The Amazon SES alternative you don't have to build yourself
Amazon SES gives you raw email infrastructure at rock-bottom prices — but you have to build the dashboard, templates, contact management, campaigns, and analytics yourself. Sendkit gives you all of that out of the box with a developer-first API.
Why teams switch from Amazon SES
Raw infrastructure, no features
SES is a sending API and nothing else. No dashboard, no template editor, no contact management, no campaign tools. You have to build or buy every layer on top. Sendkit is a complete platform out of the box.
No campaign or marketing tools
SES has no concept of campaigns, audiences, or automations. If you need to send a newsletter, you are writing custom code or stitching together other AWS services. Sendkit includes campaigns and automations built-in.
AWS complexity
SES lives inside the AWS console. IAM roles, SES identities, configuration sets, SNS topics for bounces — it is a lot of infrastructure to manage for email. Sendkit is a single API key and you are sending.
No MCP server for AI agents
SES has no MCP server. Sendkit has a full MCP server with 40+ tools — your AI agent can manage templates, send campaigns, segment contacts, and track metrics.
Sendkit vs Amazon SES
| Feature | Sendkit | Amazon SES |
|---|---|---|
| Dashboard | Full analytics dashboard | AWS CloudWatch only |
| Template editor | Built-in visual + code editor | Basic SES templates (no editor) |
| Contact management | Built-in with properties and lists | Not available |
| Campaigns | Built-in | Not available |
| Automations | Built-in | Not available |
| Free tier | 3,000 emails/mo (permanent) | 3,000/mo (from EC2 only) |
| Official SDKs | 10 languages | AWS SDKs (all languages) |
| MCP Server | 40+ tools | Not available |
| Setup time | Minutes | Hours to days |
Pricing comparison
SES is cheap per email (~$0.10/1,000) but the real cost is building and maintaining everything on top. Sendkit includes the full platform in its pricing.
| Volume | Sendkit | Amazon SES |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 emails/mo | $15/mo (Transactional) or $30/mo (Marketing) | ~$1/mo (SES only) + your dev time to build everything |
| 50,000 emails/mo | $80/mo (Marketing) | ~$5/mo (SES only) + infrastructure and dev costs |
| 100,000 emails/mo | $130/mo (Marketing) | ~$10/mo (SES only) + infrastructure and dev costs |
Sendkit is a good fit if you
- Want a complete email platform without building it yourself
- Need campaigns, contacts, and templates out of the box
- Use AI agents and need MCP integration
- Want a dashboard with real-time analytics
- Prefer a single API key over IAM roles and configuration sets
Amazon SES might be better if you
- Already have a fully built email stack on AWS
- Send millions of emails/month and need the lowest per-email cost
- Have a dedicated infrastructure team to manage the setup
- Need deep integration with other AWS services
Start sending in minutes.
3,000 emails/month on the free tier. No credit card, no commitment.