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Email Marketing · head to head

Amazon SES vs SAP Emarsys

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
SAP Emarsys logo

SAP Emarsys

Email Marketing

Retail-focused engagement platform now sold and contracted through SAP

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.; SAP Emarsys core modules including analytics, recommendations and loyalty are licensed separately, so the platform fee in the first quote is rarely the number you eventually sign.
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon SES covers Send and receive API, SAP Emarsys covers Tactics library.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Amazon SES and SAP Emarsys actually diverge.

Attributes where Amazon SES and SAP Emarsys differ
AttributeAmazon SESSAP Emarsys
Pricing modelPer 1,000 emails sent, tiered by volume, no campaign features includedquote
PlatformsWebWeb, iOS, Android, 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 SAP Emarsys

  • Tactics library
  • Cross-channel campaigns
  • Smart Insight
  • Predict
  • Loyalty
  • SAP Commerce integration

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 SAP Emarsys
  • A company building its own email product or newsletter tool on AWS and wanting to own the campaign layer itselfnot SAP Emarsys
  • A business already deep in AWS infrastructure wanting to avoid adding a separate marketing-platform vendor for pure transactional sendingnot SAP Emarsys
  • A high-volume sender for whom SES's per-thousand rate is materially cheaper than a marketing platform's equivalent volume pricingnot SAP Emarsys

SAP Emarsys

  • A retailer that needs standard lifecycle programmes live in weeks rather than building them from scratchnot Amazon SES
  • An SAP Commerce Cloud customer that wants engagement contracted on the same paper as the commerce platformnot Amazon SES
  • Consolidating email, SMS, push and paid audience suppression for a catalogue retailernot Amazon SES
  • Teams that want per-programme revenue reporting without building attribution logic themselvesnot 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.

SAP Emarsys

  • Core modules including analytics, recommendations and loyalty are licensed separately, so the platform fee in the first quote is rarely the number you eventually sign.
  • Licensing counts stored contacts, so a database retained for years costs money every month regardless of whether those contacts are still mailable.
  • Since the SAP acquisition, contracting and support escalation follow SAP processes, which lengthens procurement noticeably for buyers who are not already SAP customers.
  • The product is built around retail patterns, so B2B, media and subscription use cases sit awkwardly on a data model designed for orders and products.
  • Implementation normally involves a partner and runs to a quarter, so the speed advantage of the tactics library only applies after the integration work is finished.

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

SAP Emarsys

On request
  • SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement$undefined/year
    • Licensed on stored contact volume with send allowances
    • Smart Insight, Predict and Loyalty modules licensed separately
    • Annual contract through SAP procurement

Which should you pick?

Choose Amazon SES if

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

Choose SAP Emarsys if

  • You need tactics library.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, REST API.
  • You also want cross-channel campaigns.
SAP Emarsys review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon SES or SAP Emarsys better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon SES starts at On request and SAP Emarsys at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon SES or SAP Emarsys?
Amazon SES starts at On request and SAP Emarsys at On request.
Does Amazon SES or SAP Emarsys run on more platforms?
Amazon SES runs on Web. SAP Emarsys runs on Web, iOS, Android, 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 SAP Emarsys is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon SES do that SAP Emarsys cannot?
Amazon SES covers Send and receive API, Deliverability infrastructure, Bounce and complaint handling, Mail Manager. SAP Emarsys covers Tactics library, Cross-channel campaigns, Smart Insight, Predict.

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.

SAP Emarsys: Do we need to be an SAP customer?

No, it is sold standalone. But the contracting, legal and support processes are SAP processes, which is a real cost for smaller buyers.

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.

SAP Emarsys: What is actually included in the base licence?

Contacts, channels and the tactics library. Smart Insight, Predict and Loyalty are commonly assumed to be included and are not.

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.

SAP Emarsys: Is it suited to B2B?

Not really. The data model and the tactic library assume retail orders, products and repeat purchase behaviour.

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