Amazon SES versus SendGrid

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
• SendGrid From $19.95/mo
  • Free Trial: no subscription charge
  • Essentials: $19.95 monthly
  • Pro: $89.95 monthly
  • Premier: 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.

SendGrid Free Trial: 100 emails per dayEssentials: 50,000 to 100,000 emails a monthPro: 100,000 to 2,500,000 emails a month

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.

SendGrid Free Trial: 3 days of searchable email activityEssentials: 3 days of searchable email activityPro: 7 days of searchable email activityPremier: 7 days of searchable email activity

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.

SendGrid Free Trial: 1 event webhookEssentials: 2 event webhooksPro: 5 event webhooksPremier: 5 event webhooks

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.

SendGrid Pro and Premier include dedicated IPs; more can be purchased.Pro: 1 dedicated IP includedPremier: 1 dedicated IP included

Support

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

SendGrid Access to expert services and personalized support is listed as available for purchase.

Overage charges

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

SendGrid Sending past the plan's allowance may add overage charges on top of the monthly rate; the rate is not published on the pricing page.

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.
• SendGrid The only free option is a 60-day trial at 100 emails a day, not a permanent free plan.

Not verified yet

Every compared requirement has evidence for at least one.

Documented for one product only, shown in the table below: Amazon SES: sender domains.

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

• Ask SendGrid about sender domains; our sources do not establish it yet.

• Amazon SES profile and plans · View Amazon SES pricing
• SendGrid profile and plans · Visit SendGrid