Resend vs Amazon SES for side projects that need a permanent free tier
Resend. “Free” means different things here: Resend's 3,000-emails/month tier is permanent, while Amazon SES offers “up to 3,000 message charges free each month for the first 12 months” — after month 12 you're on usage pricing ($0.10/1,000), and even during the free year you start in a sandbox capped at 200 messages per 24 hours at 1 message/second until AWS approves a production-access request. A side project wants zero of that ceremony. Resend's real constraints are the 100-emails/day cap, 1 domain, and a 5 requests/second default API limit — livable for almost any side project. Neither Resend nor SES pays us anything, so this verdict is unmonetized; if you need SMTP relay or a visual template editor instead of an API-first SDK, the alternatives box below lists two free tiers that do pay us, clearly labeled.
Side-by-side
| Resend | Amazon SES | |
|---|---|---|
| Free allowance | 3,000 emails/month, permanent | Up to 3,000 message charges free each month — first 12 months only; data transfer fees still apply |
| After 12 months | Still free (same tier) | $0.10 per 1,000 emails + $0.12/GB attachment data |
| Daily caps | 100 emails/day on the free tier | Sandbox: 200 messages per 24 hours at max 1 message/second until production access is approved |
| Getting to production | Sign up, verify 1 domain, send | Submit a production-access request to leave the sandbox; quotas are per AWS Region |
| Dashboard / analytics | Included (30-day data retention on free) | Virtual Deliverability Manager is a paid add-on at $0.07 per 1,000 emails (first 5,000 queries/month free) |
| API rate limit | 5 requests per second per team (default) | 1 message/second in sandbox; post-approval quota varies per account — Not in the pricing data we captured — UNKNOWN |
| Room to grow | Pro $20/mo for 50,000 emails; overage $0.90/1,000 | Usage pricing scales automatically; quotas counted per recipient, not per message |
| Affiliate program | None found as of 2026-07-12 no program | None found as of 2026-07-12 no program |
- SES's free tier expires: at month 13 a side project quietly starts accruing AWS charges ($0.10/1,000 plus attachment data).
- The SES sandbox is the hidden time cost — 200 messages/24h and a production-access request before real usage.
- Resend's 100/day cap means a launch-day spike beyond 100 emails queues into tomorrow or fails — plan for it.
SMTP2GO Free: 1,000 emails/month (200/day; 25/hour until your domain is verified), 5-day reporting — the pick when your app speaks SMTP, not an SDK. SMTP2GO pricing (affiliate link).
MailerSend Free: 500 emails/month (100/day) with a drag-and-drop template builder included — the pick when you want to design emails visually. MailerSend pricing (affiliate link).
Both links pay us 20%; Resend and SES pay us nothing, and Resend still wins the head-to-head above.
Where to sign up
Disclosure: neither Resend nor Amazon SES has an affiliate program we could find as of 2026-07-12 — the Resend verdict earns us $0. The two alternative free tiers above are affiliate links, and they're recommended only for the SMTP-relay / template-builder cases stated.
FAQ
Is Resend's free tier permanent?
Yes — 3,000 transactional emails/month, limited to 100 per day, with 1 domain and 30-day data retention, per Resend's pricing page accessed 2026-07-12. It is not a trial.
Is Amazon SES free forever?
No. SES offers up to 3,000 message charges free each month for the first 12 months only (covering outbound, inbound, and Virtual Deliverability Manager combined), and data transfer fees still apply. After 12 months you pay $0.10 per 1,000 emails.
What is the SES sandbox?
New SES accounts can send only 200 messages per 24-hour period at a maximum of 1 message/second, and must submit a production-access request to lift those limits (per AWS docs accessed 2026-07-12).
What free options exist beyond these two?
From the pricing pages we verified on 2026-07-12: SMTP2GO's free plan is 1,000 emails/month (200/day), and MailerSend's free plan is 500 emails/month (100/day) with a drag-and-drop template builder. Both of those companies pay us a commission; Resend and SES do not.
Sources
- https://resend.com/pricing (accessed 2026-07-12)
- https://resend.com/docs/api-reference/introduction (accessed 2026-07-12)
- https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/ (accessed 2026-07-12)
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/dg/manage-sending-quotas.html (accessed 2026-07-12)
- https://www.smtp2go.com/pricing/ (accessed 2026-07-12)
- https://www.mailersend.com/pricing (accessed 2026-07-12)
- https://affiliates.smtp2go.com/ (accessed 2026-07-12)
- https://www.mailersend.com/affiliate-program (accessed 2026-07-12)