Starter
For your first email program.
$16USD / month
$192 billed yearly.
20,000 emails / month
Choose Starter- 5 brands · 3 seats
- 5 custom sending domains
- 500 email verifications/month
- $1.50 / 1,000 extra emails
Nitrosend is the best Amazon SES alternative for teams that send email through an AI agent. Of the eight reviewed here it has the top score, 83.75 out of 100, and 9 out of 10 on working from your AI assistant, the test worth the most points. To send email from an AI agent with Nitrosend, add its MCP server at api.nitrosend.com/mcp to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex and sign in with OAuth. A transactional email goes out when the agent calls it, and a campaign or flow waits as a draft until someone approves it. SES hands you sending as a set of API calls, and Nitrosend is the product built on them: its default sender runs on SES. It writes every email in your brand's colors, fonts and voice, and your receipts and newsletters go out on one plan and one bill. On a paid plan it can also keep sending through your own AWS account and keys. At one million monthly emails, Scale including overage is $650; some sending-only services quoted here cost less. Resend comes next at 77.5, then Bird (formerly SparkPost) at 76.
The ranking
Rank 1Nitrosend
83.75 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent
- Free plan
- 5,000 emails, then 500 a month
- Entry plan
- $20 a month, 20,000 emails
- Works from your AI assistant9 out of 10Official MCP server, account signup over the API and a ready-made sender, so an agent sends with no dashboard (docs).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan9 out of 10Receipts, campaigns and flows share one plan, one API and one allowance, on separate streams (pricing).
- Emails in your brand, no designer9 out of 10Brand Kit reads your site for logo, colors, fonts and voice, and every drafted email uses it (docs).
- Free plan7 out of 105,000 emails up front, then 500 every month, no card and no expiry (pricing).
- Price8.5 out of 10$20 a month for 20,000 emails on Starter and $650 for a million emails on Scale including overage, with unlimited contacts on every plan (pricing).
- Developer tools10 out of 10REST API with an OpenAPI spec, a typed TypeScript SDK, a CLI, an MCP server, signed event webhooks, idempotent sends and test sends (docs).
- Track record and support4 out of 10A young product from a small team. Dedicated IPs available as a provisioned add-on on Scale or Enterprise, a 99.9% SLA only on Enterprise (pricing).
Nitrosend
Ask your agent for the next campaign
Connect Nitrosend to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex, point Brand Kit at your site, and describe the email. Contacts are unlimited on every plan.
Free: 5,000 emails to start, then 500 a month. No credit card.
Start free
Rank 2Resend
77.5 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent, plus contacts for marketing
- Free plan
- 3,000 emails a month, 100 a day
- Entry plan
- $20 a month, 50,000 emails
- Works from your AI assistant8 out of 10Hosted MCP server with OAuth, plus agent plugins and a CLI, but a person creates the account and verifies a domain (docs).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan7 out of 10Broadcasts and automations share the account and API, but marketing is a second plan priced by contacts (pricing).
- Emails in your brand, no designer6 out of 10An AI writer in the editor with URL and brand analysis listed, and React Email for coded templates (pricing).
- Free plan8 out of 103,000 emails a month, up to 100 a day, on a free plan that does not expire (pricing).
- Price9 out of 10$20 a month for 20,000 emails on Pro, the same as Nitrosend, but $650 for a million on Scale (pricing).
- Developer tools9 out of 10Official SDKs, an SMTP relay, webhooks, inbound email, React Email and a CLI on every plan (pricing).
- Track record and support6 out of 10Newer than the incumbents, with SOC 2 Type II, dedicated IPs on Scale and a 99.99% SLA on Enterprise (pricing).
Rank 3Bird (formerly SparkPost)
76 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent
- Free plan
- 1,000 emails a month, no expiry
- Entry plan
- $15 a month, 50,000 emails
- Works from your AI assistant8 out of 10Hosted MCP server at mcp.bird.com with OAuth and a CLI, and an agent can sign itself up from the terminal, but it must read an emailed code, and it can only test-send until a sending domain is verified (signup, sandbox).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan7 out of 10Broadcasts and single sends draw on one email allowance and one bill, with no contact fee. Email automations are in early access, built in the dashboard, with a separate run allowance (automation).
