Postmark vs Amazon SES for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Postmark Overview

Postmark exists to solve one problem exceptionally well: getting transactional emails into inboxes fast. They only allow transactional and broadcast email, no spam, no cold outreach, no questionable marketing blasts. This strict policy keeps their IP reputation clean and your emails out of spam folders.

The integration experience is one of the best in the email space. You verify your domain, get an API key, and send your first email in under five minutes. The API is well-designed, the SDKs cover every major language, and the documentation walks you through each step without assuming you are an email infrastructure expert. Message streams let you isolate different email types, and the analytics dashboard shows delivery, bounce, and engagement metrics clearly.

For solo developers who want email delivery to be a solved problem so they can focus on their product, Postmark delivers on that promise.

Amazon SES Overview

Amazon Simple Email Service is AWS's email sending infrastructure. It is the cheapest way to send email at scale, period. At $0.10 per 1,000 emails, you can send 100,000 emails for $10. No other service comes close on raw price.

But SES is infrastructure, not a product. You get an API that sends emails. Everything else, template management, bounce handling, complaint processing, deliverability monitoring, is your responsibility. AWS gives you the pipes. You build the plumbing.

Setting up SES requires navigating the AWS console, requesting production access (you start in a sandbox that can only send to verified addresses), configuring IAM permissions, setting up SNS topics for bounce and complaint notifications, and managing your own suppression list. If you have used AWS before, this is familiar territory. If you have not, it is a significant time investment before you send your first real email.

Key Differences

Setup time is dramatically different. Postmark: verify domain, get API key, send email. Maybe 10 minutes. Amazon SES: create AWS account, navigate to SES, verify domain, request production access (can take 24 hours), set up IAM user with correct policies, configure SNS for bounce handling, build suppression list management. Could take a full day, sometimes more if production access review takes time.

Deliverability management. Postmark handles deliverability for you. Their strict sending policies, automatic suppression lists, and managed IP reputation mean you rarely think about it. With SES, deliverability is your problem. You need to monitor your bounce rate, handle complaints, manage your suppression list, and warm up any dedicated IPs. If your bounce rate gets too high, AWS can suspend your account.

Cost at different volumes. For 10,000 emails per month, Postmark costs $15 and SES costs $1. For 100,000 emails, Postmark costs around $85 and SES costs $10. The price gap is real. But factor in your time spent managing SES infrastructure, and the gap narrows quickly for a solo developer.

Features included. Postmark gives you templates, analytics, webhooks, inbound email processing, and a polished dashboard. SES gives you email sending. For analytics, you pipe events to CloudWatch. For templates, you use SES templates (basic) or build your own system. Every feature you take for granted in Postmark is a feature you build or configure yourself with SES.

Vendor lock-in. SES ties you into the AWS ecosystem. Postmark is standalone. If you already run your app on AWS, SES fits naturally. If you are on Vercel, Railway, or any non-AWS platform, adding AWS just for email adds unnecessary complexity.

When to Choose Postmark

• You want email delivery handled for you with zero infrastructure management
• Fast setup matters and you want to be sending within minutes
• Deliverability is critical and you do not want to manage IP reputation
• You send under 100,000 emails per month where the price difference is manageable
• You are not already on AWS and do not want to add it to your stack

When to Choose Amazon SES

• You send high volumes where the cost savings are significant (100k+ emails/month)
• You are already on AWS and comfortable with IAM, SNS, and CloudWatch
• You want maximum control over your email infrastructure
• You have the time and knowledge to manage bounces, complaints, and deliverability
• Budget is your primary constraint and you can invest time instead of money

The Verdict

For solo developers, Postmark wins. The time you spend managing SES infrastructure, handling bounce notifications, worrying about deliverability, and navigating AWS's console is time you are not spending on your product. Postmark costs more per email, but the cost of your time as a solo founder is the most expensive line item in your budget.

SES makes sense in two scenarios: you are already deep in the AWS ecosystem and this is just one more service, or you are sending at volumes where the price difference is hundreds of dollars per month. For most solo developers starting out, neither of those applies.

My approach: use Postmark for transactional email and do not think about email again. The $15/month for 10,000 emails is worth every cent compared to a day spent configuring SES and ongoing hours maintaining it. When your project is making enough money that email costs actually matter, you will have the revenue to either keep paying Postmark or invest the time to migrate to SES.