Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is AWS infrastructure that happens to send email. That distinction matters. SES is not a standalone email service with a guided onboarding and a deliverability-focused support team. It is a component of Amazon Web Services, configured through IAM policies, region-specific endpoints, and a sandbox review process that can take days. The reward for that complexity is the lowest per-email price in the category: $0.10 per 1,000 messages.
For WordPress sites sending tens of thousands of transactional emails per month (large WooCommerce stores, membership platforms, multisite networks), SES’s pricing compounds into real savings. A typical WordPress site sending a few hundred emails a month should look at SMTP2GO or Postmark instead.
SMTP settings
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Host | email-smtp.{region}.amazonaws.com |
| Port | 587 (STARTTLS, recommended) or 465 (TLS Wrapper) |
| Encryption | TLS |
| Authentication | Login |
| Username | SMTP credential username (from SES console) |
| Password | SMTP credential password |
The host is region-specific. Replace {region} with the AWS region where SES is configured: us-east-1, eu-west-1, ap-southeast-2, etc. A full list of SES regions and endpoints is in the 
AWS SES documentation.
SMTP credentials are not the same as IAM access keys. Generate them in the SES console under SMTP Settings. The console derives an SMTP username and password from an IAM user, but the values differ from the IAM credentials themselves. Using raw IAM access keys as SMTP credentials will fail authentication.
Before sending production email, verify the sending domain in the SES console and add the SES-provided DKIM CNAME records to the domain’s DNS. SES generates three CNAME records for DKIM signing; all three must be present. SPF is handled automatically; SES sends from its own amazonses.com envelope domain and publishes SPF for it. For DMARC alignment, configure a custom MAIL FROM domain in SES so the envelope sender matches the From header domain.
Pricing
| Component | Cost |
|---|---|
| Outbound email | $0.10 per 1,000 messages |
| Attachments | $0.12 per GB |
| Inbound email | $0.10 per 1,000 messages + $0.09 per 1,000 chunks |
| Dedicated IP (Standard) | $24.95/month per IP |
| Dedicated IP (Managed) | $15/month per account + tiered per-email charges |
| Virtual Deliverability Manager | $0.07 per 1,000 messages |
New AWS accounts receive 3,000 free message charges per month for the first 12 months. After that, every message costs $0.10 per thousand. There is no permanent free tier, unlike SMTP2GO‘s 1,000/month with no expiry, or Brevo‘s 300/day indefinitely.
At volume, SES pricing is unmatched. Sending 100,000 emails per month costs $10 on SES. The same volume on Postmark runs upwards of $125 (base plan plus per-message overage at $1.20-$1.30 per thousand). On Mailgun, Foundation covers 50,000 for $35/month; scaling to 100,000 requires either overage or an upgraded plan. The gap widens as volume increases. No minimum fees, no contracts, no annual commitment.
The sandbox
Every new SES account starts in sandbox mode. The restrictions are significant:
- 200 emails per 24-hour period – the hard cap, not a soft limit
- Verified recipients only – every recipient address must be individually verified in the SES console
- 1 email per second – maximum sending rate
These restrictions make the sandbox useless for production WordPress email. A WooCommerce store cannot verify every customer’s address before sending an order confirmation.
Moving to production requires submitting a sending limit increase request through the AWS console. The request asks for a description of the use case, the expected sending volume, and how the account handles bounces and complaints. AWS reviews the request manually. Approval can take 24 hours; rejection happens if the use case description is too vague or if the account history raises flags. This is unlike any other provider in this category, where production access is immediate or requires only domain verification.
WordPress integration
For SES specifically, API integrations are faster and more reliable than SMTP. The API avoids the SMTP handshake overhead and handles retries internally. Use one of the API-based options below; fall back to generic SMTP only if the plugin choice is constrained. For a full list of compatible plugins, see the Amazon SES feature page.
WP Offload SES – 
WP Offload SES from Delicious Brains connects via the SES API directly. The free Lite version handles sending and email logging. The Pro tier adds open/click tracking, weekly reports, and multisite support. The most complete WordPress-to-SES integration available.
WP Mail SMTP – WP Mail SMTP includes a native Amazon SES integration using the API. Enter the access key ID, secret access key, and region. The SES integration in WP Mail SMTP uses IAM API credentials (not SMTP credentials), so the configuration differs from generic SMTP setup.
FluentSMTP – FluentSMTP supports SES via the API with a similar key/secret/region configuration. Open-source and free.
Generic SMTP – Any mailer plugin can connect to SES using the SMTP settings above. This works as a fallback with Post SMTP, FluentSMTP in SMTP mode, or any other plugin supporting custom SMTP servers.
When SES fits
SES is the right choice when three conditions hold:
- Volume justifies the complexity. Roughly above 10,000 emails/month, where the difference against Postmark or Mailgun starts saving real money. Below that, the per-email savings are negligible and the setup tax is not.
- The operator is comfortable with AWS. IAM credential management, region selection, CloudWatch for monitoring. SES assumes familiarity with the AWS ecosystem. There is no simplified dashboard for operators who just want to see whether their emails arrived.
- A self-contained deliverability dashboard is not required. SES has no equivalent of Postmark’s message streams view or SMTP2GO’s reporting dashboard. Monitoring requires CloudWatch, SNS topics for bounce/complaint notifications, and manual configuration of each.
The typical profile: a WooCommerce store processing hundreds of orders per day, a WordPress multisite sending notifications across dozens of subsites, or any WordPress deployment already running on AWS infrastructure where SES is a natural addition to the existing stack.
When SES does not fit
For sites that value setup simplicity and a permanent free tier, SMTP2GO is the better default. For sites where deliverability reputation is the primary concern, Postmark is purpose-built for it. For sites already using a marketing platform, Brevo or Mailjet handle transactional email alongside campaigns without adding a second service.
SES is infrastructure for operators who think in infrastructure terms. If the site needs email to just work, SES is not where that starts.
Pricing verified June 2026 against 
aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing. Postmark pricing verified against 
postmarkapp.com/pricing. SMTP settings verified against AWS SES SMTP documentation.