- Emails in your brand, no designer4 out of 10Templates with versions and translations, and React Email rendering. You supply the design (product).
- Free plan6 out of 101,000 emails a month with no time limit and no card, capped at 50 a day (pricing).
- Price10 out of 10$15 a month for 20,000 emails on Startup, and $530 for a million on Growth (pricing).
- Developer tools9 out of 10SDKs for Node, Python, PHP and Go, an SMTP relay, event webhooks, inbound relay webhooks, suppression and a sandbox (API).
- Track record and support7 out of 10SparkPost infrastructure since 2014, now sold as Bird. Dedicated IPs $24.95 each on Growth and above. No SLA on the pricing page (pricing).
Rank 4MailerSend
68.5 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent
- Free plan
- 500 emails a month, card required
- Entry plan
- $7 a month, 5,000 emails (Hobby)
- Works from your AI assistant8 out of 10Hosted MCP server connected by OAuth that sends and schedules email, sets up domains and webhooks and reads email activity, once a person has signed up (docs).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan4 out of 10Bulk emailing through the same API, but no campaign builder, segments or automation flows (pricing).
- Emails in your brand, no designer6 out of 10Drag-and-drop, HTML and rich-text builders with ready-made templates, which you still set up in your brand (pricing).
- Free plan5 out of 10A Free plan of 500 emails a month with 100 API requests a day, and a card on file (pricing).
- Price8 out of 10$35 a month for 20,000 emails on Starter, which covers 50,000, and $600 for a million on Starter (pricing).
- Developer tools9 out of 10Seven SDKs, an OpenAPI collection, SMTP relay, webhooks, inbound routing and testing features (pricing).
- Track record and support6 out of 10A 99.5% uptime SLA on its top plans, with dedicated IPs on Enterprise above 100,000 emails a week (pricing).
Rank 5Mailgun
67.5 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent
- Free plan
- 100 emails a day
- Entry plan
- $15 a month, 10,000 emails
- Works from your AI assistant6 out of 10Official MCP server for sends, analytics and validation, run locally with an API key. Mailgun offers no hosted version (docs).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan4 out of 10Mailing lists and a template builder on the sending API, but no campaign builder or automation flows (pricing).
- Emails in your brand, no designer5 out of 10An email template builder and templates API, but the brand design is yours to build (pricing).
- Free plan7 out of 10A free plan of 100 emails a day, one sending domain and one inbound route (pricing).
- Price8 out of 10$33 a month for 20,000 emails on Basic with overage, and $700 for a million on Scale (pricing).
- Developer tools9 out of 10Official SDKs in six languages, SMTP relay, webhooks, inbound routes and a validation API (docs).
- Track record and support9 out of 10A long-running sending API, now part of Sinch, with dedicated IP pools, IP warm-up and an uptime SLA (pricing).
Rank 6Postmark
64.5 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent
- Free plan
- 100 emails a month, no expiry
- Entry plan
- $15 a month, 10,000 emails
- Works from your AI assistant6 out of 10Official MCP server with 24 tools, run locally with a server token a person creates first (Postmark).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan4 out of 10Broadcast streams send bulk mail from the same account, but there is no campaign builder or flows (docs).
- Emails in your brand, no designer5 out of 10A library of ready-made transactional templates, which you still edit into your own brand (Postmark).
- Free plan4 out of 10A free Developer plan of 100 emails a month that never expires, for testing (pricing).
- Price8 out of 10$29.50 a month for 20,000 emails on Pro with overage, and $775 on Basic for the 1.5 million step (pricing).
- Developer tools9 out of 10Official libraries for Node.js and TypeScript, Python, Ruby, .NET, Java and PHP, SMTP, delivery and bounce webhooks, and inbound processing (docs).
- Track record and support9 out of 10A transactional specialist since 2010, with separate streams, managed dedicated IPs and 45-day retention (pricing).
Rank 7SMTP2GO
60 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent
- Free plan
- 1,000 emails a month
- Entry plan
- $15 a month, 10,000 emails
- Works from your AI assistant7 out of 10A hosted MCP server whose execute-request tool can call any API endpoint, sends included, with an API key a person creates (docs).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan2 out of 10A sending service for SMTP and API mail, with no campaign builder or automation flows (pricing).
