Amazon SES versus Mailgun

Price

• Amazon SES From $0.16 per 1,000 emails, first 10 million a month
  • Essentials: $0.16 per 1,000 emails, first 10 million a month, no monthly base charge
  • Pro: $105.00 monthly
  • Enterprise: $500.00 monthly
  • À la carte: $0.10 per 1,000 outbound emails, no monthly base charge
• Mailgun From $15/mo
  • Free: no subscription charge
  • Basic: $15.00 monthly
  • Foundation: $35.00 monthly
  • Scale: $90.00 monthly
  • Enterprise: Vendor quotation required

Both list prices on the same basis. Compare what each plan includes; the lower amount alone does not make the better choice.

Documented for both

Sending volume

Amazon SES Quotas count recipients. In the sandbox: 200 emails per 24 hours and 1 per second; production quotas depend on your use case and can be raised.

Mailgun Free: 100 emails per dayBasic: 10,000 emails per monthFoundation: 50,000 emails per monthScale: 100,000 emails per month

Sender domains

Amazon SES 10,000 verified identities per AWS Region

Mailgun Free: 1 custom sending domainBasic: 1 custom sending domainFoundation: 1,000 custom sending domainsScale: 1,000 custom sending domains

Log retention

Amazon SES Archiving is a paid add-on: USD 2 per GB ingested plus USD 0.19 per GB a month for storage and search.

Mailgun Free: 1 day of logsBasic: 1 day of logsFoundation: 5 days of logsScale: 30 days of logs

Webhooks and events

Amazon SES Sending events (sends, deliveries, opens, clicks, bounces, complaints, rejections, rendering failures and delivery delays) can be published to CloudWatch, Data Firehose, Pinpoint, SNS or EventBridge.

Mailgun Tracking, analytics and webhooks are listed from the Free plan up.

Dedicated IP

Amazon SES Essentials: Managed dedicated IPs are an add-onPro: Managed dedicated IPs included; SES warms them up and scales themEnterprise: Managed dedicated IPs included; SES warms them up and scales themÀ la carte: Standard dedicated IPs cost USD 24.95 per IP a month; managed dedicated IPs cost USD 15 a month per account plus USD 0.08 per 1,000 emails up to 10 million a month.

Mailgun Extra dedicated IPs cost USD 59 per IP a month.Foundation: Available from the 50,000-email tier; one IP included from 100,000 emails a monthScale: One dedicated IP included, plus dedicated IP pools

Support

Amazon SES Production-access requests get an initial response from AWS Support within 24 hours.

Mailgun Ticket, chat and phone support depend on the plan.Free: Ticket supportScale: Live phone and chat support

Overage charges

Amazon SES Outbound email is charged per recipient, and tier rates apply marginally: each rate covers only the emails within its tier.

Mailgun Extra emails are billed at the start of each month for the previous month, together with the plan fee.

Limits to check

• Amazon SES New accounts start in the sandbox in each AWS Region: verified recipients only, at most 200 messages per 24 hours and 1 per second, until production access is granted.
• Mailgun Free and Basic allow 1 custom sending domain and 1 day of logs; Foundation raises this to 1,000 domains and 5 days, and Scale keeps 30 days.

Not verified yet

Every compared requirement has evidence for at least one.

Not verified means our reviewed sources do not establish it. It does not mean a product lacks the capability or that it costs nothing.

Next steps

• Amazon SES profile and plans · View Amazon SES pricing
• Mailgun profile and plans · View Mailgun pricing