ChatGPT answers, unedited

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter audience, you usually do not want ordinary “hosted email” (mailboxes like Gmail/Workspace) to handle bulk sends. The common architecture is:

1. Mailbox hosting (for you@yourdomain.com, staff accounts)
2. Dedicated email delivery/newsletter platform (for sending thousands/millions of newsletters reliably)

The deliverability-critical part is the second one.

Strong options for a media publication

For a media site, I would generally look at:

• Beehiiv if the newsletter itself is a core product.
• Mailchimp if you need a broad marketing platform and nontechnical workflows.
• SES + a newsletter layer if you send very high volume and have engineering resources.
• Customer.io if personalization and behavioral automation matter.

For your own domain

Whatever you choose, set up:

• From: address on your domain (for example newsletter@yourdomain.com)
• SPF
• DKIM
• DMARC
• A dedicated sending subdomain, often something like:

• news.yourdomain.com
• mail.yourdomain.com
• send.yourdomain.com

Authentication is a major part of deliverability; SPF/DKIM/DMARC alignment helps receiving providers verify legitimate sending. Cloudflare Docs

If you mean “hosted email” as in staff inboxes

For normal company email:

• workspace.google.com
• microsoft.com
• fastmail.com

Then connect your newsletter sender separately.

A typical media stack

Example:

• Staff email: Google Workspace
• Newsletter platform: Beehiiv or Mailchimp
• Sending domain: news.example.com
• DNS: SPF + DKIM + DMARC
• Analytics: newsletter platform + Google Analytics

A few questions would change the recommendation:

1. Roughly how many subscribers (10k, 100k, 1M+)?
2. How many emails per week?
3. Is the newsletter the main product, or is it a publication with a newsletter attached?
4. Do you need staff mailboxes too, or only the sending infrastructure?

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/mailing list, I’d separate employee/normal email hosting from bulk newsletter delivery rather than trying to make one mailbox provider do both.

A good architecture

• Your domain + Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 — for you@yourdomain.com, staff mail, replies, calendars, etc.
• Dedicated email service — for newsletters and high-volume outbound mail, using something like news.yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com.
• Configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and ideally keep marketing mail on a dedicated subdomain so its reputation doesn't damage your normal corporate mail. Microsoft explicitly recommends this separation for bulk mail. Microsoft Learn

Services I'd look at

The important distinction is that email hosting ≠ bulk-email delivery. For example, Microsoft 365 currently limits a mailbox to 10,000 recipients/day and 30 messages/minute and explicitly recommends a dedicated bulk-email provider for commercial bulk mail. Microsoft Learn Microsoft Learn

Likewise, Fastmail explicitly says it isn't a bulk-email sending service and prohibits sending duplicative email. Fastmail

If this is a serious media publication

I'd probably build it as:

yourdomain.com
→ Google Workspace / Microsoft 365
→ normal staff correspondence

news.yourdomain.com
→ SES / SendGrid / Mailgun
→ newsletters, breaking-news alerts, subscriptions

That gives you much better control over sender reputation, bounce handling, unsubscribe processing, suppression lists, DKIM, DMARC, IP/domain reputation, and deliverability monitoring.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 25k / 100k / 1M) and how many emails you send per day, I can narrow this down to 2–3 specific services and compare cost, deliverability, domain setup, dedicated IPs, and newsletter tooling.

Yes. For a media site with heavy newsletter/list sending, I would separate mailbox hosting from bulk email delivery rather than trying to make Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 do both.

A solid setup

• Your normal domain mail: Google Workspace or Microsoft 365

Example: editor@yourdomain.com, sales@yourdomain.com

• Bulk/newsletter sending: a dedicated email service such as Amazon SES, Mailgun, SendGrid, or a specialized newsletter platform.
• Use a sending identity such as news.yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com, with your own SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configuration.

For particularly large volumes, Amazon SES is worth looking at. It supports dedicated IPs, including a managed option that automatically handles IP allocation, ISP-specific warmup, and scaling. It also has deliverability monitoring and inbox-placement/reputation tooling. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation AWS Documentation

aws.amazon.com

I wouldn't use Microsoft 365/Exchange Online as the newsletter engine. Microsoft explicitly says legitimate bulk commercial email such as newsletters should use a third-party provider, and Exchange Online has a 10,000-recipient-per-day per-mailbox limit. Microsoft Learn Microsoft Learn

The important distinction

If by "hosted email" you mean a service that gives you actual mailboxes plus lets you blast 100k–1M+ newsletter emails from the same domain, that's a different requirement from ordinary business email.

For a media operation, I'd look for:

• Custom-domain sending
• SPF/DKIM/DMARC support
• Dedicated or managed dedicated IPs at your volume
• Automatic IP warmup
• Bounce/complaint processing
• List-unsubscribe / one-click unsubscribe
• Suppression lists
• Segmentation and automation
• Deliverability/reputation monitoring
• Separate reputation for newsletters vs. transactional mail
• Ability to authenticate From: addresses on your domain

SES specifically allows separate dedicated IP pools—for example, isolating marketing and transactional mail—so a newsletter problem doesn't necessarily share the same IP reputation as password resets or other transactional messages. AWS Documentation

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 50k, 500k, 5M), I can narrow this down to the services that make the most sense and compare their costs/deliverability architecture.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/mailing list, I would not use ordinary hosted mailbox service (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.) as the bulk sender. Use a dedicated email delivery platform, while keeping your normal you@yourdomain.com mailboxes elsewhere.

Best options

• aws.amazon.com — Best for very high volume and cost efficiency. You can authenticate your own domain with DKIM/SPF and use a custom MAIL FROM domain. SES is inexpensive, but you'll need to manage reputation, list hygiene, bounces, complaints, and some infrastructure yourself. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation
• mailgun.com — Probably the best middle ground for a media operation. It supports verified sending domains, DKIM/SPF, API/SMTP, suppression handling, and high-volume sending without requiring you to build everything yourself. Mailgun Documentation Mailgun Documentation
• postmarkapp.com — Excellent deliverability and particularly attractive if you have both transactional mail and newsletters. Its Broadcast streams are specifically designed for newsletters/bulk mail and are separated from transactional traffic. Postmark
• resend.com — Very developer-friendly and easy to integrate, although for a large established media list I'd lean toward SES/Mailgun/Postmark depending on volume and operational requirements.

