How to Send Newsletters at Scale: The Ultimate Guide to AWS SES and MailsFly
If you are running a newsletter, you have likely encountered the 'subscriber tax'. Most email service providers (ESPs) charge you based on how many people are on your list, regardless of whether you send them one email or one hundred.
As your list grows, your monthly bill grows with it — often reaching hundreds of dollars for lists that are only moderately sized. This pricing model creates a perverse incentive: you end up deleting valid subscribers just to stay within a lower pricing tier.
There is a better way. By decoupling the
delivery engine from the
newsletter interface, you can send professional, high-deliverability emails for a fraction of the cost. This is the combination of Amazon Simple Email Service (AWS SES) and MailsFly.
Table of Contents
- Why AWS SES + MailsFly is the Best Option
- The Economics: Comparing the Costs
- Step 1: Getting Your AWS SES API Keys
- Step 2: Running Your First Campaign in MailsFly
- The Benefits of Owning Your Infrastructure
Why AWS SES + MailsFly is the Best Option
Amazon SES is the same infrastructure Amazon uses to send billions of transactional and marketing emails. It is built for scale, security, and extreme deliverability. However, AWS SES by itself is just a set of APIs. It lacks a visual editor, a subscriber management dashboard, and campaign analytics.
This is where MailsFly comes in. MailsFly acts as your beautiful, user-friendly control center. It connects to your AWS SES account, giving you a professional platform to design newsletters, manage opt-ins, and track open rates, while AWS handles the heavy lifting of delivery.
The Economics: Comparing the Costs
To understand why this combination is winning, look at the numbers. Most popular ESPs charge roughly $150 to $200 per month for 10,000 subscribers. If you only send four newsletters a month, you are paying a massive premium for the convenience of an all-in-one tool.
With AWS SES, you pay strictly for what you send. Amazon charges $0.10 for every 1,000 emails.
Traditional ESP: 10,000 subscribers = $200/month
AWS SES + MailsFly: 10,000 subscribers = $4/month (40,000 emails) +
MailsFly $49/mo fee
For a total of roughly
$53/month, you are getting exactly the same results that other providers charge $200+ for. MailsFly's flat fee grants you unlimited access to the entire platform, including our advanced campaign builder, subscriber automation, and real-time deliverability analytics.
The savings are not just incremental; they are transformational. For a growing business, this is capital that can be reinvested into content or acquisition rather than being spent on basic infrastructure.
Step 1: Getting Your AWS SES API Keys
To connect MailsFly to Amazon, you need a set of credentials. Follow these steps to generate them securely.
1. Create an AWS Account
Visit the AWS Management Console and sign up. Note that new accounts are placed in a 'Sandbox' environment by default to prevent spam. You will need to request a 'Limit Increase' once you are ready to send to your full list.
2. Identity Verification
Before you can send emails, Amazon must verify that you own the domain or email address you intend to send from.
Navigate to the SES Dashboard.
Go to
Identities and click
Create Identity.
Select Domain and follow the instructions to add the required CNAME records to your DNS provider.
Establishing domain-level trust is a core part of deliverability. For a deeper look at why this matters, read our guide on How Gmail's Spam Filter Works.
3. Create an IAM User (The Security Step)
Never use your root AWS account credentials for third-party integrations. Instead, create an IAM User with limited permissions.
Go to the
IAM Dashboard.
Click Users and then Create user.
Give them a name (e.g.,
MailsFly-Sender).
In the permissions step, select Attach policies directly and search for AmazonSESFullAccess.
Finish the creation process and navigate to the user's
Security credentials tab.
Select Create access key and choose 'Third-party service'.
Copy the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key immediately. Amazon will not show the secret key again.
Step 2: Running Your First Campaign in MailsFly
Once you have your keys, the rest is simple.
- Input Credentials: In your MailsFly settings, enter the AWS Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, and your preferred AWS Region (e.g.,
us-east-1). This connects MailsFly directly to your delivery engine.
- Verify SES Identity: Once your keys are added, verify your sending domain or email address within the MailsFly dashboard.
- Import Subscribers & Design: Upload your CSV of contacts. From there, you can use our library of pre-designed professional templates or design your own from scratch using our drag-and-drop or Markdown-supported editor.
- Send to All: Hit send to reach all your contacts instantly. We automatically handle the technical headers, unsubscribe links, and tracking pixels required for high inbox placement.
The Benefits of Owning Your Infrastructure
When you use MailsFly with AWS SES, you are not just saving money; you are building a more resilient business.
No Vendor Lock-in: You own your subscriber list and your sending reputation through your verified domain.
Predictable Scaling: Since you pay per email, there are no surprise jumps in your bill because you reached 10,001 subscribers.
- Enterprise Deliverability: You are leveraging the most trusted infrastructure in the cloud. As long as you maintain a clean list and follow DMARC protocols, your emails will land in the primary inbox.
The era of paying hundreds of dollars for a mailing list should be over. By using MailsFly to manage the human side of your newsletters and AWS SES to handle the technical side, you gain professional-grade power at the industry's lowest price point.
Need Help Setting Up Your Infrastructure?
Setting up AWS SES for the first time can be daunting, especially when it comes to DNS configuration and requesting sandbox removals.
If you want our engineering team to handle the heavy lifting for you, we offer an
End-to-End AWS SES Setup Service for a one-time fee of
$500. We will handle identity verification, DKIM/SPF/DMARC configuration, and the AWS limit increase request to get you sending at scale in 48 hours.
Contact Us to Get Started
