SMTP2GO vs Amazon SES: SMTP Relay vs Raw Cloud Sending

SMTP2GO is a managed SMTP relay with friendly reporting and support; Amazon SES is raw sending infrastructure priced per message. Both will move mail from your app, printer, CRM or website to the inbox. The trade-off is the classic one: SMTP2GO charges more per message and does more for you, SES charges almost nothing and leaves the work to you.

Quick answer

Choose SMTP2GO if you want a relay you can configure in ten minutes, human support and a dashboard that shows bounces and opens without building anything. Choose Amazon SES if you live in AWS, send large volumes and have an engineer to handle the sandbox request, bounce handling and monitoring. Neither includes mailboxes; OquMail adds those free with a send API for small businesses.

Feature comparison

• Mailboxes: neither; both send only (SES can deliver inbound to S3, which is not a mailbox)
• Free plan: SMTP2GO offers a free tier with a monthly send cap; SES is pay-per-email from the first message
• API: SMTP2GO has a REST API alongside SMTP; SES has a full AWS API and SDKs in every language
• DNS guidance: SMTP2GO walks you through SPF and DKIM with a checker; SES uses Easy DKIM and a custom MAIL FROM domain verified in the console
• IMAP/SMTP: SMTP submission on both on ports 587 and alternates; no IMAP
• Storage: SMTP2GO keeps activity reports for a plan-based window; SES keeps nothing unless you configure event destinations

Where SMTP2GO wins

• Setup for devices, scanners, CMS plugins and legacy apps is trivial
• Reports, bounce and spam-complaint dashboards out of the box
• Responsive support from a New Zealand-based team with global servers
• No sandbox approval process before you can send to real customers

Where Amazon SES wins

• Lowest cost per message at any meaningful volume
• Native integration with IAM, CloudWatch, SNS and Lambda
• Dedicated IPs, multiple regions and virtual deliverability manager
• Scales to millions of messages without changing vendor

Total cost at 5 and 15 users

Both bill by volume rather than seats. For a company sending a few thousand messages a month, SMTP2GO's free or entry tier is close to free and SES is pennies plus engineering time. At high volume SES wins on price by a wide margin. Neither figure includes the mailboxes your 5 or 15 staff need, which is a separate subscription unless you use a free host.

The free third option: OquMail

OquMail is the fit for a small business whose sending is modest and whose bigger problem is not having name@yourdomain.com for the team. The free plan gives 15 mailboxes with IMAP and SMTP, and the send API with Bearer keys handles order confirmations and alerts. Per-message delivery logs show the remote server's response, the same detail SMTP2GO is loved for.

• Free plan: up to 15 mailboxes, 3 domains, 5 GB per mailbox, no credit card
• Webmail included; IMAP/SMTP for Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird and phones
• IMAP mail.oqumail.com port 993 (SSL/TLS); SMTP mail.oqumail.com port 587 (STARTTLS)
• Guided SPF, DKIM and DMARC with live DNS verification; MX is mail.oqumail.com priority 10
• Transactional send API at https://api.oqumail.com/api/v1/emails with Bearer API keys (from, to, subject, html)
• Per-message delivery logs so you can see the exact response a receiving server gave

Verdict by scenario

• Office with a multifunction printer, CRM and website that all need to send: SMTP2GO
• AWS-hosted product sending large volume: Amazon SES
• Small business site with a contact form and order emails plus staff inboxes: OquMail
• Growing company: OquMail for mailboxes, SES or SMTP2GO when volume justifies it

Common questions

Why does Amazon SES start in sandbox mode?

To protect its IP reputation, SES limits new accounts to verified recipients until you request production access with a use case. SMTP2GO reviews accounts too but allows normal sending sooner.

Can I use SMTP2GO with WordPress?

Yes. Any SMTP plugin works with SMTP2GO's host, port 587 and your SMTP user. The same is true of OquMail's SMTP for low-volume site mail.

Does SES or SMTP2GO give me an email address?

No. You bring a domain you already own and authenticate it. To read replies you need a mailbox host such as OquMail on the same domain.