# Amazon SES vs Loops API + MCP

> Amazon SES has a score of 75.1 (BB) against Loops API + MCP's 63.1 (B). Both do email send. The largest gap is security & auth, 47 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Amazon SES has a score of 75.1 (BB) against Loops API + MCP's 63.1 (B). Both do email send. The largest gap is security & auth, 47 points.

- Amazon SES: grade BB, 75.1/100, rank #42 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-ses.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-ses.json
- Loops API + MCP: grade B, 63.1/100, rank #209 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/loops.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/loops.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Amazon SES for reliability (+5), security & auth (+47), transparency & trust (+8).

Pick Loops API + MCP for payments & pricing (+10).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon SES | Loops API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 95 | 90 | Amazon SES +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 82 | Amazon SES +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 66 | Loops API + MCP +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 87 | 40 | Amazon SES +47 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | Loops API + MCP +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 83 | Amazon SES +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 69 | Amazon SES +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **75.1 · BB** | **63.1 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon SES | Loops API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Loops (Astrodon Corporation) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://email.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/v2` | `https://app.loops.so/api/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.loops-so/loops` |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-03 |
| Popularity | 5.1M npm/wk | 7 stars, 460k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.3/5 (8) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Amazon SES.** Sending starts at $0.10 per 1,000 emails on the a la carte plan. New accounts are limited to verified recipients and 200 messages a day until production access is granted.

**Loops API + MCP.** No status incidents in the last 90 days. No scoped or read-only keys, and no read-only MCP mode.

## Before you call either

### Amazon SES

1. Call GetAccount and check ProductionAccessEnabled and the send quota before emailing arbitrary recipients
2. Verify the From domain as an identity first. Sends from unverified identities fail even in production
3. Use the mailbox simulator (success@simulator.amazonses.com) to test bounces and complaints without hurting reputation
4. Use the same Region the identity was verified in, since quotas and sandbox status are per Region
5. On a throttling error, wait and retry the send. SES drops messages over quota rather than queueing them

### Loops API + MCP

1. Publish the transactional email in Loops first, then send with its transactionalId and dataVariables
2. Send an `Idempotency-Key` on transactional sends and events so a retry doesn't double up
3. On 429, back off exponentially and read x-ratelimit-remaining
4. Ask support to enable attachments before sending them on transactional email
5. Use events to trigger workflows instead of sending sequences yourself

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