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Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) vs. AWeber vs. iContact

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Amazon SES

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AAmazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) is an outbound-only email-sending service useful for marketing and transactional email, relying on the infrastructure of Amazon. Amazon SES provides the requisite statistics and built-in notifications for bounces, complaints, and deliveries for optimization of campaigns. Emails are sent via SMTP or the Amazon SES API. Amazon's pricing is per usage, presently at $.10 per thousand sends. The service is free for users of Amazon EC2 (up to 62,000 messages),…

    $0.10

    for emails after the first 1,000

    AWeber

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/AAWeber is an email marketing and automation solution. It provides support for mobile-friendly HTML email newsletters, autoresponder campaigns, subscriber segmentation and management, RSS-to-email features, signup forms for websites or blogs, and more.

    $15

    per month

    iContact

    Score6.8 out of 10
    N/AiContact is an email marketing solution that was acquired by Vocus in 2012. The product is integrated with Facebook and Twitter and is aimed at SMBs with unlimited sending as a key feature.

    $14

    per month

    Pricing
    Amazon SESAWeberiContact
    Editions & Modules
    Sending Emails from an Application Hosted in Amazon EC2
    $0.10 ($0.12)
    for every 1,000 emails after 62,000 (for each GB of storage)
    Sending Emails from Another Email Client or Software Package
    $0.10 ($0.12)
    for every 1,000 emails (for each GB of storage)
    Receiving Email
    $0.10
    for emails after the first 1,000
    Sending Emails from an Application Hosted in Amazon EC2
    Free
    for first 62,000 emails
    Receiving Email
    Free
    for the first 1,000 emails
    AWeber Lite
    $15
    per month Starting at
    AWeber Plus
    $30
    per month Starting at
    Done For You Email
    $30
    per month Starting at
    Unlimited
    $899
    per month
    1500 Users
    $15.00
    per month
    2500 Users
    $25.00
    per month
    5000 Users
    $45.00
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Amazon SESAWeberiContact
    Free Trial
    NoYesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$79 one-time feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—AWeber offers usage-based pricing starting at $15/month. Plans scale based on the number of subscribers and features needed. Options include: Lite Plan – Core tools like email automation, landing pages, sign-up forms, and AI Writing Assistant. Plus Plan – Advanced features including split automation paths, behavioral triggers, analytics, A/B testing, ecommerce, and custom branding. Done For You – A fully built email marketing system (emails, landing pages, and automations) delivered in 7 days, with 30 days of unlimited edits. All plans include 24/7 support. 14-day free trial available.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Amazon SESAWeberiContact
    Considered Multiple Products
    Amazon AWS
    No answer on this topic
    AWeber
    Chose AWeber
    Compared to Constant Contact, I find Aweber very easy to use. Setting up an autoresponder sequence is very straightforward, at least for us because we've used it for so long. Constant Contact is a very difficult and hard to use service. We hate it and knock it every chance …
    Incentivized
    iContact
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    9 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Amazon SESAWeberiContact
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) and AWeber and iContact
    Feature
    Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)
    -
    Ratings
    AWeber
    7.7
    31 Ratings
    4% below category average
    iContact
    6.6
    26 Ratings
    19% below category average
    WYSIWYG email editor00 Ratings8.930 Ratings7.024 Ratings
    Dynamic content00 Ratings7.03 Ratings7.021 Ratings
    Landing pages00 Ratings6.04 Ratings7.014 Ratings
    A/B testing00 Ratings8.07 Ratings5.017 Ratings
    Mobile optimization00 Ratings7.026 Ratings7.021 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings8.031 Ratings7.025 Ratings
    List management00 Ratings8.031 Ratings8.025 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences00 Ratings8.927 Ratings6.015 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content00 Ratings00 Ratings5.021 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) and AWeber and iContact
    Feature
    Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)
    -
    Ratings
    AWeber
    8.6
    31 Ratings
    12% above category average
    iContact
    8.0
    26 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings8.927 Ratings8.026 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings8.931 Ratings8.025 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings7.926 Ratings8.015 Ratings
    Pre-Send Testing
    Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) and AWeber and iContact
    Feature
    Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)
    -
    Ratings
    AWeber
    7.6
    3 Ratings
    7% below category average
    iContact
    7.0
    1 Ratings
    15% below category average
    URL Validation00 Ratings7.73 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Link Tracking00 Ratings8.43 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Image Validation00 Ratings7.13 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Inbox Display00 Ratings7.13 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Spam Testing00 Ratings7.13 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Email Previews00 Ratings8.43 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Email Accessibility Tools00 Ratings00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Spelling and Grammar Check00 Ratings00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Amazon SESAWeberiContact
    Small Businesses
    Postmark
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Mad Mimi
    Score10 out of 10
    Mad Mimi
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Postmark
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Campaign Monitor by Marigold
    Score9 out of 10
    Campaign Monitor by Marigold
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Emma by Marigold
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Emma by Marigold
    Score8.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Amazon SESAWeberiContact
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (23 ratings)
    8.0
    (37 ratings)
    8.0
    (45 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.8
