Choosing an email provider

Postmark vs Mailgun vs Amazon SES

Three sending providers, three different bets. Postmark charges more and is the easiest to trust with inbox placement. Mailgun is the flexible middle with an EU region. Amazon SES is the cheapest at any real volume and asks the most of you in setup. This page compares them on price, deliverability, setup effort, and region, and gives a straight pick for each situation. It applies to any app that sends email, including a self-hosted tool like Broadcast.

The short version

  • Amazon SES: the cheapest at any real volume. Best if you’re cost-sensitive, already on AWS, and comfortable doing a bit more setup.
  • Postmark: the easiest to set up and a deliverability leader. Best if inbox placement and a clean start matter more than squeezing the per-email price.
  • Mailgun: the flexible middle ground with a strong API and an EU region. Best for developers who want options without AWS’s rough edges.

Prices and tiers below are approximate and change, so always check the provider’s current pricing before you commit.

At a glance

How the three most popular providers compare for a self-hosted sender

  Amazon SES Postmark Mailgun
Approx. price ~$0.10 / 1,000 $15 for 10,000; ~$0.92 / 1,000 at 125,000 $15 for 10,000; $0.90 / 1,000 at 100,000
Setup effort Higher (sandbox + access request) Lowest Moderate
Deliverability reputation Good (you manage it) Excellent Good
EU region Yes US only Yes
Free tier Limited / pay-as-you-go 100 test emails/mo 100 emails/day
Best for Volume & cost Deliverability & ease Flexibility & EU

All three handle bounces and complaints and support SPF/DKIM. With any of them, your domain reputation is still yours to build, see the deliverability guide.

Amazon SES

The cheapest way to send at scale, at roughly $0.10 per 1,000 emails. The trade-off is setup: you start in a sandbox, request production access, and configure authentication yourself. You manage your own reputation, which is a feature if you do it well.

Pick SES if:

  • • You send high volume and want the lowest cost
  • • You already run on AWS
  • • You’re comfortable with a bit more configuration

Postmark

A deliverability leader with the smoothest onboarding: authentication is largely handled for you, and separate message streams keep broadcasts and transactional mail clean. You pay more per email ($15 for 10,000 emails a month, about $0.92 per 1,000 at 125,000), but you’re buying inbox placement and simplicity.

Pick Postmark if:

  • • Inbox placement is your top priority
  • • You want the fastest, cleanest setup
  • • Volume is moderate and US regions are fine

Mailgun

The developer-friendly middle ground: a strong API, flexible routing, an EU region for data residency, and pricing ($15 for 10,000 emails a month, $0.90 per 1,000 on the $90 Scale plan for 100,000) between SES and Postmark. Setup is more involved than Postmark but smoother than SES.

Pick Mailgun if:

  • • You want flexibility and a good API
  • • You need an EU sending region
  • • You want a balance of price and ease

Email API pricing compared (2026)

Amazon SES, Postmark, Mailgun, SendGrid and Resend, from their pricing pages in September 2026

Provider Free option Entry plan 100,000 emails a month Extra emails
Amazon SESFree Tier credits for new AWS accountsPay as you go, no minimum$10$0.10 per 1,000
Postmark100 emails a monthBasic $15 for 10,000Priced on its volume slider$1.15 to $1.80 per 1,000 by plan
Mailgun100 emails a dayBasic $15 for 10,000Scale $90$1.10 to $1.80 per 1,000 by plan
SendGrid60-day trial, 100 emails a dayEssentials $19.95 for 50,000Essentials $29.95, Pro $89.95Move up a volume tier
Resend3,000 emails a month, 100 a dayPro $20 for 50,000Pro $35$0.90 per 1,000

Cheapest at volume: Amazon SES, by a wide margin. 100,000 emails cost $10, and the price per email doesn’t change as you grow.

Cheapest to start: Resend’s free plan covers 3,000 emails a month, and Mailgun and Postmark start at $15.

Dedicated IPs: Mailgun Scale and SendGrid Pro include one. Postmark’s start at $50 a month for senders above 300,000 emails. On SES they are $24.95 a month.

Marketing email: Resend and SendGrid sell separate marketing plans priced by contacts. With Broadcast you keep the list yourself and pay only the sending price above.

Prices change. Check each provider’s pricing page before you commit. Postmark and SendGrid price higher volumes on sliders, so we only list the tiers they publish.

Choose by your situation

By volume

Sending hundreds of thousands of emails a month? SES’s per-email price wins decisively. At low-to-moderate volume, the price gap is small enough that Postmark’s ease and deliverability are often worth it.

By budget

Tightest budget: SES. Willing to pay a premium for fewer headaches and better placement: Postmark. Somewhere in between: Mailgun.

By region (EU / data residency)

If you need EU data residency, SES (EU regions) and Mailgun (EU region) both qualify; Postmark sends from the US. Pair this with self-hosting your app in the EU for a full data-sovereignty story.

By setup time

Need to send today with minimal fuss? Postmark. Happy to spend an hour on AWS to save money long-term? SES.

You’re not locked in

Because Broadcast separates the application from the sending provider, the ESP is a setting, not a life sentence. Start on Postmark for an easy launch and move to SES when volume grows, or run Mailgun for EU residency, all without changing platforms. That flexibility is exactly what you give up with an SES-only tool like Sendy.

Want the full list of supported providers and their trade-offs? See our rundown of email service providers. Curious whether mail actually lands? Read how we test that emails arrive across all four.

Frequently Asked Questions

Amazon SES, by a wide margin: $0.10 per 1,000 emails, so 100,000 emails a month cost $10. Mailgun’s Scale plan is $90 for 100,000, and Postmark’s 125,000 tier is $115. At high volume the difference is significant; at low volume it’s often outweighed by Postmark’s easier setup and deliverability.
Postmark has a strong reputation for inbox placement, especially because it handles authentication well and separates transactional from broadcast streams. That said, with any provider your own domain reputation, list hygiene, and authentication matter most, see the deliverability guide.
With Broadcast, yes. The ESP is a configuration setting, so you can start on one and move to another as your needs change, without migrating platforms. Tools built around a single provider (like Sendy with SES) don’t give you that option.
Amazon SES offers EU regions and Mailgun has an EU region; Postmark sends from the US. Combine an EU-based relay with self-hosting your app in the EU for a complete data-sovereignty setup.
No. These are the most popular, but Broadcast works with SendGrid and any standard SMTP relay too. See the full list of email service providers.

Your platform, your provider

Broadcast connects to SES, Postmark, Mailgun, SendGrid, or any SMTP, and lets you switch whenever you want.

Read the deliverability guide Buy Broadcast for $250

Related

Deliverability Guide
Authentication, warm-up, inbox placement
All Email Providers
The full list, with pricing notes
Do Emails Actually Arrive?
How we E2E-test SES, Postmark, SendGrid, Mailgun
Cost of 100,000 Emails a Month
SES, Postmark and Mailgun at list price, plus the server

Still deciding?

Comparisons cover the tradeoffs. How To covers whether Broadcast does the specific thing you need, organized by what you are trying to accomplish rather than by feature name. If the answer is no, it says no.

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