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Email Marketing · head to head

Amazon SES vs Dotdigital

Amazon SES logo

Amazon SES

Email Marketing

Raw transactional email infrastructure priced per thousand messages, with no campaign UI at all

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Dotdigital logo

Dotdigital

Email Marketing

UK-listed email and cross-channel marketing platform with deep Adobe Commerce and Dynamics connectors

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Amazon SES there is no campaign UI, template editor, list management or scheduling interface at all, so any marketer-facing use case requires building or buying a separate application on top of the raw API.; Dotdigital pricing is anchored on contact tiers, so inactive and unsubscribed contacts keep counting until you actively delete them and the bill grows with list decay rather than with sending.
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon SES covers Send and receive API, Dotdigital covers Automation builder.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Amazon SES and Dotdigital actually diverge.

Attributes where Amazon SES and Dotdigital differ
AttributeAmazon SESDotdigital
Pricing modelPer 1,000 emails sent, tiered by volume, no campaign features includedquote
PlatformsWebWeb, REST API

Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Email Marketing).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Amazon SES

  • Send and receive API
  • Deliverability infrastructure
  • Bounce and complaint handling
  • Mail Manager
  • Configuration sets
  • Dedicated IP options

Only in Dotdigital

  • Automation builder
  • Commerce connectors
  • Dynamics 365 integration
  • Regional data residency
  • Liquid personalisation
  • SMS and WhatsApp

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Amazon SES

  • An engineering team sending transactional email (receipts, password resets, alerts) at a volume where per-message cost dominates the decisionnot Dotdigital
  • A company building its own email product or newsletter tool on AWS and wanting to own the campaign layer itselfnot Dotdigital
  • A business already deep in AWS infrastructure wanting to avoid adding a separate marketing-platform vendor for pure transactional sendingnot Dotdigital
  • A high-volume sender for whom SES's per-thousand rate is materially cheaper than a marketing platform's equivalent volume pricingnot Dotdigital

Dotdigital

  • A Microsoft Dynamics 365 organisation that needs marketing automation without building the CRM sync itselfnot Amazon SES
  • An Adobe Commerce retailer that wants basket and order data in campaigns without middlewarenot Amazon SES
  • A European buyer that needs contact data held in the UK or EU with a named hosting region in the contractnot Amazon SES
  • A procurement team that wants to review published financial statements before committing to a multi-year platformnot Amazon SES

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Amazon SES

  • There is no campaign UI, template editor, list management or scheduling interface at all, so any marketer-facing use case requires building or buying a separate application on top of the raw API.
  • Deliverability and sender reputation management are the sender's responsibility to configure correctly; a mistake in DKIM, SPF or DMARC setup has no support layer catching it before it affects deliverability.
  • New accounts start in a sandbox with strict sending limits and must request production access from AWS, adding a manual approval step some competitors do not require.
  • Inbound email processing via Mail Manager is priced and configured separately from outbound sending, so a bidirectional email use case is really two separate services to set up.
  • Comparing its per-message price directly against Campaign Monitor or Zoho Campaigns is misleading, since those prices include a full marketing platform that SES does not provide at any price.

Dotdigital

  • Pricing is anchored on contact tiers, so inactive and unsubscribed contacts keep counting until you actively delete them and the bill grows with list decay rather than with sending.
  • SMS, WhatsApp and chat are add-ons billed on top of the platform fee, so cross-channel programmes cost noticeably more than the headline quote suggests.
  • The automation builder handles scheduled and behavioural triggers well but is not designed for high-frequency real-time orchestration, which is where growing teams outgrow it.
  • Attribution reporting beyond opens, clicks and connected commerce revenue is thin without the additional analytics module.
  • Automation logic is not portable, so migrating away means rebuilding programmes by hand after exporting contacts and data through the API.

Pricing, plan by plan

Amazon SES

On request
  • Essentials$undefined/month
    • $0.16 per 1,000 emails up to 10 million a month
    • $0.14 per 1,000 from 10 to 100 million a month
    • $0.11 per 1,000 above 100 million a month, no fixed monthly fee
  • Pro$undefined/month
    • $0.22 per 1,000 emails up to 10 million a month, scaling down at volume
    • $105 fixed monthly fee per account per region
    • Higher sending limits and support options
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • $0.23 per 1,000 emails up to 10 million a month, scaling down at volume
    • $500 fixed monthly fee per account per region
    • Highest support tier and sending limits

Dotdigital

On request
  • Dotdigital$undefined/month
    • Priced on a contact tier combined with a monthly email send allowance
    • SMS, WhatsApp and additional channels billed separately
    • Annual contracts standard, monthly available on entry tiers

Which should you pick?

Choose Amazon SES if

  • You need send and receive api.
  • You also want deliverability infrastructure.
Amazon SES review

Choose Dotdigital if

  • You need automation builder.
  • You work on Web, REST API.
  • You also want commerce connectors.
Dotdigital review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon SES or Dotdigital better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon SES starts at On request and Dotdigital at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon SES or Dotdigital?
Amazon SES starts at On request and Dotdigital at On request.
Does Amazon SES or Dotdigital run on more platforms?
Amazon SES runs on Web. Dotdigital runs on Web, REST API.
What is Amazon SES best used for?
Amazon SES is most often used for an engineering team sending transactional email (receipts, password resets, alerts) at a volume where per-message cost dominates the decision, a company building its own email product or newsletter tool on aws and wanting to own the campaign layer itself, a business already deep in aws infrastructure wanting to avoid adding a separate marketing-platform vendor for pure transactional sending, a high-volume sender for whom ses's per-thousand rate is materially cheaper than a marketing platform's equivalent volume pricing. Of those, an engineering team sending transactional email (receipts, password resets, alerts) at a volume where per-message cost dominates the decision and a company building its own email product or newsletter tool on aws and wanting to own the campaign layer itself are not what Dotdigital is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon SES do that Dotdigital cannot?
Amazon SES covers Send and receive API, Deliverability infrastructure, Bounce and complaint handling, Mail Manager. Dotdigital covers Automation builder, Commerce connectors, Dynamics 365 integration, Regional data residency.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Amazon SES: Can I use SES for marketing campaigns like Campaign Monitor?

Technically yes via the API, but there is no campaign UI, segmentation tool or template editor; you would need to build or buy that layer separately.

Dotdigital: Are unsubscribed contacts billed?

Yes, if they remain in the account. Contact tiers count stored contacts, so suppression lists still consume allowance until records are removed.

Amazon SES: Is there a free tier?

New AWS customers can access AWS Free Tier credits usable against SES for a limited period, but there is no permanent free sending allowance.

Dotdigital: Is it a real alternative to enterprise engagement platforms?

For scheduled and behavioural ecommerce and B2B programmes, yes. For real-time cross-channel orchestration at scale it is not competing in the same bracket.

Amazon SES: Why is it so much cheaper per email than a marketing platform?

Because it sells only the sending infrastructure; the price excludes every campaign management feature a marketing platform bundles into its per-email cost.

Dotdigital: Where is contact data stored?

In the region contracted, with UK, EU, US and Australian hosting available, which is why it appears on European shortlists with residency requirements.

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