In the world of cold email outreach, few things matter as much as reliable email deliverability. A quick search on Google will shed light on various email-sending solutions and their respective features. However, picking the right one is easier said than done. For example, Amazon SES sounds like a great choice. After all, it’s backed by AWS and offers many different features to help you send cold emails at scale. But once you look past the marketing, you’ll find that SES is a technical tool requiring technical knowledge. If you don’t have the right skills, you may run into issues like poor email deliverability and a complicated setup. Many businesses look for Amazon SES alternatives before settling on a solution. If you’re in the same boat, this article will offer valuable cold email tips to help you find a reliable Amazon SES alternative that seamlessly integrates with your existing systems via SMTP or API, ensuring smooth email delivery without technical headaches.

One viable option to consider is Inframail's email infrastructure. This solution can help you quickly achieve your goals by finding a reliable Amazon SES alternative that seamlessly integrates with your existing systems via SMTP or API, ensuring smooth email delivery without technical headaches.

Table of Contents

• What is Amazon SES?

• 21 Best Amazon Ses Alternatives

• Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today

What is Amazon SES?

Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is a cloud-based email-sending service. As part of Amazon Web Services, SES helps businesses send marketing and transactional emails at a large scale. The service is known for its: 

• Cost-effectiveness

• High deliverability rates

• Easy integration with other AWS services

How Does Amazon SES Work?

SES stands for Simple Email Service. That might remind you of Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or SMTP. SMTP is the standard for sending emails in bulk quantities between mail servers. SMTP servers are reliable and quick. In the right hands, they’re also better for protecting the sender’s reputation at high volumes. 

Understanding SMTP Relays: How They Improve Email Deliverability and Integration

This means convincing email service providers and ISPs that you’re not sending spam, which means better deliverability. Many providers offer a cloud-based SMTP service or access to an SMTP server via the cloud. They are called SMTP relays. Find the best free SMTP servers for transactional emails in our full review. Amazon SES isn’t only an SMTP relay service. It’s a cloud-based email service based on Amazon’s tech. But it supports SMTP. To you and me, it functions just like an SMTP relay. It also offers an API to add email-sending to other services and apps. 

What are the Key Benefits of Amazon SES?

The main benefit of Amazon SES is scalability. Built on the Amazon cloud, it has virtually limitless sending capacity, even beyond what standard SMTP relays can achieve. Pay-as-you-go pricing means you only pay for what you use. 

It also has excellent tools for: 

• Send optimization

• Sender reputation management

• Advanced testing

You can buy a dedicated IP address to control your sender reputation further.  

What are the Drawbacks of Amazon SES

On the downside, novice users may find Amazon SES tricky to use. Even the pricing isn’t straightforward. You pay $0.10 per 1000 emails sent, plus $0.12 per GB of attachments. 

Related Reading

• How to Send Bulk Emails
• Outreach Automation
• How to Know if Someone Opened Your Email
• How to Send a Cold Email for Networking
• How to Follow Up on a Cold Email
• Best Time to Send Cold Emails

21 Best Amazon Ses Alternatives

1. Inframail: Cold Email Infrastructure with Unlimited Inboxes

Inframail revolutionizes cold email infrastructure with unlimited inboxes at a single flat rate. With Microsoft-backed deliverability and dedicated IP addresses, we help scale their outreach efficiently: 

• Agencies

• Recruiters

• SDRs 

The main benefits of using our service: 

• Automated SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup

• Dedicated email servers for each user

• 16-hour priority support daily

Unlike traditional providers that charge per inbox and leave you wrestling with technical configurations, Inframail streamlines the entire process. We handle the complex infrastructure setup while you focus on reaching more prospects. InfraMail provides a robust email infrastructure without the usual technical headaches and per-inbox costs, whether you're: 

• An agency looking to scale outreach

• A recruiter connecting with candidates

• An SDR driving sales

Start buying domains now and set up your email infrastructure today with our email infrastructure tool.

2. Postmark: Reliable Delivery, Clear Transparency

Postmark is an email app that enables developers to create transactional emails. It is a full-service email API that helps companies reach their audience. Postmark helps its customers send transactional emails by providing an easy-to-use API on its web interface. With the Postmark API, you can create a system that sends transactions automatically or on demand.

3. Mailgun: Email Infrastructure for Developers

Mailgun is a cloud-based email service that offers developers and businesses of all sizes a complete toolkit for sending, receiving, tracking, and analyzing their email campaigns. It provides a wide range of features, including: 

• An SMTP server

• DKIM signing

• RESTful API

• Plugins

Mailgun also allows you to use third-party services like Mandrill, Salesforce, or Mailchimp without the hassle of setting up APIs and managing your servers.

