# Postmark vs Amazon SES

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/postmark-vs-amazon-ses/

Every value below is read from Postmark's and Amazon SES's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Postmark | Amazon SES |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Entry paid plan | $15.00/month for Basic at the 10,000-email tier. Postmark prices by volume, so the figure rises with the slider. | No monthly plan — SES bills per email. Ten thousand emails, the tier Postmark and Mailgun both price at, costs $1.00 at the published $0.10 per 1,000. Our arithmetic on Amazon's rate, not a price Amazon quotes, and attachments add $0.12 per GB. |
| Pricing model | One monthly price per volume tier, chosen on a slider, covering both sent and received email. Overage rates improve as the plan gets larger. | Pure usage billing with no monthly minimum: $0.10 per 1,000 outbound emails plus $0.12 per GB of attachments, with dedicated IPs, deliverability tooling and address validation each metered separately on top. |
| Emails included | 10,000 a month at the $15 Basic tier. The plan price scales with volume — 50,000, 125,000, 300,000, 700,000 and 1.5M are the published steps. The free tier is 100 a month. | None. There is no included allowance on the pay-as-you-go rate; every email is billed from the first one. |
| Price per 1,000 over | $1.80 per 1,000 on Basic, $1.30 on Pro and $1.20 on Platform. The free tier allows no overage at all. | $0.10 per 1,000 outbound emails, charged per recipient. Mail Manager tiers run $0.16 to $0.23 per 1,000 depending on feature set, and a multi-region endpoint adds $0.03 per 1,000. |

## Where they differ

### Entry paid plan

- Postmark: $15.00/month for Basic at the 10,000-email tier. Postmark prices by volume, so the figure rises with the slider. ([source](https://postmarkapp.com/pricing))
- Amazon SES: No monthly plan — SES bills per email. Ten thousand emails, the tier Postmark and Mailgun both price at, costs $1.00 at the published $0.10 per 1,000. Our arithmetic on Amazon's rate, not a price Amazon quotes, and attachments add $0.12 per GB. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/))

### Pricing model

- Postmark: One monthly price per volume tier, chosen on a slider, covering both sent and received email. Overage rates improve as the plan gets larger. ([source](https://postmarkapp.com/pricing))
- Amazon SES: Pure usage billing with no monthly minimum: $0.10 per 1,000 outbound emails plus $0.12 per GB of attachments, with dedicated IPs, deliverability tooling and address validation each metered separately on top. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/))

### Emails included

- Postmark: 10,000 a month at the $15 Basic tier. The plan price scales with volume — 50,000, 125,000, 300,000, 700,000 and 1.5M are the published steps. The free tier is 100 a month. ([source](https://postmarkapp.com/pricing))
- Amazon SES: None. There is no included allowance on the pay-as-you-go rate; every email is billed from the first one. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/))

### Price per 1,000 over

- Postmark: $1.80 per 1,000 on Basic, $1.30 on Pro and $1.20 on Platform. The free tier allows no overage at all. ([source](https://postmarkapp.com/pricing))
- Amazon SES: $0.10 per 1,000 outbound emails, charged per recipient. Mail Manager tiers run $0.16 to $0.23 per 1,000 depending on feature set, and a multi-region endpoint adds $0.03 per 1,000. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Postmark if Teams that need to answer "what happened to this message" weeks later — 45 days of retention as standard, extendable to a year, is the longest window in this set.

Pick Amazon SES if High volume where the per-1,000 rate dominates everything else — at $0.10 per 1,000 it is roughly a twentieth of what the managed services charge in overage.

Consider something else: Postmark — The included volume is small for the price and overage is the most expensive here at $1.80 per 1,000 on the entry plan.

Consider something else: Amazon SES — There is no included allowance, no log retention on the pricing page, and deliverability tooling that the others bundle is metered separately here.

## Documented by only one

- Log retention: Postmark: 45 days on Basic. Pro and Platform default to 45 days and can be raised to 365.
- Dedicated IP: Amazon SES: Supported
- Inbound email: Postmark: Limited

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Postmark or Amazon SES?**

Postmark: $15.00/month for Basic at the 10,000-email tier. Postmark prices by volume, so the figure rises with the slider.
Amazon SES: No monthly plan — SES bills per email. Ten thousand emails, the tier Postmark and Mailgun both price at, costs $1.00 at the published $0.10 per 1,000. Our arithmetic on Amazon's rate, not a price Amazon quotes, and attachments add $0.12 per GB.

**Should I choose Postmark or Amazon SES?**

Pick Postmark if Teams that need to answer "what happened to this message" weeks later — 45 days of retention as standard, extendable to a year, is the longest window in this set.
Pick Amazon SES if High volume where the per-1,000 rate dominates everything else — at $0.10 per 1,000 it is roughly a twentieth of what the managed services charge in overage.