AWS SES vs Mandrill

Two transactional email providers, compared on price, features and ratings, so you can pick fast.

AWS SES wins price and deliverabilityMandrill wins developer experience and sending APIs

Updated August 2026

At a glanceAWS SESMandrill
Entry price$0.10$20
Cost per 1k @ 100k$0.1$0.8
G2 rating4.24.2
Trustpilot2.31.6

THE VERDICT

AWS SES wins on price and deliverability. Mandrill wins on developer experience and sending APIs.

AWS SES starts at $0.10 versus Mandrill's $20. Pick based on volume and team, and the scorecard below breaks down where each one leads.

Which should you choose?

Pick AWS SES

✓It is suitable for developers on the AWS ecosystem who want to integrate a mailing system into their software.
✓It is suitable for firms or brands to send bulk transactional emails.
✓It is an excellent tool for email marketing.
Set up AWS SES with Courier →

Pick Mandrill

✓If you are a community, organization, or person who sends emails to multiple people and needs a quick fix.
✓It isn't for affiliate marketers.
✓Mandrill is a good option if you want easily accessible and detailed reports on your emails.
Set up Mandrill with Courier →

Feature by feature

Winner cells are tinted, green where AWS SES leads, violet where Mandrill does.

capability
AWS SES
Mandrill
Starting paid plan
$0/mo
$20/mo
Cost per 1k @ 100k
$0.1
$0.8
Pricing model
Pay-as-you-go
Pay-as-you-go
Overage
$0.10 per 1,000 emails (flat Pay-as-you-go)
Auto-purchase blocks or stop sending; no rollover
Dedicated IP
Add-on
Add-on
Deliverability tooling
Yes
Yes
Automated IP warmup
Yes
Yes
Suppression management
Yes
Yes
SPF / DKIM / DMARC
Yes
Yes
BIMI
Yes
—
Transactional API
Yes
Yes
Marketing campaigns
No
No
SMTP relay
Yes
Yes
Inbound routing
Yes
Yes
Dynamic templates
Yes
Yes
Batch send
Yes
Yes
Scheduled send
—
Yes
Official SDKs
Java, Python, JavaScript/Node.js, .NET, Ruby, Go, PHP, C++
PHP, Python, Ruby, Node.js
Event webhooks
Yes
Yes
Drag-and-drop editor
No
Yes
Custom HTML editor
Yes
Yes
Email validation
Add-on
No
Sandbox / test mode
Yes
Yes
Open / click tracking
Yes
Yes
Analytics dashboard
Yes
Yes
A/B testing
No
Yes
EU data residency
Yes
No
SOC 2
Yes
Yes
HIPAA
BAA
No
GDPR
Yes
Yes
ISO 27001
Yes
Yes
Support channels
Email, Chat, Phone (via AWS Support plans)
Email, Chat
24/7 support
Yes
—
Support SLA
Plan-gated
Plan-gated

FAQ

Common questions

AWS SES starts at $0.10 versus Mandrill's $20. Because pricing models differ by tier, the cheaper option depends on your monthly volume, so compare the pricing rows in the scorecard above.

Keep comparing

Related comparisons

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Why not both?

Use both behind one API.

Route AWS SES, Mandrill, or both, and switch providers without changing your code. Courier sits in front of every channel.

Start building freeRead the docs

Pricing, plans and feature availability as of August 2026 and may change. Ratings are aggregated from public review platforms. Mandrill is Mailchimp Transactional.

Multichannel Notifications Platform for SaaS