4. SendGrid: High-Volume Email Alternative to Amazon SES

SendGrid is a hosted alternative to Amazon SES similar to MailGun (ideal for developers). It offers an easy-to-use interface and tools for transactional and email marketing. I liked the easy drag-and-drop email builder and customizable templates that allow you to send personalized email designs at scale. If you’re a developer, it integrates with other software easily via its API. SendGrid can handle high-volume email sending, but it can become expensive compared to other options on our list. SendGrid also limits sub-user management and access to certain features, such as email validation, on its lower pricing plans, which might not be ideal for businesses needing more flexibility. 

5. MessageBird Email: High-Volume Commercial Sending

The brand formerly known as SparkPost, MessageBird Email, claims to deliver 40% of all commercial emails worldwide, with over 4.5 trillion annual sends. This number is far too large for us to comprehend or compare ourselves to, so we’ll just say it: it sounds like an impressive amount of emails! With enterprise-level analytics, competitive intelligence features, and a focus on high-volume commercial sending, MessageBird goes well beyond email delivery. In that sense, it’s similar to SendGrid, which we covered above. If you run an enterprise business and/or work in a highly regulated industry, it’s likely to be a solid partner for your needs.

6. OneSignal Email: Reliable Transactional Email

OneSignal is the leading mobile push notification service. It provides tailor-made mobile push notification services for: 

• iOS

• Android

• Web platforms

OneSignal Email is one of its newest products. It is designed to provide a more reliable and efficient means for sending transactional emails. It is ideal for marketing teams that send many automatic email messages.

7. Mailjet: User-Friendly Email Management Solution

Mailjet is an email management solution that provides marketers and developers with a platform to: 

• Design

• Delivery

• Track email campaigns

Founded in 2010, Mailjet quickly became the leading email delivery service for high-volume senders. It launched its first API in 2013, and today, it has the world's most powerful API, with over 100 integrations.

8. BigMailer: Email Marketing with Amazon SES

BigMailer is a hosted email marketing platform that lets you use Amazon SES on the backend with BigMailer’s UI. You also have an option to just use BigMailer without SES and extra setup steps, which come in handy as a backup if your SES account ever gets suspended.

BigMailer is built for multi-brand (aka subaccount) management and is ideal for: 

• Marketing agencies

• Franchises

• Email consultants

• Media companies

• Large teams

9. Pabbly: Email Marketing for Small Businesses

Pabbly is a hosted email marketing platform best suited for small businesses on a budget. You can send emails via Amazon SES or choose to send them from Pabbly’s servers. There are no extra charges for unlimited email sending, which is ideal if you email your list more than 10 times monthly. It has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop email builder that requires no coding skills. You can integrate multiple SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocols) to ensure continuous email delivery, even if one of your SMTP accounts gets suspended. By connecting your email marketing service with a dependable SMTP relay, you can minimize the risk of blacklisting and enhance the delivery rate of your emails.

10. MailBluster: Low-Cost Amazon SES Option

MailBluster is a hosted platform that allows you to send (only) via SES. MailBluster is a good option for minimizing email marketing costs and sending fewer than 10,000 emails monthly. Its pay-per-email pricing structure makes it flexible for businesses that consistently don’t need to send high-volume emails. 

MailBluster and Amazon SES: Affordability, Ease of Use, and Limitations

But it can also get drastically more expensive for consistent high-volume senders. It’s particularly well-suited for marketers who only need basic automation and aren’t interested in overly complex features. The platform is easy to use, with a clean dashboard and drag-and-drop email builder, which makes it an excellent option for non-technical users – after they set up Amazon SES. One unique feature is that it lets you schedule emails in your recipients’ time zones with TimeWarp Delivery. MailBluster only supports Amazon SES for sending, which has some restrictive policies.

11. MailerLite: User-Friendly Email Marketing Platform

MailerLite is a hosted marketing platform and is a good option if you’re looking for more than just an email marketing tool. The reason? It supports additional features like SMS, surveys, quiz creation, and a website builder, not to mention more direct integrations with other platforms. I found the interface easy to navigate, which is helpful if you’re unfamiliar with tech. 

MailerLite can handle simple and more advanced campaigns, so this tool would be a good fit for SMBs. It’s also a good fit for ecommerce companies because of its integrations with ecommerce platforms. MailerLite can be more expensive than the other tools on this list, especially if your subscriber list grows. If you need a broader range of tools and don’t mind paying a bit more for ease of use and extra features, MailerLite is a good choice. 

