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What is AWS SES?
Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) is a cloud-based email sending service designed to help you send marketing, notification, and transactional emails, using your own email addresses and domains.
Amazon SES provides a flexible IP deployment model, allowing users to choose between shared, dedicated, and customer-owned IPs depending on their specific needs. Additionally, it includes features such as content filtering, email authentication, and comprehensive analytics to help improve deliverability and track email sending performance.
What are the benefits of Amazon SES?
Simplicity and scalability
Reliability and high deliverability
No upfront costs
Many third-party email solutions require contract and price negotiations, as well as significant up-front costs. With a pay-as-you-go model, Amazon SES eliminates the need for upfront costs. Amazon also offers a free tier (you can sign up for a free account here).
Easy integration with other AWS services
Amazon SES provides seamless integration options with many other AWS services like AWS Lambda, Amazon SNS, and Amazon CloudWatch unlocking a variety of use cases and synergies.
For instance, you can: add email sending capabilies to any application built on AWS, use SNS to notify you of emails that were successfully delivered or bounced, take action on your received emails by triggering AWS Lambda functions with custom code, control permissions via AWS Identity and Access Management, etc.
Comprehensive Analytics
What are features of Amazon SES?
Some key features of Amazon SES include:
Email Sending Options: Users can send email communication using the Amazon SES API, SMTP interface, or the AWS Management Console, providing flexibility in how emails are integrated and sent from applications.
Email Receiving: SES receives incoming messages and handles email processing. It stores received emails in an S3 bucket, or triggers a Lambda function, enabling automated email responses or actions.
Flexible IP Deployment: Provides options for shared, dedicated, and customer-owned IP addresses, allowing users to optimize their email deliverability based on their specific requirements.
Content Filtering and Email Authentication: Supports SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to authenticate outgoing emails and provides mechanisms to filter incoming email messages for spam and viruses.
Sending Statistics and Analytics: Offers insights through detailed reports on successful delivery, open rates, click rates, bounces, and complaints, helping users to measure performance and improve their email strategies.
Mailbox Simulator: Provides a testing environment to simulate email sending without impacting your sender reputation, useful for testing how your application handles different email sending scenarios.
Amazon SES Event Publishing: Integrates with Amazon SNS for real-time notifications on email delivery outcomes, such as deliveries, bounces, and complaints, facilitating immediate response and adjustments to email campaigns.
How does email sending work in Amazon SES?
Once sent, the email can have several outcomes:
- Successful Delivery: The email reaches the recipient’s inbox without issues.
- Bounce: If the recipient’s email address is invalid, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) sends a bounce notification back to SES, which then informs the sender.
A hard bounce indicates a permanent reason an email cannot be delivered, such as the recipient’s email address being invalid or non-existent. SES records this event and typically adds the email address to a suppression list to prevent future emails to this address.
A soft bounce signifies a temporary delivery issue, like a full recipient mailbox or a temporarily unavailable server. SES will retry sending the email for a defined period before considering it undeliverable if the issue persists. - Complaint: If the recipient marks the email as spam, the ISP notifies SES, which forwards this complaint to the sender.
- Auto-response: If the email is received and an auto-response (like an out-of-office reply) is generated, SES forwards this to the sender.
SES also provides feedback on each email’s delivery status, allowing senders to track the success of their emails and handle any issues, such as bounces or complaints, accordingly.
How to send an email with Amazon SES
Here are the basic steps to send an email using Amazon Simple Email Service (SES):
1. Set Up Amazon SES: First, sign up for AWS and create an IAM user with permissions to access Amazon SES. Verify your email address or domain in the Amazon SES console to authenticate your identity and enable sending.
2. Obtain SMTP Credentials: Navigate to the Amazon SES console and create SMTP credentials under IAM. These credentials will be used to authenticate your email client or application with Amazon SES. Make sure to configure your email client by entering the provided SMTP endpoint, ensuring the ability to send emails effectively. (Full instructions with screenshots here).
3. Compose Your Email: Prepare your email content, including the sender, recipient, subject, and body. You can also choose to format the body of the email using either plain text or HTML.
4. Choose Sending Method: Use either the console to send your email, or you can send it programmatically via the SES API or SMTP interface. You can also send a test email if desired.
5. Send and Monitor: Send your email through your chosen method. You can then monitor the email sending statistics and check for bounces or complaints using the SES console or by setting up notifications with Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service).
How does Amazon SES pricing work?
Amazon SES FAQ
What is Amazon SES vs SNS?
Amazon SES is designed specifically for email communications and related activity.
Conversely, Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service) is a multi-channel (not just email) messaging platform that delivers notifications through SMS, mobile push, HTTP/HTTPS endpoints, AWS Lambda functions and other methods. It facilitates real-time message distribution to multiple subscribers through a pub/sub system, and is used for applications requiring instant alerts, such as new content notifications or emergency alerts.
What is Amazon SES vs SQS?
While Amazon SES is specialized for email-specific functionalities, Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service) is used for message queuing rather than direct communication. This makes it essential for smoothing out process workflows and handling asynchronous communication within distributed systems.
SQS provides a reliable, highly scalable hosted queue for storing messages as they travel between computers. By decoupling the components of an application, SQS helps ensure that any component can scale independently, and facilitates message-driven architectures with enhanced fault tolerance.
Do I need a domain for Amazon SES?
While you can start by verifying individual email addresses if you’re not ready to verify an entire domain, verifying a domain provides broader capabilities and is recommended for professional use.
Verifying your domain with Amazon SES enhances your ability to manage email sending reputations and increases deliverability. It allows you to send emails from any email address at that domain, without needing to verify each email address individually.
Domain verification also enables you to implement DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) signatures, which authenticate your emails and help prevent email spoofing
How can I track my Amazon SES costs and usage?
You can view your SES charges for the current billing period through the Billing Dashboard in the AWS Management Console.
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