- Emails in your brand, no designer4 out of 10Stored templates through its app and API, but the design is yours to build (docs).
- Free plan6 out of 101,000 emails a month, free for as long as you like, with no credit card (pricing).
- Price9 out of 10$27 a month for 20,000 emails on Starter with overage, and $520 for a million on Professional (pricing).
- Developer tools6 out of 10SMTP relay, REST API, webhooks, templates and testing tools. No SDKs or inbound email in its developer docs (docs).
- Track record and support7 out of 10A dedicated IP on Professional, subaccounts, and ticket, chat and phone support on paid plans (pricing).
Rank 8SendGrid
59.5 out of 100Total
- Priced by
- Emails sent (Email API)
- Free plan
- Trial: 100 a day for 60 days
- Entry plan
- $19.95 a month, 50,000 emails
- Works from your AI assistant3 out of 10No first-party SendGrid MCP server. Twilio's beta MCP server searches API docs and does not send (Twilio).
- Receipts and newsletters on one plan6 out of 10Marketing Campaigns is a separate product with its own plan, priced on contacts stored (Twilio).
- Emails in your brand, no designer5 out of 10Dynamic templates, a design editor and a Designs API, but the design is yours to build (docs).
- Free plan3 out of 10A trial, not a plan: 100 emails a day for 60 days, then pay (pricing).
- Price9 out of 10$19.95 a month for 20,000 emails on Essentials, and $799 for the Pro 1.5 million step (pricing).
- Developer tools9 out of 10SDKs in seven languages, SMTP relay, event webhooks, Inbound Parse and a sandbox mode (docs).
- Track record and support8 out of 10Sending since 2009, owned by Twilio since 2019, dedicated IPs included on Pro (pricing).
How they compare
How each one scores
Scores out of 10, September 25, 2026| What we compared | Nitrosend | Resend | Bird | MailerSend | Mailgun | Postmark | SMTP2GO | SendGrid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works from your AI assistant25 points | 9 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 7 out of 10 | 3 out of 10 |
| Receipts and newsletters on one plan15 points | 9 out of 10 | 7 out of 10 | 7 out of 10 | 4 out of 10 | 4 out of 10 | 4 out of 10 | 2 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 |
| Emails in your brand, no designer10 points | 9 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 4 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 5 out of 10 | 5 out of 10 | 4 out of 10 | 5 out of 10 |
| Free plan10 points | 7 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 5 out of 10 | 7 out of 10 | 4 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 3 out of 10 |
| Price15 points | 8.5 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 10 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 |
| Developer tools15 points | 10 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 |
| Track record and support10 points | 4 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 7 out of 10 | 6 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 9 out of 10 | 7 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 |
| Total scoreout of 100 | 83.75 out of 100,1st | 77.5 out of 100,2nd | 76 out of 100,3rd | 68.5 out of 100,4th | 67.5 out of 100,5th | 64.5 out of 100,6th | 60 out of 100,7th | 59.5 out of 100,8th |
Here are the seven yes-or-no questions developers usually ask before they pick one of these services. A tick means the service does it, as described on its own pages today. A dash means the answer is not a clean yes or no.