There's also an interesting newer model: sendvia.io puts a polished newsletter/API layer on your own AWS SES account, so you retain the SES sending infrastructure/reputation while getting campaign and monitoring tools. sendvia

What I'd do for a media site

I'd set it up something like:

yourdomain.com → website + normal mail
news.yourdomain.com → newsletter sending
mail.yourdomain.com → bounce/return-path infrastructure

Then authenticate everything with SPF + DKIM + DMARC, use a dedicated sending subdomain, and keep transactional mail separate from newsletter traffic.

For example:

Website: example.com
Editorial newsletter: news@example.com
Transactional: notifications@example.com
Sending infrastructure: mail.example.com

This separation is useful because a problem with a newsletter campaign shouldn't unnecessarily damage the reputation of password resets, account emails, etc. Postmark explicitly separates broadcast and transactional streams for this reason. Postmark

And don't use Gmail/Workspace as the actual bulk-mail engine. Google imposes sending limits and recommends gradual, consistent volume increases and monitoring domain reputation for large senders. support.google.com support.google.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 50k, 500k, 5M) and how often you send, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best setups and estimate the monthly cost.

Yes. For a media site sending large newsletters from your own domain, I’d shortlist:

• Amazon SES — best for very high volume and cost efficiency; supports dedicated IPs, automatic warmup/scaling, and deliverability monitoring. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation
• Postmark — easier operationally and strongly focused on deliverability, with separate infrastructure for broadcast/newsletter versus transactional mail. Postmark

For a serious media publication, SES with managed dedicated IPs is probably my first choice if you have engineering resources. AWS Documentation

If you tell me roughly emails/month and whether you need a newsletter UI or just an SMTP/API, I can recommend the best setup.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/mailing list, I would not use your normal hosted mailbox provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.) as the bulk-sending engine. Those services have relatively low sending limits—Google Workspace, for example, caps a user at 2,000 messages/day. Google Workspace Help

What you want is usually two separate services:

• Mailbox hosting — you@yourdomain.com for normal human email.
• High-volume email platform — sends newsletter@yourdomain.com to your mailing list via your domain.

My shortlist

Amazon SES is particularly attractive at scale: its published pricing is around $0.10 per 1,000 emails, although you have to handle more of the infrastructure/reputation management yourself. Amazon Web Services, Inc. Lettr

The setup I'd recommend

For example:

you@media-site.com → Google Workspace / Microsoft 365

newsletter@media-site.com → Mailgun / SES / SendGrid

Then configure:

• SPF
• DKIM
• DMARC
• dedicated sending subdomain, e.g. news.media-site.com
• bounce/complaint handling
• one-click unsubscribe
• suppression lists
• gradual IP/domain warmup
• Gmail Postmaster monitoring

This matters enormously for a media business. Gmail currently requires bulk senders (roughly 5,000+ messages/day to Gmail accounts) to authenticate with SPF/DKIM/DMARC, maintain low spam rates, and support one-click unsubscribe for marketing/subscribed messages. Google Help Google Help

One interesting option

There's also a newer service called sendvia that puts a managed newsletter/API layer on your own Amazon SES account. It provides newsletters, lists, tracking, SMTP/API, and deliverability monitoring while the actual mail goes through your AWS account. sendvia

That could be a particularly interesting setup for a media company because you get SES economics without having to build all the newsletter machinery yourself.

If you tell me roughly how big the list is (e.g. 50k, 500k, 5 million) and how often you send (daily/weekly/multiple times per day), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best choices and estimate the monthly cost.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/mailing list, I’d look at a dedicated email-sending platform rather than trying to host the mail server yourself.

The important distinction is that you probably want email delivery infrastructure, not necessarily a hosted inbox like Gmail/Outlook. You can send as newsletter@yourdomain.com while the actual delivery is handled by another provider.

My shortlist

• postmarkapp.com — My first choice if deliverability is the priority. Postmark now supports broadcast/newsletter sending and explicitly separates Broadcast traffic from transactional mail, including separate sending infrastructure/IPs. Postmark Postmark
• mailgun.com — Very good fit for a technically sophisticated media operation. It supports dedicated IPs/IP pools and recommends dedicated IP infrastructure once you're above roughly 50K emails/week. Mailgun Documentation
• sendgrid.com — Strong choice if you're sending millions of newsletter emails and want a mature marketing platform plus APIs, segmentation, etc.
• aws.amazon.com — Cheapest by far at serious volume, but it's infrastructure rather than a polished newsletter platform. You'd typically pair it with something like a newsletter/CMS application. Current comparisons put SES around $0.10/1,000 messages before other AWS costs. SenderReputation.org Lettr
• sendvia.io — An interesting option if you want a nicer sending interface while having the mail actually go through your own AWS SES account. sendvia

For your particular use case

I'd probably architect it like:

Your domain
→ SPF/DKIM/DMARC
→ dedicated sending subdomain, e.g. mail.yoursite.com
→ email provider
→ Gmail / Outlook / Yahoo / Apple, etc.

And keep your normal human mail (you@yourdomain.com) separate from newsletter traffic.

