Postmark vs Amazon SES
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Postmark and Amazon SES built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose 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.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose 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.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- 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.
- 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.
Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Postmark alternatives · Amazon SES alternatives
9 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Postmark 0
Amazon SES 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Postmark | Amazon SES |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Kind of free offer | Free tier | Introductory free tier |
| When the free offer ends | Never — the free Developer plan does not expire. | 6 months after account creation; Free Tier credits expire 12 months after that date. |
| 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. |
| Dedicated IP | Limited | Supported |
| Compliance | ||
| GDPR / data residency | States its compliance, data protection and information security teams prepared its services for GDPR. | AWS customers can process personal data on all AWS services in compliance with GDPR, and choose the storage type and geographic region for their data. |
Where they differ.
Free tier
- Postmark
- Yes
- Amazon SES
- No
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Postmark ↗
“Free $0.00/mo Test your integration with 100 emails/month [...] Everyone starts on our free Developer tier, which includes 100 emails every month. And it never expires or runs out. [...] No overages allowed in this plan.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Amazon SES Pricing — AWS ↗
“AWS Free Tier [...] New AWS customers will receive up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits, which can be applied towards eligible AWS services, including Amazon Simple Email Service. [...] The free plan will be available for 6 months after account creation.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
Kind of free offer
- Postmark
- Free tier
- Amazon SES
- Introductory free tier
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Postmark ↗
“Free $0.00/mo Test your integration with 100 emails/month [...] Everyone starts on our free Developer tier, which includes 100 emails every month. And it never expires or runs out. [...] No overages allowed in this plan.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Amazon SES Pricing ↗
“At account sign-up, you can choose between a free plan and a paid plan. The free plan will be available for 6 months after account creation.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
When the free offer ends
- Postmark
- Never — the free Developer plan does not expire.
- Amazon SES
- 6 months after account creation; Free Tier credits expire 12 months after that date.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Postmark Pricing ↗
“All new accounts start off on our free developer plan with 100 emails per month. Use it for however long you need, it doesn't expire.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Amazon SES Pricing ↗
“The free plan will be available for 6 months after account creation. [...] All Free Tier credits must be used within 12 months of your account creation date.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
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.
- 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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Postmark ↗
“How many emails do you send and receive each month? 10,000 emails [...] Basic $15.00/mo”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Amazon SES Pricing — AWS ↗
“Outbound email $0.10 / 1,000 emails $0.12 per GB of attachment data sent”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
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.
- 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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Postmark ↗
“How many emails do you send and receive each month? [...] Basic $15.00/mo [...] Pro $16.50/mo [...] Platform $18.00/mo”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Amazon SES Pricing — AWS ↗
“Outbound email $0.10 / 1,000 emails $0.12 per GB of attachment data sent [...] Email Validation $0.01 per validation [...] Virtual Deliverability Manager – SES deliverability Per-email fee + query fee”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Postmark ↗
“10,000 50,000 125,000 300,000 700,000 1,500,000 More [...] Basic $15.00/mo [...] Test your integration with 100 emails/month”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Amazon SES Pricing — AWS ↗
“Outbound email $0.10 / 1,000 emails”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
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.
- 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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Postmark ↗
“Extra emails @ $1.80 / 1,000 [...] Extra emails @ $1.30 / 1,000 [...] Extra emails @ $1.20 / 1,000 [...] No overages allowed in this plan.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Amazon SES Pricing — AWS ↗
“Outbound email $0.10 / 1,000 emails [...] Global Endpoints $0.03 / 1,000 emails [...] 0 – 10M emails / month $0.16 per 1,000 emails $0.22 per 1,000 emails $0.23 per 1,000 emails”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
Dedicated IP
- Postmark
- Limited
- Amazon SES
- Supported
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Postmark ↗
“$50 /month per IP Our fully managed dedicated IPs are available to customers sending 300,000 emails per month or more. Only available on Pro plans or higher”
Read 2026-09-07 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Amazon SES Pricing — AWS ↗
“Dedicated IPs – Standard $24.95 / month / IP [...] Dedicated IPs - Managed $15 / month / account + per-email fee [...] Bring Your Own IP (BYOIP) $24.95 / month / IP”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
GDPR / data residency
- Postmark
- States its compliance, data protection and information security teams prepared its services for GDPR.
- Amazon SES
- AWS customers can process personal data on all AWS services in compliance with GDPR, and choose the storage type and geographic region for their data.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Postmark Security ↗
“our compliance, data protection, and information security teams all worked to prepare our services for GDPR.”
Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction
- GDPR — Amazon Web Services ↗
“AWS customers can use all AWS services to process personal data [...] in compliance with the GDPR. [...] Customers have control of their customer data. With AWS, customers can: Determine where their customer data will be stored, including the type of storage and geographic region of that storage.”
Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.
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.
Free tier: Postmark or Amazon SES?
Postmark: Yes
Amazon SES: No
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.
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