Proprietary vs Proprietary
Postmark vs Amazon SES: Which One Should You Choose in 1970?
Postmark is a proprietary Transactional Email API tool priced as per-email volume, no overage surprises, starting at $15/mo (10,000 emails). Amazon SES is proprietary, priced as pay-as-you-go per 1,000 emails, starting at $0.10 per 1,000 emails.
Quick verdict
- Choose Postmark for
- Postmarkbest-in-class transactional deliverability with separate message streams
- Choose Amazon SES for
- Amazon SESthe lowest per-email price of any major provider
Postmark vs Amazon SES: feature comparison
| Feature | PostmarkProprietary | Amazon SESProprietary |
|---|---|---|
| Open-Source Available | No | No |
| Self-Hostable | No | No |
| Self-Hosting Difficulty | N/A | N/A |
| Pricing Model | Per-email volume, no overage surprises | Pay-as-you-go per 1,000 emails |
| Starting Price | $15/mo (10,000 emails) | $0.10 per 1,000 emails |
| Free Tier | Free trial: 100 test emails/mo | 3,000 message charges/mo for the first 12 months on a new AWS account |
| GitHub Stars | N/A | N/A |
Pricing takeaway
Postmark starts at $15/mo (10,000 emails) (free trial: 100 test emails/mo). Amazon SES starts at $0.10 per 1,000 emails (3,000 message charges/mo for the first 12 months on a new AWS account).
- Postmark
- Per-email volume, no overage surprises. Starts at $15/mo (10,000 emails). Free trial: 100 test emails/mo.Full Postmark pricing breakdown
- Amazon SES
- Pay-as-you-go per 1,000 emails. Starts at $0.10 per 1,000 emails. 3,000 message charges/mo for the first 12 months on a new AWS account.Full Amazon SES pricing breakdown
Pros and cons
Postmark
Visit PostmarkPros
- Best-in-class transactional deliverability with separate message streams
- Simple per-email pricing with no feature gating on the API
- Detailed activity log for every message, which makes debugging delivery fast
Cons
- No production free tier at all
- Almost no marketing campaign tooling
- Per-email cost is high next to Amazon SES or Resend at volume
Amazon SES
Visit Amazon SESPros
- The lowest per-email price of any major provider
- Scales to millions of messages with regions, dedicated IPs and reputation dashboards
- Wires into IAM, CloudWatch and the rest of AWS without extra glue
Cons
- Onboarding is console-and-DNS first: leaving the sandbox takes setup and a support request
- Deliverability tooling is basic compared with SendGrid or Postmark
- Billing arrives as one line in a larger AWS invoice, which is easy to lose track of
Postmark vs Amazon SES: FAQ
Is Amazon SES a good alternative to Postmark?
Postmark is a proprietary Transactional Email API tool priced as per-email volume, no overage surprises, starting at $15/mo (10,000 emails). Amazon SES is proprietary, priced as pay-as-you-go per 1,000 emails, starting at $0.10 per 1,000 emails.
Which is cheaper, Postmark or Amazon SES?
Postmark starts at $15/mo (10,000 emails) (free trial: 100 test emails/mo). Amazon SES starts at $0.10 per 1,000 emails (3,000 message charges/mo for the first 12 months on a new AWS account).
Is Postmark or Amazon SES open source?
Postmark is proprietary. Amazon SES is proprietary.
Can I self-host Postmark or Amazon SES?
Postmark cannot be self-hosted. Amazon SES cannot be self-hosted.
Do Postmark and Amazon SES have a free tier?
Postmark: Free trial: 100 test emails/mo. Amazon SES: 3,000 message charges/mo for the first 12 months on a new AWS account.