For example:

• you@yourdomain.com → Google Workspace/Microsoft 365
• newsletter@mail.yourdomain.com → Postmark/Mailgun/SES
• alerts@mail.yourdomain.com → transactional stream/provider
• separate unsubscribe/bounce/complaint handling

This separation is particularly important for a media site because a bad newsletter reputation shouldn't drag down password resets, account emails, editorial correspondence, etc. Postmark explicitly recommends separating transactional and bulk traffic for this reason. Postmark

One important caveat

A "good deliverability" provider can't magically make a poor mailing list deliver well. For a heavy media newsletter, I'd care about:

authenticated domain + dedicated/isolated sending reputation + gradual IP/domain warmup + clean opt-in list + automatic bounce/complaint suppression + proper unsubscribe + Gmail/Yahoo sender requirements.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 100K subscribers, 3 newsletters/week), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best choices and what I'd actually deploy.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/list, I’d look at an email service provider (ESP) rather than ordinary hosted mailbox providers like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

My shortlist:

• aws.amazon.com — best if you're comfortable with some technical setup. Very high scale, inexpensive, supports your own domain, and now has managed dedicated IPs that automatically warm up and scale based on sending patterns. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation
• mailgun.com — probably the best middle ground for a media company. It supports dedicated IPs and IP pools, domain-level separation, automated IP warmup, and specifically recommends dedicated IPs above ~50K emails/week. Mailgun Documentation Mailgun Documentation
• postmarkapp.com — particularly attractive if you have both newsletters and transactional mail. Its Broadcast infrastructure keeps bulk and transactional sending on separate IP/reputation infrastructure. It also offers dedicated IPs at 300K+ messages/month. Postmark Postmark

What I'd choose for a media site

If you're sending something like 100K–several million newsletter emails/month, I'd lean toward:

Mailgun or Postmark if you want an easier managed service.

Amazon SES if you want the lowest sending cost and have engineering resources to manage the email stack.

One important distinction: you can absolutely send as newsletter@yourdomain.com while the actual mail infrastructure is operated by the ESP. You'd configure SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and preferably a dedicated sending subdomain such as news.yourdomain.com. SES, for example, supports a custom MAIL FROM domain specifically for this setup. AWS Documentation

Also, don't assume a dedicated IP automatically means better deliverability. Sender reputation, complaint rate, engagement, list hygiene, authentication, and gradual volume ramp-up matter enormously. Postmark explicitly argues that its shared pool can be better for many senders, while Mailgun recommends dedicated IPs once volume gets high enough. Mailgun Documentation Postmark

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options and estimate the monthly cost.

Yes. For a media/publishing site with a large newsletter list, I’d look at dedicated email-sending infrastructure rather than ordinary hosted mailbox providers like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

The strongest options are:

• aws.amazon.com — probably my first choice if you're sending hundreds of thousands to millions of emails. You can authenticate your own domain, use dedicated IPs, separate marketing/transactional traffic into different IP pools, and AWS now offers managed dedicated IPs with automatic warmup and scaling. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation
• mailgun.com — easier than SES and particularly good if you want an email API plus domain management. Mailgun recommends dedicated IPs above roughly 50k emails/week, and supports IP pools and separate queues per domain. Mailgun Documentation Mailgun Documentation
• postmarkapp.com — excellent deliverability and very easy to operate, but I'd favor it more for transactional + moderate broadcast mail than a giant media newsletter operation. It does have Broadcast Message Streams and no fixed daily sending limit, subject to its reputation requirements. Postmark Postmark

What I'd build for a media site

I'd use something like:

Your domain
→ news.yourdomain.com for newsletters
→ yourdomain.com for normal corporate email
→ separate sending infrastructure/IP reputation for transactional mail

Then:

Website/CMS → newsletter platform → SES/Mailgun → subscribers

The important part is that your domain's reputation and authentication are properly configured (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and that bulk newsletter traffic doesn't contaminate transactional or employee email reputation. Mailgun explicitly recommends separating marketing and transactional mail using domains/subdomains. Mailgun Documentation

One important nuance: a dedicated IP isn't automatically better deliverability. At high volume it can be advantageous, but you have to warm it up and maintain a consistent sending pattern. SES's managed dedicated IP system now handles much of that automatically. AWS Documentation

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 100k subscribers × 1 newsletter/day), I can recommend the best setup and estimate the monthly cost.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/mailing list, I would generally separate mailbox hosting from bulk-mail delivery rather than try to use something like Google Workspace for both.

My top choices

• Amazon SES — probably the best fit if you're sending hundreds of thousands to millions of emails/month and care heavily about deliverability and control. You can send using your own domain, use dedicated IPs, separate marketing and transactional reputation, and AWS now offers managed dedicated IPs with automated warm-up/scaling. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation
• SendGrid — easier operationally than SES and built specifically around high-volume email, domain authentication, reputation management, analytics, etc.
• Mailgun — another strong choice if you want an API/SMTP-oriented service with relatively straightforward infrastructure.
• Postmark — excellent reputation, but I'd favor it for transactional/triggered mail rather than a huge editorial newsletter operation.
• Amazon SES + a newsletter application — my preferred architecture if you're technical and want maximum control/cost efficiency.

The important distinction

If by "hosted email" you mean:

editor@yourmedia.com needs to receive/read normal email and yourmedia.com needs to send 500k+ newsletter emails

I'd use two services:

Normal inboxes
→ Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 / Fastmail

Bulk newsletter
→ SES / SendGrid / Mailgun

And I'd send newsletters from a subdomain, e.g.:

news.yourmedia.com

while keeping regular correspondence on:

yourmedia.com

That gives you much better reputation isolation. With SES, you can even separate dedicated IP pools for marketing versus transactional mail. AWS Documentation

If deliverability is your #1 concern

I'd seriously consider:

Google Workspace or Microsoft 365
for human mail

-

Amazon SES managed dedicated IPs
for newsletters

-

a newsletter platform/CMS
for list management, segmentation, unsubscribe handling, campaigns, etc.

SES's deliverability tooling can monitor inbox placement, blocklists, domains and campaign performance, and perform inbox-placement testing. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation

One caveat: a dedicated IP isn't automatically better. It needs to be warmed up and maintained; sudden volume spikes can hurt reputation. AWS specifically recommends gradual warm-up and consistent sending patterns. AWS Documentation

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/month (e.g. 100k subscribers × 3 newsletters/week), I can recommend the specific stack and estimated monthly cost.

