Amazon SES + MailKite

Amazon SES is a bulk email sending service from AWS. MailKite offers the same SMTP interface with better developer experience, inbound email parsing, and unlimited free domains.

What you need

• A verified domain with SPF + DKIM published
• Your API key (mk_live_…)
• AWS account with SES access (optional — MailKite replaces or complements it)

Send email

Swap your SMTP host from SES to MailKite — same interface, simpler setup.

# MailKite as an Amazon SES alternative
# Same SMTP interface, simpler setup

SMTP Host: smtp.mailkite.dev
SMTP Port: 587
SMTP Username: mailkite
SMTP Password: mk_live_...
From: hello@yourdomain.com

# Amazon SES SMTP was:
# SMTP Host: email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
# Port: 587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (TLS)
# Just swap the host and credentials

Receive inbound email (optional)

SES inbound requires SNS + Lambda + parsing. MailKite is a single webhook URL.

# Amazon SES inbound is limited (SNS + Lambda)
# MailKite inbound is a single webhook URL

# MailKite: POST https://your-endpoint.com/webhook
# Payload: { from, to, subject, text, html, attachments }

# SES: SNS → Lambda → parse → process
# Much simpler with MailKite

Test it

Swap your SMTP host and send.

# Quick test
echo "Test" | swaks --to test@example.com --from hello@yourdomain.com \
  --server smtp.mailkite.dev --port 587 \
  --auth USER=mailkite --auth-password mk_live_...

Troubleshooting

• SES requires domain verification and sandbox exit for production access.
• MailKite domains are ready to send after SPF + DKIM verification — no sandbox, no request forms.
• SES IAM credentials are per-region. MailKite uses one API key globally.

See the SMTP relay docs for the full connection reference, or all integrations for other platforms.