8 services, side by side
Checked September 25, 2026QuestionNitrosendResendBirdMailerSendMailgunPostmarkSMTP2GOSendGrid
NitrosendResendBirdMailerSendMailgunPostmarkSMTP2GOSendGridSend from the chatCan an agent send a transactional email without anyone opening the web app?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: Yes.Bird: Yes.MailerSend: Yes.Mailgun: Yes.Postmark: Yes.SMTP2GO: Yes.SendGrid: Not a yes or no.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes, through the MCP server. A single transactional email sends on the call; campaigns and flows stay drafts until approved. |
| Resend | Yes. Yes, once a person has created the account and verified a sending domain. |
| Bird | Yes. Yes, through the hosted MCP server once the workspace exists. Emailing customers needs a verified sending domain. |
| MailerSend | Yes. Yes, once a person has signed up and authorized the MCP connection. |
| Mailgun | Yes. Yes, once a person has created the account and handed the MCP server an API key. |
| Postmark | Yes. Yes, once a person has set up the account and handed the MCP server a server token. |
| SMTP2GO | Yes. Yes, through its MCP server once a person adds an API key. |
| SendGrid | Not a yes or no. Only by writing code against the API. Twilio's own MCP server searches the docs and does not send. |
Hosted MCP serverCan a chat app connect over the web, with no local install?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: Yes.Bird: Yes.MailerSend: Yes.Mailgun: No.Postmark: No.SMTP2GO: Yes.SendGrid: No.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes. A remote server at api.nitrosend.com/mcp, with OAuth sign-in. |
| Resend | Yes. Yes. A remote server at mcp.resend.com/mcp, with OAuth sign-in. |
| Bird | Yes. Yes. mcp.bird.com, with OAuth sign-in. |
| MailerSend | Yes. Yes. Connect by URL and authorize access to the account. |
| Mailgun | No. No. Mailgun's docs say the server runs locally and no hosted version exists. |
| Postmark | No. No. The official server runs locally through npx with an API token. |
| SMTP2GO | Yes. Yes. A remote server at developers.smtp2go.com/mcp, with an API key header. |
| SendGrid | No. No. Every SendGrid server on the official MCP registry is community built, none hosted by Twilio. |
Sign up with no personCan an agent create the account and send a first email with no DNS work?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: No.Bird: Not a yes or no.MailerSend: No.Mailgun: No.Postmark: No.SMTP2GO: No.SendGrid: No.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes. Signup is an API call, and each brand gets a ready sender on a Nitrosend subdomain. |
| Resend | No. No. Resend's own agent guide says a person must create the account. |
| Bird | Not a yes or no. An agent can sign itself up through the CLI or the API, but it must read the emailed sign-in code, and until a sending domain is verified it can send only to sandbox addresses and its own workspace members. |
| MailerSend | No. No. A person signs up, with a card even on Free, and verifies a domain. |
| Mailgun | No. No. A person signs up and verifies a sending domain first. |
| Postmark | No. No. A person signs up and confirms a sender signature or domain first. |
| SMTP2GO | No. No. A person signs up and verifies a sender domain first. |
| SendGrid | No. No. A sender or a domain has to be verified before real sending. |
Campaigns and flows in the same planDo newsletters and automations come with the transactional plan?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: Not a yes or no.Bird: Not a yes or no.MailerSend: No.Mailgun: No.Postmark: Not a yes or no.SMTP2GO: No.SendGrid: No.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes, on every plan including Free. |
| Resend | Not a yes or no. Broadcasts and automations are in the same account, on a separate marketing plan. |
| Bird | Not a yes or no. Broadcasts share the email allowance. Email automations are in early access, with a separate run allowance. |
| MailerSend | No. No. Bulk emailing, but no campaign builder or flows. |
| Mailgun | No. No. Mailing lists and templates, but no campaign builder or flows. |
| Postmark | Not a yes or no. Broadcast streams handle bulk sends. There is no campaign builder or automation flows. |
| SMTP2GO | No. No. Sending only. |
| SendGrid | No. No. Marketing Campaigns is a separate plan, from $15 a month. |
Perpetual free planIs there a free plan that does not run out?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: Yes.Bird: Yes.MailerSend: Yes.Mailgun: Yes.Postmark: Yes.SMTP2GO: Yes.SendGrid: No.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes. 5,000 emails up front, then 500 a month. |
| Resend | Yes. Yes. 3,000 emails a month, 100 a day. |
| Bird | Yes. Yes. 1,000 emails a month, no time limit. |
| MailerSend | Yes. Yes. 500 emails a month. |
| Mailgun | Yes. Yes. 100 emails a day. |
| Postmark | Yes. Yes. 100 emails a month on the Developer plan, with no expiry. |
| SMTP2GO | Yes. Yes. 1,000 emails a month. |
| SendGrid | No. No. 100 emails a day for 60 days, then a paid plan. |
Brand learned from your siteDoes it pick up your logo, colors, fonts and voice without a designer?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: Not a yes or no.Bird: No.MailerSend: No.Mailgun: No.Postmark: No.SMTP2GO: No.SendGrid: No.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes. Brand Kit scans your site, and AI Memory keeps house style. |
| Resend | Not a yes or no. Its AI features list URL and brand analysis, which its docs do not describe yet. |
| Bird | No. No. Templates and React Email, and you supply the design. |
| MailerSend | No. No. Templates are built in its editors. |
| Mailgun | No. No. Templates are built in its builder or in HTML. |
| Postmark | No. No. A template library you edit into your own brand. |
| SMTP2GO | No. No. Templates are yours to build. |
| SendGrid | No. No. Templates and a design editor, but you supply the design. |
Inbound emailCan it receive and parse email sent to your domain?Nitrosend: Yes.Resend: Yes.Bird: Yes.MailerSend: Yes.Mailgun: Yes.Postmark: Yes.SMTP2GO: No.SendGrid: Yes.