That gives you much better reputation isolation. With SES, you can even separate dedicated IP pools for marketing versus transactional mail.

If deliverability is your #1 concern

I'd seriously consider:

Google Workspace or Microsoft 365
for human mail

Yes. For a media site sending large newsletter volumes from your own domain, I’d look at an email service provider (ESP) rather than traditional hosted mail like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

My top choices

• aws.amazon.com — probably my first choice if cost and scale matter. You can authenticate your own domain, use dedicated IPs, separate marketing/transactional traffic into IP pools, and use managed dedicated IPs that automatically warm up and scale based on your sending patterns. AWS also has deliverability/inbox-placement monitoring. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation AWS Documentation
• mailgun.com — easier developer experience than SES and designed specifically around high-volume email. Good if you want an API plus deliverability tooling without building as much infrastructure yourself.
• sendgrid.com — a mature option for large newsletters and transactional mail, with a substantial deliverability operation and dedicated-IP options.
• postmarkapp.com — excellent deliverability, but I'd generally favor it for transactional email rather than a media company's very large newsletter operation.

The architecture I'd use for a media site

If you're sending, say, 100k–millions of emails/month, I'd separate your mail streams:

yourdomain.com
   │
   ├── newsletter.yourdomain.com
   │       └── ESP / dedicated sending infrastructure
   │
   └── transactional.yourdomain.com
           └── separate sending infrastructure

And ideally:

• news@newsletter.yourdomain.com → newsletters
• noreply@yourdomain.com → transactional/site mail
• Separate DKIM/SPF configuration
• DMARC on the parent domain
• Separate IP reputation for marketing vs. transactional traffic
• Gradual IP/domain warm-up
• Strict bounce and complaint handling
• One-click unsubscribe / List-Unsubscribe headers
• Suppression of inactive recipients rather than repeatedly mailing them

The domain reputation matters as much as the IP. A dedicated IP isn't automatically better: a brand-new dedicated IP with no reputation can initially perform worse than a good shared pool. AWS specifically notes that dedicated IPs need warm-up and that sending patterns affect reputation. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation

If this is a serious publication

I'd lean Amazon SES + a newsletter application/platform on top of it rather than trying to make SES itself your newsletter CMS.

For example:

Website/CMS → newsletter system → SES → subscribers

That gives you cheap, very high-volume delivery while keeping your publication's content/subscriber management separate from the mail transport.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/month (e.g. 50k subscribers, 2 newsletters/day), I can recommend the best setup and estimate the monthly cost.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/mailing list, I would not use normal hosted mailbox providers like Gmail Workspace or Fastmail as the primary bulk-sending system. They have sending limits and/or explicitly restrict bulk/duplicative sending. Google Workspace Help Fastmail

What you want is usually a hosted email delivery/marketing platform that sends from your domain, while optionally using a separate provider for human inboxes.

My shortlist

• aws.amazon.com — probably the best underlying infrastructure if you're sending at serious scale. Very inexpensive and highly scalable, but you'll need to handle more of the mailing-list/campaign infrastructure yourself or put a layer on top of it.
• sendgrid.com — mature API/SMTP + marketing platform, good if you want something more turnkey than SES.
• mailgun.com — particularly good if your media site has both newsletters and lots of transactional mail.
• postmarkapp.com — excellent deliverability reputation, but I'd favor it more for transactional email than a huge publication newsletter.
• jetemail.com — interesting newer option specifically combining SMTP/API delivery with marketing campaigns and mailing lists. It advertises unlimited sending based on subscriber count rather than charging per email. JetEmail
• anypost.com — worth looking at if you're talking millions to tens of millions of emails/month and want managed deliverability/dedicated infrastructure. Anypost

The architecture I'd recommend

For a serious publication, I'd separate inbox email from bulk email:

yourdomain.com
       │
       ├── Staff / normal email
       │      → Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 / Fastmail
       │
       └── Newsletter + transactional
              → email delivery platform
              → news.yourdomain.com
              → subscribers

For example:

• alice@yourdomain.com → Google Workspace
• newsletter@news.yourdomain.com → SES/SendGrid/Mailgun/etc.
• alerts@news.yourdomain.com → transactional mail
• SPF + DKIM + DMARC properly configured
• separate sending subdomain so newsletter reputation doesn't unnecessarily jeopardize employee mail

That's particularly important for deliverability. Google recommends consistent sending rates, gradual volume increases, and monitoring domain reputation when sending large amounts of mail. Google Help

One newer option I'd investigate

JetEmail caught my eye for your particular description because it's trying to be an all-in-one publication email system: SMTP/API delivery, lists, segments, broadcasts, workflows, signup forms, transactional mail, and custom sending domains. JetEmail

If you're talking about something like 50k, 500k, 5M, or 50M subscribers, though, my recommendation changes substantially.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you expect to send per month, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best choices for your media site, including approximate cost and deliverability tradeoffs.

Yes. For a media/publishing site sending large newsletter volumes from your own domain, I’d look at an email service provider (ESP) rather than traditional hosted mailbox providers like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

My top choices

• Amazon SES — probably the best value if you have technical resources. It supports your own sending domain, dedicated IPs, IP pools, and high-volume sending. Its Managed Dedicated IPs automatically warm up and scale IPs based on your traffic, which is particularly interesting for a publisher with variable newsletter volume. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation
• SendGrid — easier to operate than raw SES, with a mature marketing/newsletter platform, dedicated IP options, domain authentication, suppression management, and deliverability tooling.
• Mailgun — another strong choice if you're building the sending infrastructure into your application and want good APIs plus dedicated IP/domain controls.
• Postmark — excellent deliverability, but I'd primarily use it for transactional mail rather than a giant editorial newsletter list.

