Choosing an email provider

SES vs Postmark vs Mailgun

Q: Which has the best deliverability?

Postmark has a strong reputation for inbox placement because it handles authentication well and separates transactional from broadcast streams. With any provider, though, your own domain reputation, list hygiene, and authentication matter most.

One of the best things about self-hosting your email platform is that you choose your own sending provider—and you can switch any time. Broadcast connects to Amazon SES, Postmark, Mailgun, SendGrid, or any SMTP relay. This guide helps you pick the right one by price, deliverability, setup effort, and region.

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—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	~$1.50 / 1,000	~$1.00 / 1,000
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	Trial only
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 (around $1.50 per 1,000), 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 (around $1.00 per 1,000) 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

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—roughly $0.10 per 1,000 emails versus around $1.00–$1.50 for Mailgun and Postmark. 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.