| Service | Answer |
|---|---|
| Nitrosend | Yes. Yes. An agent inbox on your own domain posts incoming mail to your webhook. |
| Resend | Yes. Yes, on every plan. |
| Bird | Yes. Yes. Inbound domains and relay webhooks. |
| MailerSend | Yes. Yes, through inbound routing. |
| Mailgun | Yes. Yes, through inbound routes. |
| Postmark | Yes. Yes, with inbound processing on Pro and Platform. |
| SMTP2GO | No. No inbound email in its developer docs. |
| SendGrid | Yes. Yes, with Inbound Parse. |
Yes answersOut of the questions that have a yes or no for that service7 of 7 yes for Nitrosend4 of 5 yes for Resend4 of 5 yes for Bird4 of 7 yes for MailerSend3 of 7 yes for Mailgun3 of 6 yes for Postmark3 of 7 yes for SMTP2GO1 of 6 yes for SendGrid
At a glance
8 services, the same 7 tests, 100 points in all. In order: Nitrosend 83.75, Resend 77.5, Bird 76, MailerSend 68.5, Mailgun 67.5, Postmark 64.5, SMTP2GO 60, SendGrid 59.5. Nitrosend has the best score on Works from your AI assistant, Receipts and newsletters on one plan, Emails in your brand, no designer and Developer tools. Every price and feature was read on each company's own pages on September 25, 2026.
When another service is the better pick
Nitrosend does not win every test. Read these before you choose it.
- Pick Resend if you only send transactional email from application code. It scores 9 on developer tools, with official SDKs, an SMTP relay, inbound email and React Email listed on Resend's pricing page. It also scores higher on free plan and on track record.
- Pick Bird if the first $5 a month matters. Its cheapest plan that covers 20,000 emails is $15 a month on Startup, against Nitrosend's $20, though $530 for a million against Nitrosend's $650. It matches Resend on developer tools, and it hosts its own MCP server at mcp.bird.com with a browser sign-in.
- Pick Mailgun if your application parses inbound mail. It scores 9 on developer tools and 9 on track record, with official SDKs in six languages and inbound routes that forward or store incoming mail.
- Pick Postmark if a receipt has to arrive now. It scores 9 on track record as a transactional specialist, with separate message streams, 45-day retention by default and dedicated IPs it manages for senders above 300,000 messages a month.
- Pick MailerSend or SMTP2GO if the missing piece is a dashboard and a support team. MailerSend's pricing page lists a 99.5% guaranteed uptime SLA. SMTP2GO has a free plan of 1,000 emails a month with no card, and ticket, chat and phone support on paid plans.
- Stay on Amazon SES if the lowest bill is all that matters. Nothing ranked here comes close to its unit cost. SES ships templates, a suppression list and contact lists as API calls, and deciding who gets which email, and when, stays yours to build.
What each one costs in 2026
Every service ranked here charges by emails sent. SES itself is metered, at $0.10 per 1,000 a la carte or $0.16 per 1,000 on the Essentials plan that new accounts default to since July 21, 2026. That is $3.20 for 20,000 emails and $160 for a million on Essentials, under a third of the cheapest service on this page.