For your use case, I'd lean SES

The important distinction is that "hosted email on my domain" can mean two very different things:

1. Mailbox hosting — editor@yourpublication.com receives mail in Gmail/Outlook.
2. Mass outbound email infrastructure — newsletter@yourpublication.com sends hundreds of thousands/millions of newsletters.

You can use Google Workspace/Microsoft 365 for #1 and SES/SendGrid/Mailgun for #2.

For a serious media operation, I'd actually separate the two.

For example:

yourpublication.com
        │
        ├── Google Workspace
        │      ├── editor@
        │      ├── sales@
        │      └── hello@
        │
        └── Email sending platform
               └── newsletter@
                   │
                   ├── SPF
                   ├── DKIM
                   ├── DMARC
                   ├── dedicated/managed IPs
                   └── subscriber list

SES is particularly compelling at high volume because you can isolate the newsletter traffic into dedicated IP pools and maintain a separate reputation for different categories of mail. AWS Documentation

One important caveat: a dedicated IP isn't automatically better deliverability. You have to warm it up and maintain good engagement, bounce and complaint rates. SES's managed dedicated IP product automates much of the warming/scaling, but you still remain responsible for your sender reputation. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation

If you tell me roughly how many emails you send per day/month (e.g. 100k, 1M, 10M+) and whether you want a ready-to-use newsletter UI or an API you integrate into your site, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options and compare their costs/deliverability setup.

Yes. For a media/publishing site with large newsletter/list sends, I’d look at an email-sending platform rather than traditional hosted mailbox providers like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

My shortlist

• Amazon Web Services / Amazon SES — best for very high volume and cost efficiency. You can authenticate your own domain, use dedicated IPs, separate marketing from transactional traffic, and AWS now offers managed dedicated IPs with automatic ISP-specific warmup and scaling. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation

aws.amazon.com

• Mailgun — probably the easiest fit if you want a dedicated email infrastructure product without building as much yourself. It supports custom sending domains, dedicated IPs/IP pools, automatic warmup, and separate queues by domain. Mailgun specifically recommends dedicated IPs above ~50K emails/week. Mailgun Documentation Mailgun Documentation

mailgun.com

• Postmark — particularly interesting if your media site also has transactional email. Its Broadcast Message Streams use separate infrastructure from transactional mail, so a large newsletter campaign doesn't contaminate the infrastructure handling things like account emails. Postmark Postmark

postmarkapp.com

What I'd choose for a media site

If you're talking about something like 100K–several million emails/month, I'd lean toward:

Website → your newsletter/list software → SES or Mailgun → your sending subdomain

For example:

news.example.com → newsletter/bulk mail
mail.example.com → transactional mail
example.com → your normal employee/business email

I would not send millions of newsletter emails directly from your primary example.com identity. Keeping marketing and transactional reputation separated is important; Mailgun explicitly recommends separate domains/subdomains, and SES supports separate IP pools for different traffic types. AWS Documentation Mailgun Documentation

Also, dedicated IP ≠ automatically good deliverability. A new dedicated IP needs to be warmed up, and your list quality, complaint rate, bounces, authentication, engagement, and sending consistency matter enormously. SES's managed dedicated IP product now automates much of the warmup/scaling, which makes it considerably more attractive than it used to be. AWS Documentation

For perspective, AWS currently gives an example of 2 million emails/month for about $553/month on its Pro plan including managed dedicated IPs and deliverability tooling, although your actual cost depends on configuration and plan. Amazon Web Services, Inc.

If you tell me roughly how many emails you send per month (e.g. 100K, 1M, 10M), whether they're newsletters vs. transactional, and what you're using to manage the mailing list, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options and give you an architecture for your domain.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/mailing list, I’d look at an email service provider (ESP) rather than trying to run mail directly from your web host.

The strongest options are:

• Mailgun — probably my first choice if you want API-driven sending + high volume + control over your domain/IP reputation. You can authenticate your own domain with SPF/DKIM, use dedicated IPs or IP pools, and separate bulk from transactional mail. Mailgun specifically recommends dedicated IPs once you're above roughly 50k emails/week. Mailgun Documentation Mailgun Documentation

mailgun.com

• Postmark — excellent deliverability and particularly attractive if your media site also sends account notifications, password resets, etc. Its Broadcast Message Streams keep newsletter traffic separate from transactional mail, and its bulk API automatically throttles delivery. Postmark Postmark

postmarkapp.com

• Amazon Web Services / Amazon SES — usually the lowest-cost choice at very high volume, but it's more infrastructure-oriented. You get excellent control and can send using your own domain, but you'll have more work around reputation, list management, suppression, analytics, etc.

aws.amazon.com

For your particular use case

I'd architect it roughly like this:

Your domain
→ news.yoursite.com (newsletter sending identity)
→ SPF + DKIM + DMARC
→ Mailgun/Postmark/SES
→ newsletter subscribers

And I'd keep your normal business/site email separate, e.g.:

• you@yoursite.com → normal human email
• news@yoursite.com → newsletters/bulk mail
• mail.yoursite.com → transactional/application mail

That separation is important because a newsletter reputation problem shouldn't damage your site's transactional or employee email reputation. Mailgun explicitly recommends separating bulk and transactional traffic, and Postmark uses separate infrastructure for broadcast versus transactional mail. Mailgun Documentation Postmark

One important distinction

If by "hosted email" you mean "I want mailboxes like editor@yoursite.com where people can send and receive email", that's different from "I need to send 100k+ newsletter emails."

For the latter, I'd use an ESP. For the former, I'd use something like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and not use it for your mass mailing.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per month (e.g. 50k, 500k, 5 million), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 choices and estimated monthly cost, including whether you should use a dedicated IP.

