Platform sending or your own Amazon SES: which to choose
EmailFig can send for you, or send through Amazon SES in your own AWS account. You choose when you sign up.
For almost everyone, the right choice is platform sending: EmailFig sends your email for you and there’s nothing to set up. The other option is BYOS (bring your own SES), where you connect your own AWS account and your email goes out through Amazon SES there. Everything else about EmailFig is the same either way.
You choose when you sign up, and the choice stays with the account. See Can I switch later?
The short answer
Choose platform sending unless you have a specific reason not to. It works the moment you sign up, we look after deliverability, and you never touch AWS.
Choose BYOS if you already use AWS, want sending to happen in your own account, or send enough email that paying Amazon directly works out cheaper.
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 |
| What you pay | Your EmailFig plan | A lower EmailFig price, plus your own AWS bill for every email sent |
| Monthly email allowance | 10,000 emails on the free plan; 10 times your contact limit on a paid plan | None |
| Sending reputation | Looked after by EmailFig | Your AWS account’s own |
| Region | Handled for you | us-east-1 only |
| When sending breaks | Ours to fix | Yours to fix in your AWS console; sending pauses until it’s fixed |
| An address that hard-bounces | Blocked for every EmailFig account | Blocked in your account only |
| Free plan | Up to 4,000 contacts | Up to 4,000 contacts (plus your AWS bill) |
Everything else is the same: campaigns, automations, forms, segments, templates, reports, imports and exports, your sending domain and its DNS records, tracking links on emfig.yourdomain.com, double opt-in, and the rules about what you can send.
What BYOS asks of you
A one-time setup. At Settings → AWS, Connect AWS Account opens a pre-filled CloudFormation page in your AWS console. (CloudFormation is AWS’s tool for setting things up from a ready-made recipe, called a stack.) Click Create stack, and the page in EmailFig updates on its own once the connection is done. See Connecting your own Amazon SES account, which also covers what EmailFig can access in your AWS account.
Leaving the SES sandbox. A new AWS account starts in the Amazon SES sandbox, which only delivers to addresses you’ve verified yourself, so campaigns can’t send until AWS lifts it. You request production access in your AWS console, and EmailFig picks up the result. See Leave the SES sandbox: request production access.
Keeping the connection healthy. EmailFig checks your connection regularly. If something it needs has been removed or changed, sending pauses and Settings → AWS tells you what’s wrong and what to click. We email you too, from EmailFig, so the warning reaches you even when your SES account is in trouble. See AWS connection health errors.
Your relationship with AWS. Amazon sets its own bounce and complaint limits and can pause your sending. See Keep your AWS account in good standing.
Cost
Both are free up to 4,000 contacts and priced by contact count above that. BYOS costs less at every size because you also pay Amazon for each email, so which is cheaper overall depends on how much you send. Compare Understand your AWS SES costs with How EmailFig pricing works.
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. The page is headed Sign up to send through your own Amazon SES: enter your email, then the six-digit code. If you already have an account, it signs you in to that account as usual.
If you run an agency, you choose this for each client account when you create it. See Client accounts.
Not sure which you have? In Settings, a BYOS account has an AWS item under Sending. A platform account doesn’t.
Can I switch later?
Not by yourself. If you need to switch, email contact@emailfig.com from the address you sign in with, and say which way you want to move, why, and what your sending domain is. A real person will tell you what’s involved before anything changes: the two are priced differently, and your sending domain has to be verified again.
Deleting your account and signing up again isn’t a quick way round this. A deleted account is held for 30 days, and your sign-in email and sending domain can’t be used on a new account until then. See Delete your account.