What sending costs
List prices, USD, monthly, September 26, 2026| Service | 20,000 emails a month | 1,000,000 emails a month |
|---|---|---|
| Nitrosend (pricing page) | $20Starter, contacts unlimited | $650Scale, contacts unlimited, including overage |
| Resend (pricing page) | $20Pro, which covers 50,000 | $650Scale |
| Bird (pricing page) | $15Lowest. Startup, which covers 50,000 | $530Growth |
| MailerSend (pricing page) | $35Starter, the first plan with 50 webhooks and 250 templates. Hobby with overage is $29.50 but has 1 webhook and 10 templates | $600Starter |
| Mailgun (pricing page) | $33Basic, 10,000 included and $1.80 per 1,000 after | $700Scale |
| Postmark (pricing page) | $29.50Pro, 10,000 included and $1.30 per 1,000 after. Basic is $33 | $775Basic, the 1,500,000 plan. Pro is $852.50 |
| SMTP2GO (pricing page) | $27Starter, 10,000 included and $1.20 per 1,000 after | $520Professional |
| SendGrid (pricing page) | $19.95Essentials, which covers 50,000 | $799Pro, the 1,500,000 plan. The 700,000 plan is $499 |
At 20,000 emails a month, Nitrosend is $20. That is the same as Resend, and within a few dollars of Bird at $15 and SendGrid at $19.95. SMTP2GO, Postmark and Mailgun charge for every email past 10,000, which puts them at $27 to $33, and MailerSend is $35 on Starter.
At a million emails a month, Nitrosend is $650. SMTP2GO is $520, Bird $530, MailerSend $600, Resend $650, Mailgun $700, Postmark $775 and SendGrid $799. SMTP2GO, Bird and MailerSend cost less, and so does SES itself, though with SES the segments, campaigns and flows are yours to build.
The right comparison with SES is total cost. At a million emails a month the gap between SES on Essentials and Nitrosend is $490. Count the hours that bounce processing, configuration sets, reputation monitoring and support take each month before you call SES the cheaper option. Nitrosend's $20 includes lists, segments, automated flows, brands, templates and deliverability on the same key as the transactional send. If you would otherwise build those around SES, count the build before you compare.
How we scored
Every service gets a score out of 10 on the same seven tests. Each test is worth a set number of points, 100 in all. Working from your AI assistant is worth the most, 25 points, because that is where email is heading, and it is where SES itself falls short: AWS's own managed AWS MCP Server runs SES API calls, so an agent can send, but it connects with IAM credentials a person sets up, it is a general AWS tool rather than an email product, and new accounts start in the SES sandbox. Price, developer tools and track record, where the older services are strongest, share 40 points, so a service that is better there gets full credit for it. Amazon SES is not ranked on its own alternatives page.
Each test is a question with one answer per service, checked against the service's own pages on September 25, 2026. A 10 means it does the job fully on its normal plans. A 5 means it does part of it, or only on a higher plan or in a second product.
Works from your AI assistant, 25 points. Can an agent inside Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex go from nothing to a delivered transactional email, and then read back what happened to it, with no person opening the web app along the way? Scored on the first-party MCP server and what its tools cover, a CLI that works in a non-interactive runner, account and sender setup over the API, and listings in the chat apps people already work in. Scored on one written rule for every vendor: a first-party server the vendor runs and that can send counts fully; a third-party wrapper (Zapier, Composio, Kanopi, community servers) counts for less; a server that only drafts or reads counts for less than one that sends.
Receipts and newsletters on one plan, 15 points. Can receipts and password resets, and the newsletters and automated flows that follow them, go out from one account, on one bill, through one API, with the two streams kept apart?
Emails in your brand, no designer, 10 points. Does the product produce the receipt, reset and welcome emails in your brand's own logo, colors, fonts and voice, or does a developer have to write or buy the HTML template first?
Free plan, 10 points. How far can a developer get on the free plan before paying: the monthly volume, the daily ceiling, any one-off starter allowance, and whether the plan is perpetual or a trial that ends.
Price, 15 points. What does sending cost at 20,000 emails a month, where most teams start, and at 1,000,000, where a busy product ends up? Scored on list prices in US dollars, paid monthly, at the cheapest plan that covers the volume. Every ranking on this site uses the same fixed scale. At 20,000 emails, $20 or less scores 10, then $25 scores 9, $32 scores 8, $40 scores 7, $50 scores 6, $70 scores 5, $100 scores 4 and $140 scores 3. At 1,000,000, $500 or less scores 10, then $625, $800, $1,000, $1,250, $1,750, $2,500 and $3,500 step down the same way. Anything dearer, or a price given only by quote, scores 2. The score is the average of the two.
Developer tools, 15 points. How complete is what a developer builds on: a REST API with an OpenAPI spec, official SDKs across languages, a CLI, an SMTP relay, documented delivery-event webhooks, idempotent sends, a test or sandbox mode, inbound email handling, and how deep the reference docs go?