Yes. For a media site doing heavy newsletter/bulk sending from your own domain, I’d look at an email service provider (ESP) rather than traditional hosted mailbox providers like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

My top choices

aws.amazon.com is particularly compelling for a media company. It supports newsletter/marketing sending at very large scale, custom domains, and dedicated IPs. AWS now offers managed dedicated IPs that automatically handle IP allocation, ISP-specific warmup, and scaling based on your sending patterns. Amazon Web Services, Inc. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation

mailgun.com would probably be my choice if you want something simpler to operate. Mailgun specifically recommends a dedicated IP once you're above roughly 50,000 emails/week, and supports IP pools for larger senders. It also isolates sending queues by domain. Mailgun Documentation Mailgun Documentation

One important architecture decision

If your domain is something like:

example.com

I wouldn't necessarily send your newsletter directly from the same domain used for employee email.

I'd consider:

• example.com → website + normal company email
• news.example.com → newsletters / marketing
• mail.example.com or another sending subdomain → ESP infrastructure
• Separate transactional mail stream from newsletter traffic

Mailgun, for example, explicitly recommends separating marketing, transactional, and corporate mail using domains/subdomains. Mailgun Documentation

You can still have the newsletter appear as:

From: Newsroom <newsletter@example.com>

while the underlying authenticated sending infrastructure uses the appropriate DNS records/subdomain.

For a media site, I'd prioritize these

1. Domain reputation
2. Dedicated or well-managed IP reputation
3. Automatic IP warmup
4. SPF + DKIM + DMARC
5. Bounce/complaint suppression
6. List-unsubscribe / one-click unsubscribe
7. Good engagement segmentation
8. Separate newsletter and transactional reputation

The last point is particularly important: you don't want a giant newsletter blast damaging password resets, subscriptions, receipts, etc.

If you're sending hundreds of thousands or millions of emails/month, my shortlist would be Amazon SES Managed Dedicated IPs vs. Mailgun. SES is likely to win on infrastructure/cost; Mailgun wins on ease of operation.

If you tell me roughly how many emails/month (e.g. 500k, 5M, 50M) and whether you need a newsletter UI/CMS or just the sending infrastructure/API, I can narrow it down to the best 2–3 options and estimate the costs.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter, I would not use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 as the bulk-mail engine. Microsoft explicitly says Exchange Online isn't designed for bulk mailing and recommends a dedicated bulk-email provider; its normal mailbox limit is 10,000 recipients/day. Microsoft Learn Microsoft Learn

My top choices

• beehiiv.com — best fit for a media/newsletter business. It is built specifically around publications, supports custom domains, and currently advertises sending to millions of subscribers. Its Smart Warming automatically ramps up sending on a new/migrated custom domain over roughly 4–8 weeks. Beehiiv Beehiiv Beehiiv
• sendgrid.com — best if you want more control over the email infrastructure. It supports authenticated domains, dedicated IPs, IP pools, analytics, and high-volume sending. SendGrid recommends separating marketing and transactional traffic, and suggests multiple dedicated IPs once you're around 200–300K emails/month. Twilio SendGrid
• mailgun.com — excellent API/infrastructure option. It supports custom sending domains, dedicated IPs, automated IP warmup, and separating marketing vs. transactional streams. Mailgun Mailgun Help Center
• letterduck.com — interesting if by "hosted email" you mean actual mailboxes plus newsletter sending. It's specifically designed around media companies where you might have hello@, editor@, tips@, etc., while also sending newsletters from the same domain. LetterDuck

The architecture I'd use

For a serious media site, I'd actually separate the functions:

yourdomain.com
    │
    ├── Normal staff email
    │     hello@yourdomain.com
    │     editor@yourdomain.com
    │     → hosted mailbox provider
    │
    └── Newsletter
          newsletter@yourdomain.com
          → beehiiv / SendGrid / Mailgun

Even better, use a dedicated sending subdomain:

Staff email:       editor@yourdomain.com
Newsletter:        newsletter@news.yourdomain.com
Transactional:     noreply@mg.yourdomain.com

That gives your newsletter reputation some separation from your employees' ordinary correspondence. SendGrid and Mailgun both specifically recommend separating marketing and transactional streams. SendGrid Mailgun Help Center

If this is primarily a publication/newsletter rather than a software application, I'd lean strongly toward beehiiv. It handles the publishing/audience side as well as the email infrastructure, rather than making you assemble an ESP, list manager, newsletter editor, analytics, and deliverability system yourself. Beehiiv

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have now and how many emails you expect to send per month (e.g. 50k, 500k, 5M), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options and explain the domain/DNS setup I'd use.

Yes. For a media site with a large mailing list, you usually do not want ordinary hosted mailbox email (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.) to handle newsletter blasts. You typically want:

1. A hosted mailbox provider for human email (you@domain.com, editors, staff)
2. A dedicated email delivery/newsletter platform for high-volume sending from your domain

The best setup depends on your scale and workflow.

Good options for a media/publisher use case

beehiiv.com — best all-in-one newsletter platform

Good if your site is primarily a newsletter business.

• Handles subscriber lists, newsletters, automations, analytics
• Supports custom sending domains
• Built around publishers rather than generic marketing teams
• Easier operationally than stitching together SMTP infrastructure

Best for: 10k–1M+ subscriber newsletters where editorial workflow matters

mailchimp.com — mature marketing/newsletter platform

Good if you need:

• Editorial campaigns
• Segmentation
• Templates
• Integrations
• Team workflows

Downside: costs can rise significantly as your list grows.

aws.amazon.com — lowest-cost high-volume sending

Common choice for serious publishers.

Pros:

• Very cheap at scale
• Strong infrastructure
• Works with your own domain
• Can send millions of emails

Cons:

• You need another layer for newsletters, templates, analytics, list management, etc.

Many publishers pair SES with a newsletter CMS or sending layer. Mailpunch sendvia

postmarkapp.com / mailgun.com — strong delivery infrastructure

More common for transactional email, but useful if your site sends:

• Account emails
• Breaking-news alerts
• Password resets
• Notifications
• Personalized messages

Mailgun supports custom sending domains, SMTP/API sending, analytics, and deliverability tooling. Mailgun

sendgrid.com — enterprise email infrastructure

Often used by large publishers and apps.

