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AWS Services - Simple Email Service (SES)

Overview

Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) is a cost-effective, scalable, and flexible email-sending service that allows developers to send transactional, marketing, or bulk emails.
It provides high deliverability using AWS’s trusted infrastructure and supports both SMTP and API-based email sending.

Key features:

  • Transactional and marketing email support.
  • High deliverability with reputation management.
  • Domain and email identity verification.
  • DKIM, SPF, and DMARC support.
  • Bounces and complaints handling.
  • Integration with AWS services (Lambda, S3, SNS, CloudWatch).

Core Concepts

  • Identity: An email address or domain you use to send emails. Identities must be verified before sending.
  • Sandbox Mode: By default, SES starts in sandbox mode:
    • You can only send to verified email addresses.
    • There is a limit on sending rate and daily quota.
  • Production Mode: Request AWS to move SES out of sandbox for real-world usage.
  • Domains & DKIM: Use DKIM/DMARC/SPF for email authentication and better deliverability.

Setup Steps

1. Verify an Email Address

Go to SES Console → Identities → Verify Email Address, or use CLI:

aws ses verify-email-identity --email-address user@example.com

2. Verify a Domain

Add DNS records (TXT for SPF, CNAME for DKIM) provided by SES in your DNS service (e.g., Route53).

3. Request Production Access

Submit a request in the SES Console → Sending Limits → Request production access.

Sending Emails

Using AWS CLI

Send a basic email:

aws ses send-email \
  --from "sender@example.com" \
  --destination "ToAddresses=recipient@example.com" \
  --message "Subject={Data=Hello from SES},Body={Text={Data=This is a test email}}"

Send raw email with attachments:

aws ses send-raw-email --raw-message file://message.txt

Using SMTP

  1. Create SMTP credentials in the SES Console.
  2. Use any SMTP client with the credentials and the provided endpoint (e.g., email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com).

Example with sendmail:

sendmail -S email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com:587 \
-au SMTP_USERNAME -ap SMTP_PASSWORD recipient@example.com

Monitoring and Feedback

  • Bounces and Complaints: Configure an SNS topic to receive feedback notifications.
  • CloudWatch Metrics: Monitor sending statistics (send rate, bounces, complaints).
  • Reputation Dashboard: View reputation metrics and maintain good sending practices.

Best Practices

  • Warm up new email domains and IPs by gradually increasing send volume.
  • Always authenticate with SPF, DKIM, DMARC.
  • Maintain low bounce and complaint rates (< 0.1%).
  • Use suppression list to avoid sending to invalid addresses.
  • Segment marketing vs transactional emails with configuration sets.

Integration Examples

Store Emails in S3

You can configure incoming emails (via SES Receipt Rules) to be stored in an S3 bucket.

Trigger Lambda Functions

SES can trigger a Lambda function for processing inbound emails (e.g., parsing invoices).

Notifications via SNS

Set up SNS topics for bounces, complaints, and delivery notifications.

Useful Commands

Check verified identities:

aws ses list-identities

Check sending quota:

aws ses get-send-quota

Check sending statistics:

aws ses get-send-statistics