Looking for an AWS SES alternative?
SES is a cheap, reliable sending engine. But the moment you want a dashboard, a template editor, or logs you can search, you're building it yourself. Here's an honest look at your options — including where SES is still the right call.
Why teams start looking elsewhere
SES is great at cheap, reliable delivery. The friction shows up in everything around the send.
No real dashboard
SES is an API and a line on your AWS bill — no screen for browsing sends, opening a message, or seeing why one bounced. You wire up CloudWatch and SNS and build that view yourself.
Setup is a project
Before one email goes out: IAM users and policies, verified identities, a configuration set, and an SNS topic wired to a queue just to catch bounces.
Sandbox, then quota tickets
New accounts can only email verified addresses until a support ticket frees them. Raising your send limit is another ticket — usually right when you are growing.
The short version
Just the things that decide it — setup, tooling, deliverability, price. No 40-row feature matrix.
| Lettr | AWS SES | SendGrid | Postmark | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dashboard & UI | Full UI for sends, contacts & logs | Bare console | Full dashboard | Clean, focused UI |
| Setup & onboarding | API key + guided wizard | IAM, identities, SNS, config sets | Moderate | Fast |
| Template editor | Drag-and-drop (Topol) | None — code only | Included | Layouts, no visual builder |
| Per-email analytics & logs | Per-message, searchable | CloudWatch counters only | Activity feed | Detailed message events |
| Deliverability tooling | Guided SPF/DKIM/DMARC + alerts | Manual DNS, no guidance | Standard auth | Strong focus |
| Sandbox / sending limits | No sandbox; scales with use | Sandbox + ticket-based quotas | Tier-based | Approval on signup |
| API & SMTP relay | REST API, SMTP, SDKs | Solid API & SMTP | Full API & SMTP | Excellent API & SMTP |
| Pricing model | Usage-based, tools included | $0.10 / 1k emails, infra extra | Per email, tiered | Per email, prepaid |
| Cost at very high volume | Competitive | Cheapest at scale | Higher than SES | Higher than SES |
Based on publicly documented features and pricing as of 2026; details change. See the full Lettr vs SendGrid and Lettr vs Postmark breakdowns for more.
A quick, honest take on each
No tool wins for everyone — ours included. Here's where each one is strong and where it isn't.
Lettr
Our pickSES-grade sending with the dashboard, editor, and logs already built in.
AWS SES
The cheapest, most bare-bones sending engine there is.
SendGrid
A broad platform covering both transactional and marketing.
Postmark
Fast, focused, transactional-only sending with strong deliverability.
The reason most teams leaving SES land on Lettr: the same reliable sending, but with a clean developer API for engineers, a drag-and-drop editor for everyone else, and searchable per-email logs so you can see exactly what landed — none of it to build yourself.
Switching is mostly a settings change
Moving off SES doesn't mean rewriting anything. Point your app at Lettr over the REST API or SMTP and you're sending in minutes, with no downtime.
- 01 Swap your credentials — replace your SES key or SMTP login with Lettr's.
- 02 Verify your domain with the guided SPF, DKIM & DMARC wizard.
- 03 Bring your templates over — rebuild in the editor or paste your HTML.
The short version: your sending code stays the same. No more IAM policies, config sets, or SNS topics to maintain, every send and bounce shows up in one searchable dashboard, and there's no sandbox or quota ticket to deal with.
Need help deciding?
Talk to our team about your email infrastructure, volume needs, or migration from another provider.
Talk to an expertA few common questions
SES sending, tooling included.
Keep the reliable, API-first delivery. Get the dashboard, analytics, editor, and deliverability tooling SES leaves to you — free to start, no card.