12. Mailchimp Transactional: A Well-Integrated SES Alternative

Mailchimp Transactional might be a good SES alternative for your transactional emails if you are either: 

• An existing Mailchimp customer

• Planning on becoming one

That’s because Mandrill used to be a standalone service, but it now only exists as a paid add-on for existing Mailchimp users. The Mailchimp plus Mandrill combo gives you a well-integrated package—email, marketing, and automations if you need it all. Mailchimp offers robust analytics, including: 

• Customizable options

• Pre-built dashboards

• An export API

13. Sendinblue: Comprehensive Marketing Platform

Sendinblue is a comprehensive marketing platform that, much like Mailchimp, provides users with various marketing tools such as: 

• Sign-up forms

• WhatsApp campaigns

• Facebook ads

• Free CRM

• Landing pages

With Sendinblue, users can effortlessly create and send email marketing campaigns and track their performance by analyzing: 

• Open and click rates

• Unsubscribes

• Replies

• Bounce rates

Users can leverage pre-built workflow automation templates to build drip campaigns.

14. Mailtrap: Email Delivery for Developers

Mailtrap is an email delivery platform intended for businesses and individuals who want to cover all their email-related needs with one solution: 

• Testing

• Sending

• Controlling email infrastructure

Users of Mailtrap receive an email infrastructure with high deliverability rates by default but also effortless maintenance, thus allowing them more time to focus on other aspects of their business. In contrast, their emails get delivered just in time. The platform consists of a reliable sending solution called Mailtrap Email Sending and an email sandbox for inspecting and debugging emails called Mailtrap Email Testing. With Email Sending, emails can be delivered using an email API or an SMTP service after completing a smooth and secure setup. This sending solution’s delivery time is ~1 second. Unique monitoring features are also available in case any unexpected issues arise.

15. SMTP2GO: Cloud SMTP for Bulk Sending

SMTP2GO is a bonafide cloud SMTP service provider. It specializes in bulk email sending with high deliverability rates. SMTP2GO works hard to protect the sender’s reputation. It authenticates email addresses and checks blocklists to keep bounce rates low. It also helps you avoid sending to blacklisted or ‘spam trap’ email addresses. Doing either will quickly see you flagged as a ‘spammy’ sender. You can also test how your emails look with 40 different email clients. This allows you to adjust designs if there are any display issues. Again, it helps avoid slipping into the junk folder. After you hit send, you get activity reports for every email. This enables you to track deliverability and outcomes in fine detail.

16. Brevo: Email Marketing with SMTP Relay

Brevo is an email marketing and CRM platform. But it includes an SMTP relay for transactional emails. This gives it one significant advantage over Amazon’s SES. You can write, design, and send HTML emails in Brevo. There are 40+ email templates to choose from. And a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor to customize designs. Another big plus of Brevo is that you can automate email sending. This is an option for both marketing campaigns and transactional emails. There’s a simple workflow editor to build automated sequences—and automation templates to speed up the process. Brevo walks you through the SMTP server configuration very clearly. You can also use an API to connect your website directly to the server.

17. MailerSend: Transactional Email Service from MailerLite

MailerSend is a transactional email service provider from the makers of Mailerlite. It specializes in: 

• Sending receipts

• Password resets

• Order and shipping confirmations

MailerSend supports bulk sending for businesses of all sizes. Its SMTP relay comes with a plug-and-play option for WordPress websites, which offers easier integration than using its API. For agencies, MailerSend lets you run multiple domains on the same account. You can choose a dedicated IP address for greater control. 

How MailerSend Enhances Transactional Emails with Design Tools & Email Verification

A stand-out feature of MailerSend is that you can also design HTML emails within the platform. Email design is often overlooked for transactional emails. MailerSend features a drag-and-drop email builder and editor. You can choose from pre-made templates to kick-start your designs. All templates support dynamic content so that you can personalize every email. MailerSend has recently added an email verification tool. You can upload email lists as CSV files and MailerSend checks if they are in use and genuine. This avoids damaging your sender’s reputation by risking high bounce rates.

18. Moosend: Email Marketing and SMTP Relay

Moosend is best known as an email marketing service. It also offers a cloud-based SMTP service for high-volume sending. Moosend has a reputation for being a great value platform for small businesses. Cost-wise, there are two ways to compare it to Amazon SES. All Moosend plans allow you to send unlimited emails. Starting at just $9 a month, Moosend wins hands down on per-email pricing. 

Moosend vs. Amazon SES: Features, Limitations, and Best Use Cases

Moosend limits the number of contacts you can have. Starting at 500. Amazon SES doesn’t. So, you have to determine the best value for your business. Moosend lets you send promotional and transactional emails from the same place. It’s easy to design quality HTML emails. It has excellent automation options to save time. Ecommerce businesses can connect Moosend directly to their web store. Site tracking lets you fire off automated, personalized emails based on what visitors do on your site. There’s an AI tool that makes targeted product recommendations. You can drop product listings straight into emails. 