Good for:

• Very large sends
• API-driven systems
• Dedicated IP programs

For a serious media site, I would usually architect it like this:

Domain: example.com

Human email

• Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 - editor@example.com
• newsroom@example.com

Newsletter sending

• beehiiv / Ghost Newsletter / custom CMS
• connected to SES, Mailgun, SendGrid, etc.

DNS authentication

• SPF
• DKIM
• DMARC
• optionally BIMI

Important deliverability practices

• Use a separate sending subdomain: - mail.example.com
• news.example.com
• Warm up sending volume gradually
• Remove inactive subscribers periodically
• Keep complaint rates very low
• Do not send your biggest blast from a brand-new domain/IP

My shortlist by scenario

If you mean "hosted email" as in a Gmail-like inbox service plus the ability to send hundreds of thousands/millions of newsletters, the answer changes — most mailbox hosts are intentionally not designed for that. For a media operation, separating inbox hosting from newsletter delivery is usually the reliable approach. LetterDuck

A couple of details would narrow this down:

• roughly how many subscribers (10k, 100k, 1M+)?
• are you running WordPress, Ghost, custom CMS, or something else?
• do you need editors replying from the same domain?

A couple of details would narrow this down:

Yes. If by “hosted email” you mean a service that hosts your newsletter/mailing list and sends large volumes from your own domain, there are several good options. For a media site, I’d look first at beehiiv rather than a conventional mailbox provider.

My shortlist

• beehiiv — probably the best fit for a media/publishing site. It is specifically built for publishers, supports custom sending domains, and is designed to send to very large audiences. Its Enterprise offering includes dedicated IPs and deliverability support; beehiiv says it supports publishers sending to millions of subscribers. Beehiiv Beehiiv

One particularly nice feature is Smart Warming: when you move a newsletter to your domain, beehiiv gradually shifts traffic onto the new domain/IP combination rather than immediately blasting the entire list. Beehiiv

• Mailchimp — mature and very capable. Good if you want a general-purpose marketing platform rather than a publishing-first product. It can handle very large audiences and has dedicated-IP options for high-volume senders. Mailchimp itself says shared IPs are often preferable until you're at substantial volume. Mailchimp Mailchimp
• Twilio SendGrid — better if you want infrastructure/API control. I'd consider this if your site has its own CMS, subscriber database, and newsletter-generation system and you mainly need a high-volume email delivery layer rather than a complete publishing platform.

One important distinction

If you're sending something like:

newsletter@yourmedia.com

you don't necessarily want your normal domain's mail server handling the bulk mail.

I'd generally configure something like:

• Website: yourmedia.com
• Normal staff email: @yourmedia.com
• Newsletter sending: news.yourmedia.com or email.yourmedia.com
• Newsletter From address: newsletter@news.yourmedia.com
• Proper SPF + DKIM + DMARC
• Dedicated sending infrastructure/IP if your volume warrants it

beehiiv specifically recommends using a subdomain when the main domain is also used for regular email, which is a sensible architecture for a media company. Beehiiv

And don't assume that a dedicated IP automatically means better deliverability. At lower volumes, an established shared IP pool can actually perform better; dedicated IPs become more compelling once you're sending substantial, consistent volume. Mailchimp Mailchimp

If you tell me roughly how big the list is and how often you send (e.g. 100k subscribers × daily, or 2M × weekly), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best architectures and tell you whether I'd use beehiiv, SendGrid, Amazon SES, Mailchimp, or something else.

Yes. For a media site with heavy newsletter/list sending, I would not use ordinary hosted mailbox providers like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 as the actual bulk-sending engine.

The better architecture is:

Your domain
→ normal hosted mailbox for you@domain.com
→ dedicated bulk-email provider for newsletter@domain.com

That gives you normal business email and an infrastructure designed for high-volume sending.

Best options

• aws.amazon.com — Extremely inexpensive at scale and excellent if you have technical resources. You authenticate your own domain with SPF/DKIM/DMARC and can use a dedicated IP setup. Best value for a large publication.
• sendgrid.com — Much easier to operate than SES, with newsletter tooling, analytics, suppression management, domain authentication, and dedicated IP options. Good all-around choice for a media company.
• mailgun.com — Strong developer/API infrastructure and good deliverability tooling; particularly attractive if the site's CMS/application is generating the mail.
• postmarkapp.com — Excellent reputation for transactional mail, but I'd generally choose a marketing-focused provider for a publication sending large newsletters.
• brevo.com — More of an all-in-one marketing/newsletter platform; worth considering if you want less infrastructure work.

One important distinction

If by "hosted email" you mean "I want editor@mydomain.com and newsletter@mydomain.com to both work", you can absolutely do that.

For example:

mypublication.com
│
├── Google Workspace / Microsoft 365
│   ├── editor@mypublication.com
│   ├── sales@mypublication.com
│   └── accounting@mypublication.com
│
└── newsletter.mypublication.com
    └── SendGrid / SES / Mailgun
        └── newsletter@mypublication.com

I'd actually recommend putting bulk mail on a subdomain, e.g. news.mypublication.com or mail.mypublication.com, rather than using the exact same sending infrastructure as your employee email. Microsoft specifically recommends separating bulk-mail traffic onto a custom subdomain, because problems with bulk sending can otherwise affect regular business mail. Microsoft Learn Microsoft Learn

Why not just Google Workspace?

Google Workspace currently has a 10,000-recipient/day per-user limit, with lower limits for some types of sending, and Gmail's bulk-sender requirements include SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Google Workspace Help Google Workspace Help

Microsoft 365 similarly isn't intended to be a bulk-mail platform: Exchange Online has a 10,000-recipient/day per-user limit and 30 messages/minute, and Microsoft explicitly recommends a dedicated bulk-email provider for commercial bulk mail. Microsoft Learn Microsoft Learn

So if you're talking about, say, 50k, 100k, 500k+ newsletter recipients, don't try to make a mailbox do it.