    (6 ratings)
    3.4
    (19 ratings)
    Usability
    7.5
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    8.0
    (6 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.3
    (8 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    9.9
    (9 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Amazon SESAWeberiContact
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Amazon AWS
    Amazon Simple Email Service comes with the bundle of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and it also offers a limited number of emails per month for free. One who has a technical background and wants to send custom emails with custom domains in a professional way can go with Amazon Simple Email Service. If you have no technical background or tech team, it might not be useful for you.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    AWeber
    AWeber is an excellent email marketing solution for small to mid-sized businesses, especially those that are just starting with email marketing campaigns. AWeber is also good for bloggers. But it's not perfect for an affiliate marketer who wants to make a landing page on AWeber. Businesses that require advanced segmentation options may need to consider other email marketing platforms.
    Read full review
    iContact
    I would only recommend it if someone was a small business. I think they are the best suited for companies who will send out a coupon or offer here and there. The most recent updates made it more complicated to use for more complicated processes. It is easy to train someone on the program, and so quick to learn. But I would also only stick to the simpler things. I also think the colorful templates are great, and show great creativity. But again, it is hard to justify recommending the program when it isn't WYSIWYG.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Amazon AWS
    • As compare to other vendors that I have integrated response is very quick.
    • You can verify both domain or email to send out the emails from.
    • While setup you can easily configure it with your domain with few clicks like adding CNAME, DKIM records
    • Easy to use with or without access key and secret key within aws servers. You can directly map permissions to servers to go without credentials using boto3.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    AWeber
    • List building: AWeber makes it easy to grow opt-in subscribers through customizable signup forms as well an integration with tools like Sumo and Hustle Pro.
    • List segmentation: with a little more information about each subscriber, it's easy to create custom segmented lists based on different criteria.
    • Deliverability: AWeber enforces opt-in rules to keep spammers out of its system and improve deliverability rates for reputable users. We rarely have issues with our messages from AWeber being routed to spam folders.
    • Double opt-in: AWeber makes it easy to set up double opt-in to make extra certain you have a high-quality mailing list.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    iContact
    • Contact management. iContact is really great for entering all your contact. You are able to put them onto different lists, and let them choose which lists they would like to be a part of as well. There are many data fields provided to fill in information.
    • Emailing. We use the email feature at least once a month. They are always improving and adding new features, which is very helpful in presenting content in a new and exciting way to our readers. There are many options with remade templates and themes, or you can add your own.
    • Insights. It is really helpful being able to have the data to see what is working and what isn't. It is nice to be able to go back and see how things went in the past compared to now. Opens, clicks, shares, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Amazon AWS
    • While the service limits are one of the main points that keep the delivery metrics so reliable, it can be stressful to get a new implementation out the door quickly.
    • If you're looking for a point-and-click style email delivery tool, this is not the right type of product for you. Amazon Simple Email Service is for a developer-centric approach to implementation into existing applications, processes, and services.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    AWeber
    • Aweber would be even better if it had the ability to host landing pages. I have to use a tool like landingpages.net to do this if I don't want to create the landing pages as part of my client's website. If I manage their site, it isn't a problem, but it keeps me from using Aweber for clients who manage their own sites or dont' have one.
    • Aweber would greatly benefit from a more robust reseller program. Firms like mine have multiple clients and, with each client needing an individual Aweber account, it would be nice to have access to margin so that we could resell the services.
    • Along the lines of a reseller program, it would be great of Aweber allowed resellers to white label the interface and administrate multiple accounts from one agency account.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    iContact
    • We also would like to send transactional messages which don't require an opt-out, this is a challenge with iContact. (May be a feature with pro?)
    • The regular version of iContact doesn't support event management or logic flows for automated messaging.
    • Custom form fields have limited field type options (can't build a drop-down).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Amazon AWS
    No answers on this topic
    AWeber
    AWeber is easy and intuitive for me use. I really like the simplicity and the structure of the work flow as it saves me time. AWeber also integrates with all the other programs, systems and gateways that I use on a daily basis (WordPress, Paypal, LeadPages, Facebook and more) and if I have any questions or have trouble the AWeber customer service technicians are very helpful.
    Read full review
    iContact
    iContact has been a quick and easy way to send any announcements and news directly to email and social media subscribers. Its tracking and reporting capabilities turn a simple email into a marketing campaign that can be used as a tool to efficiently gauge reader response and customer satisfaction, and ultimately to reach potential customers. The consistency and excellent customer service is what makes this program a pleasant experience.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Amazon AWS
    1. Very less cost. 2. Fastest in market. 3. Negligible downtime. 4. Easy to integrate with other systems. 5. Easy to setup with your domain and email.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    AWeber
