Amazon SES
Amazon Web Services' cloud email service for sending and receiving email at scale.
HN commenters use it as a cheap outbound relay with good deliverability,1 often paired with a self-hosted mail server to avoid IP reputation problems,234 and some moved their personal email to it so they could retire an internet-facing server.56 Complaints are few and scattered: one user hopes to migrate away from it,7 and another notes there is no European equivalent.8
Why people recommend it
Self-hosting relay · 3
Commenters run their own mail server or inbox and use SES only to send outgoing mail.
“have it use something like AWS SES to send externally”
“for outgoing email I set it up with sending service (like AWS SES, Sendgrid, Brevo...)”
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“I am using SES as the sender.”
Deliverability · 3
SES handles the hard part of sending, sparing users from building IP reputation themselves.
“Cheap ($0.10/1000 emails) + good deliverability = Amazon SES.”
“Personally I use SES for the 'hard' bit”
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“have it use something like AWS SES to send externally”
Less server upkeep · 2
Users moved personal email to SES to stop maintaining an internet-facing mail server.
“it might be better to have one less internet-facing server to worry about.”
“decided to move the whole thing over to AWS SES”
Low cost · 1
One commenter cites a price of $0.10 per 1,000 emails.
“Cheap ($0.10/1000 emails) + good deliverability = Amazon SES.”
Caveats and dissent
Migration intent · 1
One commenter says they hope to migrate away from SES, without giving a reason in the excerpt.
“I hope I can migrate away from Amazon SES”
No EU alternative · 1
One commenter notes there is no European equivalent to SES.
“Even looking at basic things like AWS SES, there is no European offering.”
AWS account risk · 1
One thread mentions an AWS user whose account was suspended for no apparent reason.
“have it use something like AWS SES to send externally”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Ask HN: How do people self host email and maintain deliverability? 1 mention
- The Future of Email 1 mention
- Ask HN: What email API providers to use for pet project? 1 mention
- I returned to AWS, and was reminded why I left 1 mention
- Agents can now create Cloudflare accounts, buy domains, and deploy 1 mention
- Troubleshooting Email Delivery to Microsoft Users 1 mention
Also written as AWS SES. Data: amazon-ses.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 10
“for outgoing email I set it up with sending service (like AWS SES, Sendgrid, Brevo...)”
“Personally I use SES for the 'hard' bit”
“Cheap ($0.10/1000 emails) + good deliverability = Amazon SES.”
“have it use something like AWS SES to send externally”
“I am using SES as the sender.”
“Yet Microsoft did not block us because the sender IP was AWS.”
“Even looking at basic things like AWS SES, there is no European offering.”
“I hope I can migrate away from Amazon SES”
“decided to move the whole thing over to AWS SES”
“it might be better to have one less internet-facing server to worry about.”