15/month (Basic)
- Free plan or trial
- Amazon SES:Free trial
- Mailgun:Free plan (Free) · Free trial
- Plans
- Amazon SES:—
- Mailgun:Free $0/mo · Basic $15/mo per month · Foundation $35/mo per month · Scale $90/mo per month
- Works with
- Amazon SES:API, SMTP
- Mailgun:HTTP API, SMTP, Webhooks, Email template builder
Amazon SES features
- API & SMTP integration. Send email programmatically using the SES API, SMTP interface, or AWS SDKs.
- Virtual Deliverability Manager. Provides deliverability insights, reputation monitoring and inbox placement recommendations.
- Mail Manager inbound processing. Route, filter and secure incoming email with customizable traffic policies.
- Dedicated IP options. Choose managed or standard dedicated IPs, including automatic warm-up.
- Email validation. Validate recipient addresses to reduce bounces and protect sender reputation.
- Global Endpoints. Multi-region endpoints automatically distribute outbound traffic for resilience.
Mailgun features
- RESTful Email API & SMTP relay. Send emails via HTTP API or SMTP with high reliability.
- Email validation service. Real-time API and bulk upload to remove invalid addresses.
- Analytics, tracking & webhooks. Detailed delivery, open, click data and event webhooks.
- Inbox preview & accessibility checks. Preview emails before sending to ensure compliance and deliverability.
- Dedicated IPs & IP pools. Control reputation with dedicated IPs, included in higher plans.
- SAML SSO & multi-user access. Enterprise-grade security and role-based access control.
- Log and message retention. Retention up to 30 days for logs and up to 7 days for messages.
- Email template builder. Create and manage reusable email templates via API.
Amazon SES vs Mailgun FAQ
What is the difference between Amazon SES and Mailgun?+
Mailgun offers similar email API and inbound routing but lacks native AWS integration and the same tiered pricing model.
Should I use Amazon SES or Mailgun?+
Pick Amazon SES if you want scalable email sending with pay-as-you-go pricing or integrations with API (on Amazon SES's list, not Mailgun's). Pick Mailgun if you want transactional email delivery and validation, email API with inbound parsing or a free plan to start with.
Is Amazon SES or Mailgun free?+
Amazon SES is paid, with a free trial. Mailgun has a free plan; paid plans start at $15/month (Basic).
Do Amazon SES and Mailgun integrate with the same tools?+
Partly. Both list SMTP. Amazon SES also lists API; Mailgun also lists HTTP API, Webhooks and Email template builder.
On DevHunt
Based on each tool's website and DevHunt data. Details may change; check the official sites.