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It's a split decision.
Choose Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) for workloads that send or receive email and need usage-based email billing. Choose Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) for notification workloads that can use its free-tier allowances or need Standard or FIFO topics. The published AWS homepage does not explain either service’s API contract, SDK support, or integration setup, so verify those details in the service documentation before designing a production integration.
01Side by side
| Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) | Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay per email and attachment data | Pay per usage; Standard and FIFO rates differ |
| Free tier | No free plan listed | Monthly allowances for requests and notifications |
| Platforms | Web | Web |
| Limits and scaling | Service quotas aren't published on the homepage | Topic and subscription caps are listed |
| Integrations | Service integrations aren't specified | SQS and Lambda deliveries are listed |
| Email charges | $0.10 per 1,000 outbound emails | $2 per 100,000 email notifications |
| Message channels | Outbound and inbound email | HTTP/S, email, mobile push, SQS, Lambda |
| Ordered delivery | Not an email pricing option | FIFO topics deliver to SQS queues |
Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) Choose Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) if
- Choose Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) if you send or receive email.
- Choose SES if per-email and attachment-data charges fit your cost model.
- Choose SES if email, rather than multi-channel notifications, is the workload.
Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) Choose Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) if
- Choose Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) if its free-tier allowances fit.
- Choose SNS if you need HTTP/S, email, mobile push, SQS, or Lambda deliveries.
- Choose SNS FIFO if ordered delivery to SQS queues is required.
02Pricing at real usage
SES has no base subscription fee, but the pricing facts list no free plan. Charges include $0.10 per 1,000 outbound emails, $0.10 per 1,000 inbound emails, $0.12 per GB of attachment data, and $0.09 per 1,000 incoming 256 KB chunks for messages over 256 KB.
SNS lists a free tier with monthly allowances: 1 million API requests, 100,000 HTTP/S notifications, 1,000 email notifications, and 1 million mobile push notifications; SQS and Lambda deliveries are listed as free. Above that, Standard topics charge $0.50 per million API requests, $0.60 per million HTTP/S notifications, and $2 per 100,000 email notifications. FIFO topics charge $0.30 per million publish requests and $0.017 per GB of publish payload. Both paid SNS topic types are pay-as-you-go, with no monthly base fee listed.
03API, SDKs and integration
The AWS homepage does not explain the service-level API contract for SES or SNS. It also does not identify supported SDKs, programming languages, CLI commands, or integration setup. We would check the current service documentation for those specifics before choosing an implementation path; the homepage alone is not enough to establish which client libraries or API operations your codebase can use.
The published pricing details do identify some workload differences. SES charges for outbound and inbound email, attachment data, and larger incoming messages in 256 KB chunks. SNS lists HTTP/S, email, and mobile push notification allowances, plus SQS and Lambda deliveries. Its FIFO pricing is limited to delivery to SQS queues. Those facts help narrow the service by message flow, but they do not specify authentication, retries, payload formats, delivery guarantees outside FIFO, or the SDK calls needed to implement the flow.
04Open source, self-hosting and lock-in
AWS does not publish open-source licence, self-hosting, or data-export details for either service on its homepage. The homepage identifies AWS as a cloud provider, but does not describe service-specific deployment or migration mechanics. Ask AWS for the applicable service terms, data-retention and export options, and any migration guidance before treating either service as portable.
For an architecture review, map the service’s role in your application and record the message formats, destinations, and application code that depend on it. For SNS, the listed delivery options include HTTP/S, email, mobile push, SQS, and Lambda; FIFO delivery is limited to SQS queues. For SES, the listed charges cover sending and receiving email. The published pricing facts do not establish how to export configuration or move message workflows, so include those questions in a vendor review.
Questions people ask
Can SES and SNS both send email?
The pricing facts list SES charges for outbound and inbound email. SNS lists email notifications, priced at $2 per 100,000 notifications under Standard topics. The two services therefore both have email-related pricing, but the published details do not establish that their email workflows or APIs are interchangeable.
Which service has a free tier?
SNS lists monthly free-tier allowances for API requests, HTTP/S notifications, email notifications, and mobile push notifications; SQS and Lambda deliveries are also listed as free. SES has no free plan listed in the pricing facts, though it has no base subscription fee.
What does SNS FIFO cost, and where can it deliver?
SNS FIFO topics are listed at $0.30 per million publish requests and $0.017 per GB of publish payload. The pricing facts limit FIFO delivery to SQS queues. They also list up to 1,000 FIFO topics per account and up to 100 subscriptions per topic.
Which service is easier to integrate with an existing codebase?
The published AWS homepage does not identify either service’s SDKs, supported languages, API details, or CLI commands. Check the current service documentation against your codebase’s language and deployment needs. The pricing facts distinguish their workloads, but do not establish which integration is simpler.