19. SMTP.com: High-Volume Email Delivery Platform

SMTP.com is a bulk email delivery platform that goes big on the bulk. Its custom service for high-volume senders starts at a minimum of 250 million monthly emails. It also has a flexible range of plans from 50,000 emails a month. Like most services on this list, SMTP.com combines a cloud SMTP relay with an API. For developers, it promises simple and fast integration. Migration templates make switching to SMTP.com from another relay or API easy. Another big thing in SMTP.com’s favor is its deliverability features. Its Reputation Defender is a powerful validation tool. It automatically scans for ‘bad’ emails in your list in real-time. Or, as SMTP.com puts it, “actively catches bounces before they happen.” It’s a clever tool, taking the weight of list hygiene and sender reputation off businesses. If you want all your sending needs taken care of, SMTP.com also offers a fully managed sending service.

20. Google: The Email Client You Already Use

Google is not only the world’s biggest search engine. Gmail is also the world’s largest email client. It offers a full range of email services, including free personal webmail. And near-identical, though paid-for, business email. Gmail isn’t purpose-built for bulk email sending the way Amazon SES is. But you can still do it. It has its own SMTP relay and API. Or, if you don’t fancy setting either of these up, you can just use Multi-Send Mode in your standard Gmail Compose screen. Gmail automatically personalizes the greeting to every contact you send it to. Both of these bulk-sending options are included with Google Workspace subscriptions. So, for personal use, they are entirely free. 

Gmail vs. Amazon SES: Sending Limits, Deliverability, and Enterprise Solutions

The catch? ‘Bulk’ in Gmail is not all that bulk. As an email client, Google is very cautious about its sender reputation. So, it imposes strict sending limits on public accounts. The trade-off is that Gmail’s deliverability is very high. Multi-sending is limited to 1,500 recipients per day. Over a month, this works out as a pretty generous sending limit. With the SMTP relay and API, you are restricted to 100 recipients per message. And 10,000 recipients per day (so you could send 100 messages to 100 different people daily). These fall short of the open-ended sending limits of Amazon SES. You can scrap these limitations with a Gmail Enterprise account if necessary. This gives you a unique domain, so you’re responsible for your sender’s reputation.

21. Elastic Email: Deliverability-Focused Email Delivery Service

Elastic Email is an email marketing and email delivery service. These are offered as separate services. The bulk-sending option takes the form of an API. It includes a range of deliverability features, including email verification. You also get standard SPF and DKIM validation. You also get extra deliverability features like IP warm-up if you purchase a private domain. Backing up these deliverability tools, Elastic Email offers in-depth analytics. Reporting covers the usual status checks like: 

• Delivered

• Opened

• Clicked

• Unsubscribed

You also get insights about why contacts unsubscribe. 

Elastic Email: Features, Pricing, and the Trade-Offs of Separate Plans

For email marketing, Elastic Email features all the tools you would expect. A drag-and-drop email builder with pre-made templates. Campaign automation, including send time optimization. Landing pages and forms. 

• Personalization

• Contact segmentation

• Dynamic content

The only shame is that these aren’t available as a single bundle. You have to pay for the email marketing tools and transactional emails separately. But you get the email builder and templates with an Email API account. So you can build good-looking transactional emails that fit your brand identity. 

Related Reading

• How Many Cold Emails Per Day
• Mailchimp for Cold Emails
• SMTP Send Email
• Best Bulk Email Sender
• Best Email Outreach Tools
• Bulk Email Providers
• Best Business Email Providers
• Best SMTP Server
• AI Tools for Email Marketing
• Postfix vs Sendmail
• Amazon Ses vs Sendgrid

Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today

Inframail sets itself apart with its unlimited inbox approach. Most traditional cold email providers charge per inbox, leaving you wrestling with technical configurations and limits on how many prospects you can reach. Inframail eliminates these frustrations with a flat-rate model for unlimited inboxes. This allows you to scale your outreach to any level without the usual technical headaches or per-inbox costs. 

How Does Inframail Work?

Inframail streamlines the cold email infrastructure setup, so you don’t have to. When you sign up for Inframail, we automatically configure the technical settings you need to reach the inbox. This includes SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. We also provide dedicated email servers for each user and automated configuration for optimal deliverability. You can start buying domains and setting up your email infrastructure within minutes of signing up—no prior experience is needed. 

What Are the Benefits of Using Inframail?

Inframail is built for speed. Our users can access 16-hour priority support daily, so you can get help whenever needed. We also provide Microsoft-backed deliverability and dedicated IP addresses to help you scale your outreach efforts efficiently.

Related Reading

• Mailjet alternatives
• Lemlist Alternatives
• Zerobounce vs. Neverbounce
• Woodpecker Alternatives
• Neverbounce vs. Kickbox
• Yesware Alternatives
• Mailshake Alternative
• Mixmax Alternatives