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This analysis completely ignores the cost of time in switching. For me personally: SendGrid is completely transparent to my application since it's just an SMT

by portman 16y ago

This analysis completely ignores the cost of time in switching. For me personally: SendGrid is completely transparent to my application since it's just an SMTP server. SES is a web services API, so I need to either (a) rewrite my app to take advantage of it, or (b) write my own SMTP wrapper. Either way, it's code, and I can't imagine ever writing code to save a few dozen dollars per month. If Amazon offered an SMTP server like SendGrid does, then I could imagine switching, but until then, the monthly savings are negligible.

jonursenbach 16y ago
The kicker with SES is that you don't have to use it as an API, and you can easily integrate it with Postfix or Sendmail. http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/ses/latest/DeveloperGuide/index.html?IntegratingWithServer.html http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/ses/latest/DeveloperGuide/...
- rbranson 16y ago
  So run a postfix/sendmail gateway to fork a perl script to send email through the SES API? Doesn't this seem like kind of a kludge? Why not just send mail through the original SMTP server if you're going to take the time to set it up and maintain it?
wlll 16y ago
You're right, if you have a lot of code already committed to the SendGrid API then it makes sense that the saving would have to be large to warrant developer time, but at some number of emails/month you reach a tipping point. For new apps it's an easier decision.
- JeremyBanks 16y ago
  I think a large part of his point is that most software support's "the SendGrid API" by default, since it's SMTP. Ever for news apps that reduces the number of libraries easily available.
  - wlll 16y ago
    Possibly, but you still need to background process the email sending for most apps even if you are sending via SMTP, and at that point an API call isn't too much to add, IMO.
    - cagenut 16y ago
      no you don't, you run an mta bound to 127.0.0.1 and smarthost out sendgrid/whatever-your-outbound-relay-is. this has been standard practice forever. if you quiz 10 sysadmins to name a single config variable for sendmail, most will answer "DS".* mta's have been doing asynchronous message queuing loooooong before it was cool with web developers. *note, the ones who go off on a tangent about mta holy war's are the bad ones

by portman 16y ago

jonursenbach 16y ago

The kicker with SES is that you don't have to use it as an API, and you can easily integrate it with Postfix or Sendmail. http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/ses/latest/DeveloperGuide/index.html?IntegratingWithServer.html http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/ses/latest/DeveloperGuide/...

rbranson 16y ago
So run a postfix/sendmail gateway to fork a perl script to send email through the SES API? Doesn't this seem like kind of a kludge? Why not just send mail through the original SMTP server if you're going to take the time to set it up and maintain it?

wlll 16y ago

You're right, if you have a lot of code already committed to the SendGrid API then it makes sense that the saving would have to be large to warrant developer time, but at some number of emails/month you reach a tipping point. For new apps it's an easier decision.

JeremyBanks 16y ago
I think a large part of his point is that most software support's "the SendGrid API" by default, since it's SMTP. Ever for news apps that reduces the number of libraries easily available.
- wlll 16y ago
  Possibly, but you still need to background process the email sending for most apps even if you are sending via SMTP, and at that point an API call isn't too much to add, IMO.
  - cagenut 16y ago
    no you don't, you run an mta bound to 127.0.0.1 and smarthost out sendgrid/whatever-your-outbound-relay-is. this has been standard practice forever. if you quiz 10 sysadmins to name a single config variable for sendmail, most will answer "DS".* mta's have been doing asynchronous message queuing loooooong before it was cool with web developers. *note, the ones who go off on a tangent about mta holy war's are the bad ones