    See previous answers ... the design / customization interface could be more intuitive and elegant .. for example, for me it has been difficult to easily figure out how to place pictures / images to the right, left or center of text.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    iContact
    I rate iContact as an easy to use program due to its user friendly dashboard and user interface. Most companies of small to medium size do not have a dedicated marketer, therefore it is someone multitasking who may or may not have this kind of experience. iContact makes it relatively simple and can actually expand one's knowledge in the area of business promotion.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Amazon AWS
    No answers on this topic
    AWeber
    No answers on this topic
    iContact
    iContact is regularly up and running. Only once has it been unavailable for maintenance, which is to be expected and even desired for optimal performance when needed.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Amazon AWS
    We did not have the need of contacting Amazon for support. The documentation they provide is of great quality. Examples are easy to follow. One thing to have into consideration is we didn't have the premium support for AWS, so I can't provide details on how good or bad this service is, but in general, the basic support I had was great.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    AWeber
    I have always received prompt phone or live chat support that has resolved my issues on the first call in a competent, knowledgeable and friendly manner. By contrast MailChimp offers no live chat or phone support; they only offer email support and the response time for MailChimp is slow by comparison to AWeber.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    iContact
    They have always been responsive to any issues or concerns that have arisen with our account. Our customer account manager participates in our monthly county-wide communicators meetings via telephone to ensure that we are getting the most from the service. He also analyzes our lists to help us weed out inactive contacts.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Amazon AWS
    No answers on this topic
    AWeber
    No answers on this topic
    iContact
    The templates are difficult to customize, and they don't render well in email platforms
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Amazon AWS
    No answers on this topic
    AWeber
    No answers on this topic
    iContact
    i wouldn't be using it if i wasn't satisfied. time is money
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Amazon AWS
    Mailchimp has a fixed monthly price, and with the number of emails that we sent, it's pretty expensive. Since our mailings are quite infrequent, using Mailchimp didn't make financial sense for us, even though Mailchimp is a more polished, packaged solution for email marketing. We evaluated other email delivery solutions as well and didn't find anything that matches Amazon SES on reliability and pricing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    AWeber
    We often use Canva to design our content and then export it as an image to upload into Aweber, as Aweber designs and limitations are too much of a hindrance to our needs. Canva is a brilliant tool for marketing and saves you a lot of time being able to adapt or change an existing template you create.
    Read full review
    iContact
    I didn't have a say in the decision because I wasn't with the company at the time. I listed HubSpot here because I know we used it in conjunction with iContact for email automation, but HubSpot Email was only recently built-out to the point where it is today. Now, iContact and HubSpot are no longer integrated.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Amazon AWS
    No answers on this topic
    AWeber
    No answers on this topic
    iContact
    iContact stays the same with the number of users added or taken away. It certainly remains reliable despite increased usage, and so, can be considered scaleable in that aspect.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Amazon AWS
    • SES is still more cost effective than other email services like Mailgun.
    • Unless we have a high-traffic month, staying within the free tier is very nice for our bottom line.
    • Not having to spend time worrying about SES reliability saves us frustration and money.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    AWeber
    • Aweber delivers my email fast and reliably, never had a problem tech support could not handle (by the way, their support is great!)
    • Since I have been with Aweber for so many years, I have an unlimited plan for a very affordable rate
    • Aweber may not be a sexy as some of the new kids on the block, but it is a solid offering you should consider when choosing an autoresponder
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    iContact
    • We have a template for webinars that we send every month. We just edit it and send. This couldn't be easier (once you know where to find it).
    • We like the breakdown of statistics in the dashboard. They're easy to read.
    • iContact isn't a comprehensive solution, so it is only one of a few products we use for marketing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    AWeber Screenshots

    Screenshot of an example of email sequences triggered by actions like purchases or sign-ups to nurture leads, re-engage customers, or onboarding new subscribers. Use tags and behavior-based logic to send the right message at the right time, in the subscriber’s time zone.Screenshot of AWeber's interface for building on-brand email graphics and social content. Built-in Canva access lets users create custom visuals for headers, announcements, and promotions in just a few clicks.Screenshot of where to create and send professional emails used to promote products and drive more sales. Built-in tools like content blocks, saved templates, and branded elements make it easy to stay consistent and launch campaigns faster.Screenshot of where to launch product pages, event signups, or lead capture forms in minutes. Every landing page includes built-in forms, payment collection, and automated follow-ups.Screenshot of the editor used to sell digital products directly from an email or landing page. The checkout experience can be customized with pricing and real-time purchase tracking, while automating confirmation emails and follow-ups to boost customer satisfaction.Screenshot of the editor to write emails faster using built-in AI. This offers help brainstorming content, refining text tone, or generating subject lines to improve open rates, ideal for creators and small teams looking to save time without sacrificing quality.