Scaleway Transactional Email vs Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)
Scaleway Transactional Email is a European alternative to Amazon Simple Email Service (SES): same email & communication use case, headquartered in France and governed by EU GDPR, while Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Transactional email API and SMTP relay with SPF, DKIM, DMARC, webhooks, and deliverability scoring, hosted natively on Scaleway's European cloud.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- Yes
This is raw sending infrastructure rather than a marketing tool, and nothing undercuts it at volume: 0.10 dollars per 1,000 emails a la carte, or 0.16 dollars per 1,000 on the Essentials plan. You build the templates, dashboards and deliverability work yourself. Contracts default to Amazon Web Services, Inc. in Seattle under Washington state law.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
Scaleway Transactional Email vs Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) at a glance
| Scaleway Transactional Email | Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | France | United States |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | United States |
| Primary privacy law | EU GDPR | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Yes |
| Best for | Teams that need email & communication built for European data-protection requirements | Teams already invested in the Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) ecosystem |
Choose Scaleway Transactional Email if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- You want to start free and scale up later
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
About Scaleway Transactional Email
Scaleway Transactional Email is a French email API for developers sending receipts, password resets, and notifications at scale, hosted natively on Scaleway's European cloud. Where Resend and Amazon SES route your mail through US infrastructure, TEM keeps sending and event data inside the EU, with GDPR compliance stated as a core guarantee.
Integration is straightforward through both SMTP and a REST API, with guided SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup to protect deliverability and domain reputation. Webhooks stream delivery, open, and bounce events, a reputation score flags problems early, and analytics flow into Scaleway's Cockpit observability stack alongside the rest of your infrastructure.
Key features:
- SMTP and REST API sending from one managed service
- SPF, DKIM, and DMARC with guided DNS configuration
- Webhooks for delivery, bounce, and engagement events
- Deliverability scoring to protect sender reputation
- Free tier of 300 emails per month, then usage-based pricing
- Managed dedicated IP available on the Scale plan
- Cockpit integration for analytics next to your other Scaleway services
Scaleway is part of the French iliad Group, headquartered in Paris, and states that TEM is natively integrated into its European cloud, guaranteeing data security and GDPR compliance. Servers span multiple EU regions and availability zones.
Ideal for developers who want a Resend-style transactional email API from a sovereign European cloud they may already be building on.
Why choose Scaleway Transactional Email over Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is headquartered in the United States, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes: the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Scaleway Transactional Email removes that overhead. As a France-based provider, it operates under EU GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.