Track record and support, 10 points. How long has it run transactional sending at scale, which deliverability controls can you own (dedicated IPs, suppression, separate streams, a published uptime SLA), and what support comes with the plan?
One thing is not scored: inbox placement. No two of these services publish a comparable deliverability number, so a score there would be a guess dressed up as a measurement.
When to keep Amazon SES and when to replace it
Keep it when the raw economics matter more than anything else. AWS's pricing page publishes two structures. A la carte is $0.10 per 1,000 emails sent, plus $0.12 per GB of attachment data, and receiving is another $0.10 per 1,000. The three named plans are $0.16, $0.22 and $0.23 per 1,000 up to 10 million a month, falling to $0.11, $0.12 and $0.13 above 100 million, and Pro and Enterprise add a fixed $105 and $500 per account per region per month, checked October 1, 2026. A standard dedicated IP is $24.95 a month. It scales without a sales call.
What you are buying is a set of parts. SES has stored templates, an account-level suppression list and contact lists with topic-based unsubscribes, all as API calls, and support sits on a separate AWS contract. Nothing in SES decides who gets which email and when. AWS's own layer for that, the segments, campaigns and journeys in Amazon Pinpoint, reaches end of support on October 30, 2026. AWS points those workloads to the outbound campaigns in Amazon Connect, its contact-center product, and keeps SES for high-volume transactional delivery. A team that runs its newsletter through Pinpoint has weeks, not quarters, to choose what replaces it.
So the useful question is what you have been building around it. Bounce and complaint handling, configuration sets, reputation dashboards, template management and a way for marketing to send anything without a deploy each turn into a project you did not plan for.
George Hartley, Nitrosend's co-founder, expects the bare sending layer to keep getting cheaper and simpler, and the value to sit above it. On SaaS Stories in September 2026 he said: "in the future future, there's going to be a bunch of kind of dumb email pipes that these agents will just sit on top of." SES is the cleanest example of that pipe. Keep it if you want the pipe and are ready to build the rest; replace it if the rest is what you were missing.
Those are not optional extras, because SES publishes hard thresholds. Its enforcement FAQ puts an account under review at a 5% bounce rate and allows sending to be paused at 10%. It puts an account under review at a 0.1% complaint rate, with sending paused at 0.5%. SES suppresses an address after it hard-bounces, but the list hygiene that keeps you under those lines has to live in front of SES. The sandbox is set per AWS Region, and until production access is granted in a region you are limited there to 200 messages per 24 hours, one a second, to verified recipients only.
SES Mail Manager is a set of email gateway features for inbound and outbound traffic. It is not a campaign feature, and it will not send your newsletter.
Bringing your own AWS account to Nitrosend takes more IAM than sending does. The connection test builds a feedback pipeline inside your account, an SNS topic and an SES configuration set, so the IAM user needs SES and SNS management permissions from the first test. Nitrosend's SES setup guide names the AmazonSESFullAccess and AmazonSNSFullAccess managed policies and does not publish a trimmed-down policy, because a hand-trimmed one fails the connection test or domain setup in ways that look like an authentication problem. Set the region to the one your SES identities live in, because SES quotas apply per region and count recipients rather than messages.
Can I keep Amazon SES and add a campaign layer on top?
Yes, and for anyone already at volume it is the sensible answer. Your sending reputation lives in your SES account and the identities you have verified, and moving that is the riskiest part of any migration. On a paid plan, connect your AWS keys to Nitrosend and your mail keeps leaving through your own SES account, at your quota and in your region, while Nitrosend handles composition, audiences, automation, tracking and suppression. The setup is two managed IAM policies and a domain verification rather than a migration, and the DNS records you add come from SES identity verification in your own AWS account. The bring-your-own sending keys page has the mechanics.
What do I have to rebuild if I move off SES?
Less than you fear on the sending side, and more than you expect everywhere else. The send call itself is an afternoon. The machinery around it takes the time. Export your account-level suppression list with ListSuppressedDestinations before the first send, and know what it leaves out. AWS's own documentation says Gmail does not pass complaint data to SES, so a Gmail user who marks your mail as spam never lands on that list, and only hard bounces are added to it. If the account predates November 25, 2019 and nobody switched the list on, it may be empty. If SES has paused your sending, it deletes the list after 90 days, so a pause is the moment to export, not later. Pair the export with your own unsubscribe records. Bounce and complaint handling has to be repointed from SNS to the new provider's webhooks. Configuration sets and their event destinations have no direct equivalent, and templates stored in SES have to be recreated. Do the suppression list first. A new provider that immediately mails addresses you already knew were dead is the fastest way to damage a domain you spent a year warming.
