SendGrid vs Mailgun vs Amazon SES for Website and App Emails

SendGrid vs Mailgun vs Amazon SES at a glance

All three are transactional email services: your website or app hands them a message over SMTP or an API, and they deliver it with proper authentication. Prices below are from each vendor's pricing page, in US dollars, approximate, as of October 2026.

Sources: SendGrid Email API pricing, Mailgun pricing and Amazon SES pricing. SendGrid's site now lives on Twilio.com; the old sendgrid.com pricing page redirects there.

What each one costs at small-business volumes

Most SME websites send a few hundred to a few thousand emails a month: enquiry notifications, order confirmations, password resets. At that level the free tiers or entry plans cover you, and the cost difference only shows once an app starts sending in volume.

Amazon SES also offers plans. Since 21 July 2026, new SES accounts start on the Essentials plan (US$0.16 per 1,000 emails with deliverability insights), and you can switch to plain a-la-carte pricing at any time, according to the SES pricing page. Pro and Enterprise plans add a monthly fee of US$105 or US$500 per account per region.

DNS records each service needs

Every service needs DNS records on your domain before it can send as you@yourcompany.com without landing in spam. This is also where most setups go wrong. Our guide to SPF, DKIM and DMARC explains what each record does.

Details from the vendors' docs: SendGrid's domain authentication guide says automated security creates and maintains SPF and DKIM records for you, but it cannot be used if your DNS host rejects underscores in CNAME records. Mailgun's domain verification page lists v=spf1 include:mailgun.org ~all and MX records mxa and mxb.mailgun.org. Amazon SES's Easy DKIM signs every email with a 2048-bit key, and its custom MAIL FROM guide asks for an MX record pointing to feedback-smtp.region.amazonses.com and an SPF record with include:amazonses.com.

SPF lookup cost: why Mailgun on the root domain can break SPF

SPF allows at most 10 DNS lookups. We checked the live SPF records on 22 October 2026: include:mailgun.org costs 4 lookups (it nests three more includes), include:sendgrid.net costs 2, and include:amazonses.com costs 1 because it lists IP ranges directly.

If your root domain already includes Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, a newsletter tool and a booking system, adding Mailgun there can tip you over the limit and make SPF fail for every message. Two fixes: send from a subdomain such as mg.yourcompany.com so its SPF lives on that subdomain, or use a service whose SPF sits on its own return-path subdomain. Our SPF too many lookups guide shows how to count yours.

Shared vs dedicated IPs

On entry plans, all three send from shared IP addresses whose reputation the vendor manages. A dedicated IP only helps when you send steady volume, usually tens of thousands of emails a month or more, because a new IP needs a warm-up period and an IP that sends a handful of emails looks suspicious to mailbox providers.

• SendGrid: Pro and Premier include one dedicated IP; more can be bought as an add-on.
• Mailgun: dedicated IP access from the 50,000 tier, one included from 100,000.
• Amazon SES: Standard dedicated IPs cost US$24.95 per IP per month; Managed dedicated IPs warm up automatically.

For a contact form, store or booking site, stay on shared IPs. Spend the effort on DKIM, DMARC and a clean sending list instead.

Setup for WordPress, Shopify and custom apps

How you connect depends on the platform.

1. 1

   WordPress: install an SMTP plugin

   Plugins such as WP Mail SMTP or FluentSMTP send WordPress mail through SendGrid, Mailgun or SES using an API key. Send a test email from the plugin, then submit your contact form and check the headers show DKIM pass.

2. 2

   Shopify: you usually don't need one

   Shopify sends store notifications itself. Authenticate your sender domain in Shopify's notification settings instead of adding a third-party service.

3. 3

   Custom apps: use the API, not SMTP

   Each vendor has official libraries. The API gives clearer error messages, bounce webhooks and suppression lists. Keep the API key in an environment variable, never in code.

4. 4

   Amazon SES: request production access

   New SES accounts are in a sandbox: 200 messages per 24 hours, one per second, and only to verified addresses, per the SES production access guide. Request production access before launch.

5. 5

   Handle bounces and complaints

   Turn on bounce and complaint webhooks or notifications, and stop sending to addresses that bounce. Sending services can pause accounts with high bounce or complaint rates.

If enquiry emails from your site already go missing, start with our guide to contact form emails not arriving.

Which one to choose

A simple rule of thumb for Singapore SMEs:

Note that SendGrid's free option is a 60-day trial, not a permanent free plan, so budget for Essentials if you pick it for a live site.

Do it yourself or get help?

If you can edit DNS and install a WordPress plugin, a SendGrid or Mailgun setup takes an hour or two. Most of the work is adding the records exactly as shown and testing that DKIM and DMARC pass.

Our Emails Land in Spam fix (S$249) takes an inventory of every service sending as your domain, sets SPF, DKIM and DMARC correctly and monitors DMARC for 14 days. If you only need the domain and DNS records set up, Domain & DNS Setup is S$99. IT Sorted is a Singapore-based team of developers with over 10 years of experience; you pay upfront and brief us in writing.