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Email Marketing · head to head

Amazon SES vs RD Station Marketing

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
RD Station Marketing logo

RD Station Marketing

Email Marketing

Marketing automation for growing businesses

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only RD Station Marketing has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • 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.; RD Station Marketing pro plan requires 12-month contract lock-in and additional R$ 2,699 implementation fee. Enterprise plan pricing not disclosed.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Amazon SES and RD Station Marketing actually diverge.

Attributes where Amazon SES and RD Station Marketing differ
AttributeAmazon SESRD Station Marketing
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelPer 1,000 emails sent, tiered by volume, no campaign features includedsubscription
Free tierNoYes

Identical on both: platforms (Web), 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 RD Station Marketing

Nothing recorded that Amazon SES does not also cover.

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

RD Station Marketing

  • Nurturing leads across email and WhatsApp with automated sequencesnot Amazon SES
  • Managing sales pipelines with direct WhatsApp deal negotiationsnot Amazon SES
  • Consolidating omnichannel support across WhatsApp, email, and chatnot Amazon SES
  • Building email campaigns and landing pages without codingnot Amazon SES
  • Prioritizing high-probability leads with AI qualificationnot 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.

RD Station Marketing

  • Pro plan requires 12-month contract lock-in and additional R$ 2,699 implementation fee. Enterprise plan pricing not disclosed.

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

RD Station Marketing

Free
  • Light Plan$16/month
    • Up to 1,000 active contacts
    • Special promotional pricing from USD 18 to USD 16/month
    • No lock-in contract
  • Basic Plan$72/month
    • Up to 1,000 contacts
    • Special promotional pricing from USD 112 to USD 72/month
    • No lock-in contract
  • Pro Plan$159/month
    • Up to 3,000 contacts
    • Mandatory 12-month annual contract
    • Required implementation fee of R$ 2,699
  • Enterprise Plan$undefined/mo
    • Custom pricing for bases exceeding 100,000 contacts
    • Maximum flexibility with unlimited users
    • Highest email send limits

Which should you pick?

Choose Amazon SES if

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

Choose RD Station Marketing if

  • You want to start without paying.
RD Station Marketing review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon SES or RD Station Marketing better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon SES starts at On request and RD Station Marketing at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon SES or RD Station Marketing?
RD Station Marketing has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Amazon SES and Free for RD Station Marketing.
Does Amazon SES or RD Station Marketing run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use RD Station Marketing for free?
Yes. RD Station Marketing has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Amazon SES starts at On request.
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 RD Station Marketing is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon SES do that RD Station Marketing cannot?
Amazon SES covers Send and receive API, Deliverability infrastructure, Bounce and complaint handling, Mail Manager.

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.

RD Station Marketing: Does RD Station Marketing offer a free trial?

Yes. RD Station Marketing offers a 10-day free trial without requiring a credit card. No automatic charges apply after the trial ends.

Source
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.

RD Station Marketing: What is the cheapest RD Station Marketing plan?

The Light Plan is the cheapest at USD 16/month (promotional pricing down from USD 18) for up to 1,000 active contacts with no contract lock-in.

Source
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.

RD Station Marketing: Does RD Station Marketing have a contract requirement?

Light and Basic plans have no lock-in contracts. The Pro plan requires a mandatory 12-month annual contract plus an implementation fee of R$ 2,699.

Source
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