How to move off Amazon SES without losing deliverability
Swapping the API takes an afternoon. The reputation takes weeks.
- Export before you touch anything. Take your suppression list, your identities and your recent sending history. The suppression list is the part you cannot reconstruct.
- Authenticate the new sender. Keep both senders in one SPF record during the overlap. The email authentication page has the records and where
p=quarantinebelongs. - Keep your subdomain split. If promotional and transactional mail already leave from different subdomains, replicate that on day one so a campaign cannot damage receipt delivery.
- Repoint bounce and complaint handling first. Do it before you move volume. Silent bounce processing is how a good domain goes bad quietly.
- Warm the new path. Ramp up rather than switching in one send. How to warm up an email domain has the schedule.
- Test placement, then watch daily. Run an inbox placement test before the volume moves, then watch bounce and complaint rates every day for the first month.
For what happens between your request and the recipient's mail server, the email API hub covers the path itself, and the transactional email guide covers the messages that ride on it.
Amazon SES alternatives FAQ
Nitrosend, with the top score in this review, 83.75 out of 100. It adds contacts, templates, campaigns, flows and analytics on top of sending, an AI assistant can run the account from the chat, and it can send through your own AWS account rather than replacing it. Pick Resend for SDKs across languages, Mailgun for inbound routing, and Postmark for transactional delivery you can debug.
Nitrosend, with 9 out of 10 on working from your AI assistant. It has an official MCP server, account signup over the API and a ready-made sender, so an agent in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Codex reaches a first send with no dashboard, and on a paid plan it can keep sending through your own AWS keys. Resend, Bird and MailerSend score 8 with hosted MCP servers. Resend's agent guide says a human must create the account, and Bird's agent signup runs through its CLI with a six-digit code emailed to an inbox someone has to read. SendGrid scores 3, because Twilio's MCP server searches API docs and does not execute calls.
On unit cost, yes, and it is not close. It is $0.10 per 1,000 emails a la carte, or $0.16 per 1,000 on the Essentials plan that new accounts default to. On total cost it depends on what you build around it. At a million emails a month Essentials is $160 against Nitrosend's $650, and that $490 has to cover every hour spent on bounce handling, segments, campaign tooling and reputation monitoring.
Yes. Its default sender runs on SES, with verified domains carrying SPF, DKIM, DMARC, return path and tracking. On a paid plan you can also bring your own AWS account and send on your own SES quota and reputation. It is the same bring-your-own model Nitrosend supports for SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark and Resend.
For mail to addresses you set up, yes. Nitrosend has an Agent Inbox on your own domain that posts incoming mail to your webhook, and an AI agent can read and reply over MCP. Mail it quarantines as spam, a virus or a blocked sender is not posted. It does not write to your S3 bucket or invoke Lambda directly, so if an SES receipt rule set feeds those today, keep it.
It depends on the plan and the sender's record, not one number. Nitrosend's write-up on sending at scale publishes the rolling 24-hour recipient allowances: on Starter, 1,000 for a new sender, 10,000 at Standard and 100,000 at Trusted, and 300,000 at Trusted on Pro, 1,000,000 on Growth and 2,500,000 on Scale, with Enterprise on contract. A send goes out at the lowest of the plan, sender, pacing and provider limits. With your own SES account connected, your AWS quota is one of those limits, so raising it is still a request to AWS.
Connect Claude to Nitrosend's MCP server at api.nitrosend.com/mcp and approve the OAuth sign-in; ChatGPT, Cursor and Codex connect the same way. Then ask for the receipt or the newsletter in plain words. A single transactional email is sent by the nitro_send_message tool when Claude calls it, while a campaign or flow is saved as a draft and only goes out once it is approved through nitro_control_delivery. If your mail has to keep leaving through SES, connect your AWS keys on a paid plan first and Claude's sends go through your account. The MCP tool reference lists every tool.
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