When I want to build transactional emails in my apps, AWS SES is my first choice! There are several alternatives like Sendgrid, Mailgun but when it comes to pricing, AWS SES wins!

But the only drawback is that, AWS SES doesn't offer any template editors. Developers should write HTML to build good looking emails, and keep them in S3.

But that's boring, difficult and hard to maintain.

In this tutorial, I'll show you an alternative, an easiest way to setup SES email templates using a free tool - Engagespot!

Prerequisites

• Configured SES account
• Engagespot account (signup here)

Setting up SES Email templates

Login to your Engagespot account, navigate to channels -> Enable the AWS SES Email Provider with the API key and secret.

Then, navigate to Templates and create a new template and add Email channel to it. Now you'll get the email editor.

Build a beautiful email editor using one of the existing layouts, or create one from scratch yourself.

You can also test the template directly using the "Test" template option available in the dashboard!

Sending the SES Email template from your backend

Now, to trigger the email template you've created using the SES provider, we will use the Engagespot REST API, or a library such as @engagespot/node or Engagespot PHP library

If you're using the REST API, this is how you can simply send the templated SES email to your user!

Done! All it took was less than a few minutes!
You can edit the template anytime without having to touch your code!