Platform sending or your own Amazon SES: which to choose
EmailFig can send through our setup or through your own Amazon SES account. You choose once when you sign up, and it can't be changed later.
EmailFig can send your email in one of two ways. For almost everyone the right choice is platform sending: we send through our own Amazon SES setup and there’s nothing to configure. The other way is BYOS (bring your own SES): you connect your own AWS account, and we provision, send and listen inside it. Everything else about EmailFig is the same either way.
You choose when you sign up, and it’s fixed after that. There’s no self-serve switch between the two families. To change it, email support@emailfig.com, though starting a fresh account is often faster. See Can I switch between platform and BYOS?
The short answer
Choose platform sending unless you have a specific reason not to. It works the moment you sign up, we own deliverability, and you never touch AWS.
Choose BYOS if you already run AWS, want the sending infrastructure to be yours, or send enough email that paying Amazon directly works out cheaper than a bundled plan.
Side by side
| Platform sending | Your own Amazon SES (BYOS) | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Nothing to do | Launch one CloudFormation stack in your AWS account, then ask AWS for production access |
| Who sends the mail | Our infrastructure, isolated to your account alone | Your AWS account, through an IAM role you create |
| What you pay | One EmailFig subscription | A lower EmailFig subscription, plus your own AWS bill for every email sent |
| Sending volume | Paced by EmailFig across the platform | Bounded by your own SES quota and send rate |
| Sending reputation | Shared platform reputation, isolated to your account alone | Entirely your own |
| Region | Ours | us-east-1 only |
| When sending breaks | Ours to fix | Yours to fix in your AWS console, and a broken connection stops new sends |
| Tracking links | A trkfig.com subdomain unique to your account |
Amazon’s default awstrack.me |
| Sign in with Google | Available | Not available on the BYOS signup door |
| Free tier | 4,000 contacts, $0 | 4,000 contacts, $0 (plus your AWS bill) |
Everything not in that table is the same: the same campaign builder, automations, forms, segments, templates, reports, imports and exports; the same sending domains, DNS records and double opt-in; the same abuse and consent rules.
What BYOS actually asks of you
One stack, once. From Settings → AWS, the Connect AWS Account button opens a pre-filled CloudFormation quick-create page in your own AWS console. Click Create stack, and the page moves itself from waiting to connected to provisioned. You never type an AWS account number. See Connecting your own Amazon SES account and What the CloudFormation stack creates.
Leaving the SES sandbox. A new AWS account starts in the Amazon SES sandbox, which only delivers to addresses you’ve verified yourself, so campaign sending stays refused until AWS lifts it. Request production access in your own AWS console; we detect the result and start sending. See Leave the SES sandbox: request production access.
Keeping the connection healthy. We check the connection daily. If a link breaks, bounces and complaints stop reaching us, so opt-outs stop being recorded, and we hold new sends until it’s fixed. Settings → AWS names the broken link and offers the button that addresses it. See AWS connection health errors.
Your relationship with AWS is yours. Amazon enforces its own bounce and complaint rates and can pause your sending; that conversation is between you and AWS. See Bounce and complaint rates AWS enforces and Amazon suspended my SES account.
What platform sending gives you that BYOS doesn’t
No stack, no sandbox request, no quota to watch. Every platform account’s sending is isolated, so one bad sender’s bounces don’t follow you. See How we protect shared sending reputation.
Cost: how to think about it
Both families start free at 4,000 contacts, with a “Powered by EmailFig” line on your hosted pages. Above that, both are priced by contact count, and a BYOS plan costs less per month than the platform plan for the same number of contacts, because on BYOS you also pay Amazon directly for every email you send.
Which works out cheaper depends on how often you mail your list. Work out your AWS side first: Understand your AWS SES costs, then compare against How EmailFig pricing works and BYOS pricing.
How to sign up for each
- Platform: sign up at emailfig.com/auth. This is the default.
- BYOS: sign up at emailfig.com/auth/byos. Same passwordless flow (enter your email, then the six-digit code, then create the account), with no Continue with Google button on this door.
Already have an account? Its family is set. To check, look in Settings: a BYOS account has an AWS item under Sending, a platform account doesn’t.