The latest articles on DEV Community by Noah Lee (@noah_a98519dffb93b65e). https://dev.to/noah_a98519dffb93b65e https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3713664%2F241b1124-5772-421d-a38b-e261fb33203c.jpg https://dev.to/noah_a98519dffb93b65e en Noah Lee Fri, 16 Jan 2026 14:47:09 +0000 https://dev.to/noah_a98519dffb93b65e/why-is-email-marketing-still-so-expensive-g0 https://dev.to/noah_a98519dffb93b65e/why-is-email-marketing-still-so-expensive-g0 <p>I tried to send emails to 3,000 users for my app. The email service providers(called ESP) wanted $30 to $40 per month. Then I looked at AWS SES. The same 3,000 emails would cost me $0.03 total.</p> <p>I thought, <strong>why are they so expensive?</strong></p> <p>The answer is <strong>reputation management</strong>. If an ESP offers high sending volume for cheap, spammers flock to it and destroy the reputation. So ESPs need expert teams to weed out the spammers, or put customers on static IPs. Either way, costs go up.</p> <p>I decided to build with AWS SES instead. But AWS has strict policies to protect their reputation—send quotas, rate limits, bounce monitoring. <strong>It's cheap, but hard to use.</strong></p> <p>That's why I built Sendbase. It connects to your AWS account and handles the complexity for you. <strong>AWS pricing. Zero headache</strong></p> <p>If email costs are holding you back, check out <a href="https://www.getsendbase.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">getsendbase.com</a></p> aws ses marketing