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Amazon SES rocks from a pricing standpoint but deliverability isn't its strong suit. There are too many spammers using it. ISPs seem to barely trust mail sent f

Amazon SES rocks from a pricing standpoint but deliverability isn't its strong suit. There are too many spammers using it. ISPs seem to barely trust mail sent from their servers and I get a lot of bounces. I stopped using it for critical email and rely on it only for bulk-type emails where missing that one email isn't the end of the world. MailChimp for newsletters and SendGrid for everything else. That's a winning combo.

timdorr 12y ago
I find Mandrill, the backend service behind Mailchimp, a better option. They're much cheaper than SendGrid and even cheaper than SES in large quantities. And their deliverability is top notch.
- pixeloution 12y ago
  Mandrill is not "the backend service behind MailChimp". Mandrill came after MailChimp and is a separate thing - they only allow it to be used for transactional email. Sending a newsletter via Mandrill violates its Terms of Service.
  - jtreminio 12y ago
    I just went through Mandrill's TOS [0] and didn't see anything referencing a ban on emailing lists. From my understanding, and having used Mandrill for some time, it can be used for anything you want (that follows its double opt-in, no spam requirements). [0] https://mandrill.com/terms/ https://mandrill.com/terms/
    - Freyale 12y ago
      Just to back this person up, on Mandrills account page it states: "Use Mandrill to send automated one-to-one email like password resets and welcome messages, as well as marketing emails and customized newsletters." Emphasis on the "as well as marketing emails and customized newsletters" section there. https://mandrill.com/about/ https://mandrill.com/about/ The difference of Mandril is that is doesn't have all the fancy features of Mailchip that people "would expect" to create a newsletter etc so Mandril is aimed at developers/software etc. That does not mean you can not use it for same uses as Mailchimp though.
    - hboon 12y ago
      It's been 3 years, but there was word from MailChimp that that is ok: "Yes - you can use Mandrill for newsletters" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4132375 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4132375
moe 12y ago
Amazon SES rocks from a pricing standpoint but deliverability isn't its strong suit. Huh? Are you sure you have configured it correctly, including DKIM? We're using SES a lot (both transactional and campaigns) and never had a problem with deliverability. There are too many spammers using it. That seems unlikely considering the default sending limit is a mere 10k mails/day (iirc) and I doubt Amazon lets you raise that when your complaint-inbox is overflowing...
- coderdude 12y ago
  I didn't configure DKIM for SES. I configured it for SendGrid right out the gate but it was made more obvious that it was an important next step. I wasn't even aware that SES supported DKIM at the time of testing. It's an important factor that I admittedly overlooked.
- bradleyland 12y ago
  Amazon's own emails regularly get caught in our mail's (Google Apps) spam filter, so I'm skeptical of SES's ability to match MailChimp's level of deliverability.
bhouston 12y ago
As a use of both SES, and MailChimp (as well as SendGrid for transactional) for https://Clara.io https://Clara.io I find no difference between SES and MailChimp regarding delivery. It would be cool to see an objective study here. Otherwise it seems like FUD.
- cpncrunch 12y ago
  I don't use either, but I have to deal with spammers from both. The difference is that Mailchimp has a zero tolerance policy to abuse, whereas SES doesn't.

timdorr 12y ago

I find Mandrill, the backend service behind Mailchimp, a better option. They're much cheaper than SendGrid and even cheaper than SES in large quantities. And their deliverability is top notch.

pixeloution 12y ago
Mandrill is not "the backend service behind MailChimp". Mandrill came after MailChimp and is a separate thing - they only allow it to be used for transactional email. Sending a newsletter via Mandrill violates its Terms of Service.
- jtreminio 12y ago
  I just went through Mandrill's TOS [0] and didn't see anything referencing a ban on emailing lists. From my understanding, and having used Mandrill for some time, it can be used for anything you want (that follows its double opt-in, no spam requirements). [0] https://mandrill.com/terms/ https://mandrill.com/terms/
  - Freyale 12y ago
    Just to back this person up, on Mandrills account page it states: "Use Mandrill to send automated one-to-one email like password resets and welcome messages, as well as marketing emails and customized newsletters." Emphasis on the "as well as marketing emails and customized newsletters" section there. https://mandrill.com/about/ https://mandrill.com/about/ The difference of Mandril is that is doesn't have all the fancy features of Mailchip that people "would expect" to create a newsletter etc so Mandril is aimed at developers/software etc. That does not mean you can not use it for same uses as Mailchimp though.
  - hboon 12y ago
    It's been 3 years, but there was word from MailChimp that that is ok: "Yes - you can use Mandrill for newsletters" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4132375 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4132375

moe 12y ago

Amazon SES rocks from a pricing standpoint but deliverability isn't its strong suit. Huh? Are you sure you have configured it correctly, including DKIM? We're using SES a lot (both transactional and campaigns) and never had a problem with deliverability. There are too many spammers using it. That seems unlikely considering the default sending limit is a mere 10k mails/day (iirc) and I doubt Amazon lets you raise that when your complaint-inbox is overflowing...

coderdude 12y ago
I didn't configure DKIM for SES. I configured it for SendGrid right out the gate but it was made more obvious that it was an important next step. I wasn't even aware that SES supported DKIM at the time of testing. It's an important factor that I admittedly overlooked.
bradleyland 12y ago
Amazon's own emails regularly get caught in our mail's (Google Apps) spam filter, so I'm skeptical of SES's ability to match MailChimp's level of deliverability.

bhouston 12y ago

As a use of both SES, and MailChimp (as well as SendGrid for transactional) for https://Clara.io https://Clara.io I find no difference between SES and MailChimp regarding delivery. It would be cool to see an objective study here. Otherwise it seems like FUD.

cpncrunch 12y ago
I don't use either, but I have to deal with spammers from both. The difference is that Mailchimp has a zero tolerance policy to abuse, whereas SES doesn't.