AlexWebsites

I've been using it for a couple of years and I don't see any issues. Here's the thing with Amazon AWS, you need to read docs and have a general understanding how to set these services up because you'll be on your own. If you need a support staff ready to answer tech questions, stick with sendgrid or other in my opinion. AWS can be confusing but when it works it just works and is very cost effective.
On another note, if it wasn't for the way IPS handles email notifications, I would be fine sticking with SMTP and SES. Its just that when a user clicks reply, that triggers the notifications and hangs up the actual posting of the reply within a topic. So either use Amazon SES API or come up with a way that notifications get batched out with a task or something instead of instant and let the reply get posted instantly first. I don't know enough about how it works but there's a big difference when replying to topics and how the reply is posted. I've had them hang for up to 10 sec sometimes using 3rd party SMTP sending methods.

I’m pretty surprised at that since AWS services are so widely used.

I don’t really agree based on my own experiences with all my websites but can understand if you haven’t had good experiences with AWS to feel that way. Fits my needs quite well.

I was using sparkpost when it was free but once costs went up, I moved to SES on 4 of my forums. I'm not aware of anything that is as cost effective for 3rd party emailing. I suppose it also depends on where you are located.
https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/

 

my sendgrid jumped to $109 a month from $15  and now its under attack from hackers ...    SES here I come... wow

Would be great to have an option for using Amazon SES API like sendgrid or when sparkpost was available. I’m using Amazon SES over SMTP, but I believe using their API would be better.
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/DeveloperGuide/send-email-api.html

I use Amazon SES via smtp and the delay in replying to topics is what is frustrating. Would rather use their API. So bounces I handle with mail bouncer and if IPS had a default sending method to use the SES API, it would be on us to manage those bounces and our account with Amazon. Same with sendgrid, sparkpost (when it was available). I would say just incorporate the API sending method as an option, which would be very helpful. 
I have a topic going here: 
 

Would be great to have an option for using Amazon SES API like sendgrid or when sparkpost was available. I’m using Amazon SES over SMTP, but I believe using their API would be better.
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/DeveloperGuide/send-email-api.html

Would be great to have an option for using Amazon SES API like sendgrid or when sparkpost was available. I’m using Amazon SES over SMTP, but I believe using their API would be better.
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/DeveloperGuide/send-email-api.html

We don't have any agreement with Sendgrid. It has simply been implemented for a longer period of time.
There is interest in SES integration (although you can already use SES via SMTP presently anyways). I think the main catch is that they have stricter requirements for handling bounces which would necessitate new functionality being built in, not just slapping in another email gateway and calling it a day. That said, we're monitoring feedback/support for topics requesting SES integration.

Make sure all apps, plugins and themes have been updated and ready to be installed/updated as well before you move to 4.5. If you run bare IPS, then no issue. Always advisable to backup first.

60K Emails/Month on SendGrid $359.40 annually
60K Emails/Month on SES $72 annually
@Charles @Lindy there's a business case here for you to get it done 🙂 
 Undoubtedly a percentage of those savings for smaller communities on a tighter budget would lead to more plugins and community enhancement purchases. 
 So come on, which one of you is mates or shares a yacht with someone at SendGrid that you chose it over SES? 🤣

Because it's all out of love and care. And that I include myself in the above!

You don’t miss much. The linked article is specifically for developers and designers and is therefore posted in the appropriate sub-forum. It wouldn’t be very helpful to most forum owners.
The theme changes are public and the link is in the first reply. 

I would agree, LinkedIn promotion to business pages would be good.

Is anyone interested in having this developed? I don’t see it as part of 4.5, so we’ll need a plug-in.

It’s $0.10 for every 1000 emails. See https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/
Because there is no plugin or native API support, you have to use SMTP. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/DeveloperGuide/send-email-smtp.html
 

Sendinblue is a good one, maybe mailchimp also.

It's the bounce rates that can get you banned from amazon, so I use mailbouner in conjunction and its been very good and cost effective route for me and m,y multiple sites. I'm just looking to use their API instead of SMTP.

I just installed 4.5 beta and it's not an option.  IPS continues to only have sendgrid as an option:

 

 
 

I'm going to hold off getting this plugin developed to see if functionality will be added to 4.5. I wasn't able to get an answer from IPS support either way, which now forces me to just wait and see I guess. On smaller things like this, it would be nice to know what's planned and what is not on a roadmap. Used to be  where feature suggestions were tagged as "planned" or not, which was nice.

Hopefully this will be included in 4.5 as an option.

Amazon SES is very cost effective for large communities. I haven’t tried gsuite outside of small clients I’ve helped. I’m not sure what the cost would be especially if you sent a newsletter out to thousands of members. Email reputation is a huge part of deliverability, so I also use mailbouncer. The main reason I mention Amazon SES API is because posting delays seem to happen more with SMTP than an API method.

Is anyone interested in getting this developed? I do see some people in these forums using Amazon SES SMTP

I was using Sparkpost API when it was free and it had no posting lag. I see a lag with amazon SES SMTP, so was thinking API would be faster.