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Email Marketing · head to head

Amazon SES vs Shortwave

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
Shortwave logo

Shortwave

Email Marketing

AI-powered email assistant for intelligent inbox management

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Shortwave 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.; Shortwave per-seat pricing increases team costs compared to flat-rate email solutions
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon SES covers Send and receive API, Shortwave covers AI Email Filtering.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Amazon SES and Shortwave differ
AttributeAmazon SESShortwave
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelPer 1,000 emails sent, tiered by volume, no campaign features includedUnknown
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebiOS, Android, macOS, Windows

Identical on both: 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 Shortwave

  • AI Email Filtering
  • Intelligent Autocomplete
  • Voice-Style Composition
  • Meeting Scheduling
  • Email-to-Todo Conversion
  • AI-Powered Search
  • Team Collaboration
  • Email Summaries

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

Shortwave

  • Reducing inbox overload through AI-powered organizationnot Amazon SES
  • Drafting professional emails using natural languagenot Amazon SES
  • Scheduling meetings without back-and-forth coordinationnot Amazon SES
  • Searching email archives using conversational queriesnot Amazon SES
  • Converting emails to tasks for team task trackingnot 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.

Shortwave

  • Per-seat pricing increases team costs compared to flat-rate email solutions
  • AI features may require higher tier plans, limiting value for smaller teams
  • Dependency on third-party integrations for full feature depth
  • Learning curve for effective use of AI-powered features
  • Limited customization for AI filter behavior compared to manual rules

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

Shortwave

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Email search and organization
    • Basic inbox tools
    • Limited AI features
  • Business$30/month
    • Full standard search history
    • 5 years AI search history
    • Max 50 threads per AI search
  • Premier$45/month
    • Everything in Business
    • 2x more AI usage
    • Unlimited AI search history
  • Max$120/month
    • Everything in Premier
    • 6x more AI usage
    • Max 150 threads per AI search

Which should you pick?

Choose Amazon SES if

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

Choose Shortwave if

  • You need ai email filtering.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want intelligent autocomplete.
Shortwave review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon SES or Shortwave better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon SES starts at On request and Shortwave at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon SES or Shortwave?
Shortwave has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Amazon SES and Free for Shortwave.
Does Amazon SES or Shortwave run on more platforms?
Amazon SES runs on Web. Shortwave runs on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Shortwave for free?
Yes. Shortwave 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 Shortwave is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon SES do that Shortwave cannot?
Amazon SES covers Send and receive API, Deliverability infrastructure, Bounce and complaint handling, Mail Manager. Shortwave covers AI Email Filtering, Intelligent Autocomplete, Voice-Style Composition, Meeting Scheduling.

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.

Shortwave: Is there a free trial for Shortwave?

Yes, Shortwave offers a 14-day free trial for all paid plans with no credit card required.

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.

Shortwave: What platforms does Shortwave support?

Shortwave is available on iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows for full cross-platform email management.

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.

Shortwave: How much AI usage do I get per plan?

Business plan includes 3 AI-powered filters and standard AI usage. Premier (2x more AI) and Max (6x more AI) plans provide increasing levels of AI feature access.

Source
Shortwave: What integrations does Shortwave support?

Shortwave integrates with Slack, Calendar, Notion, Asana, HubSpot, and 3,000+ apps via Tasklet.

Source
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