What I'd choose

For a serious media publication:

Easiest: SendGrid
Lowest cost / most scalable: Amazon SES
Developer-heavy site: Mailgun
Newsletter/marketing-heavy operation: SendGrid or Brevo

And regardless of provider, the deliverability setup matters enormously: SPF + DKIM + DMARC, proper unsubscribe handling, bounce/complaint suppression, list hygiene, gradual IP/domain warm-up, and reputation monitoring. Gmail explicitly considers domain/IP reputation, authentication, and recipient behavior when filtering mail. workspace.google.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 50k/500k/5M), how many newsletters you send per week, and whether you're using WordPress/Drupal/custom software, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best setups and approximate monthly cost.

Yes. For a media/publishing site sending large newsletter volumes from your own domain, I’d look at a different class of service than ordinary business email hosting.

My shortlist

• PostUp — probably the most directly aligned with your use case. It is specifically built for publishers/media companies, supports dedicated IPs, domain authentication, segmentation, automation, and emphasizes managed deliverability and publisher support. PostUp
• beehiiv — excellent if the primary product is newsletters and audience growth rather than general-purpose marketing automation. Its managed sending infrastructure can be attractive because you don't have to operate IP reputation yourself.
• SendGrid — a strong choice if you have developers and want your CMS/site to control the sending infrastructure. It supports shared and dedicated IPs and is designed for substantial volumes. Twilio
• Postmark — excellent reputation and deliverability, but I'd choose it more readily for transactional/triggered mail than a giant editorial newsletter operation. Its dedicated IP program currently starts at 300,000 messages/month, and Postmark explicitly says its shared pools are often better for smaller senders. Postmark
• SendX — worth considering if cost is important and you have a large list. It specifically markets itself to publishers, supports SPF/DKIM/DMARC, dedicated IPs, throttling and reputation monitoring. SendX

One important distinction

If by "hosted email" you mean:

"I want newsletter@mydomain.com, my website/CMS generates the emails, and the provider handles the massive outbound sending."

Then yes — absolutely. I'd use an email delivery/marketing platform rather than trying to run SMTP yourself.

If you mean:

"I also need normal inboxes like editor@mydomain.com for employees."

That's a separate service such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Don't mix your employee mail infrastructure with your bulk newsletter infrastructure.

For a serious media operation, I'd actually set it up something like:

editor@domain.com → normal business email
newsletter@domain.com → bulk newsletter platform
alerts@domain.com → transactional email service

And authenticate the sending domain properly with SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Those are fundamental to modern bulk-mail deliverability. Publishing House

Also, don't automatically pay for a dedicated IP. At sufficiently high, consistent volume it can make sense, but a cold dedicated IP can initially perform worse than a well-managed shared pool; the benefit is isolation/control rather than a magic deliverability boost. Stuff Report Postmark

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 100k subscribers × 2 newsletters/day), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best choices and approximate monthly cost.

Yes. For a media site with heavy newsletter/list sending, I’d look at an email service provider rather than traditional hosted mailbox providers like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

My first choice would be Amazon SES, particularly if you're comfortable with a little technical setup.

Best options

• aws.amazon.com — probably the strongest fit for very high-volume sending. You can authenticate your own domain with DKIM/SPF/DMARC, use dedicated IPs, and SES now offers managed dedicated IPs that automatically warm up and scale based on your sending patterns. AWS Documentation Amazon Web Services, Inc.
• postmarkapp.com — excellent reputation/deliverability, but historically more focused on transactional email. Dedicated IPs are available once you're at 300k+ messages/month. Postmark
• mailgun.com — good middle ground if you want a more polished email platform/API than SES.
• sendgrid.com — very mature for newsletters and high-volume marketing, with extensive tooling around lists, templates, analytics, suppression, etc.

The important distinction

If by "hosted email" you mean:

editor@mynews.com receives mail and mynews.com sends 500k newsletters/month

I'd actually use two services:

Mailbox hosting: Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 / Fastmail
Outbound newsletter infrastructure: SES / Mailgun / SendGrid / etc.

That separation is beneficial because your newsletter traffic doesn't share the same sending infrastructure as your employees' normal correspondence.

For a media company, I'd also strongly consider separate sending subdomains, e.g.:

• editor@mynews.com → normal business mail
• news@send.mynews.com → newsletters
• alerts@notify.mynews.com → transactional/urgent mail

That lets you isolate reputation between different types of mail.

What I'd choose

If you're sending hundreds of thousands to millions of emails/month, I'd lean:

SES + your own domain + managed dedicated IP pool + a newsletter/list-management application.

SES lets you isolate sending reputation with dedicated IP pools and automatically manages IP warmup/scaling with its managed option. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation

But a dedicated IP isn't automatically better deliverability. Your list quality, complaint rate, engagement, authentication, unsubscribe handling, and sending consistency matter enormously. AWS explicitly says you're still responsible for maintaining the reputation of managed dedicated IPs. AWS Documentation

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/month (e.g. 100k subscribers, 2 newsletters/day), I can recommend the best architecture and provider—including whether you actually need a dedicated IP.

Yes. For a media site with a large mailing list, you usually want to separate hosted mailbox email (your staff addresses like editor@domain.com) from newsletter sending infrastructure (hundreds of thousands/millions of outbound messages). A few platforms cover both, but many publishers use a combination.

Good options:

If you mean “I want Gmail-style hosted mailboxes plus the ability to blast newsletters from the same domain”, fewer services do that well. Some newer all-in-one tools are trying to combine inbox hosting and newsletters; for example, LetterDuck positions itself around domain email, newsletters, and deliverability management together. LetterDuck LetterDuck

For a serious media operation, I’d generally architect it like this:

• Staff email: Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 (name@yourdomain.com)
• Newsletter platform: beehiiv, Ghost, or another ESP
• Sending domain: a dedicated subdomain such as news.yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com
• Authentication: SPF + DKIM + DMARC configured correctly
• Reputation management: gradual warm-up, bounce suppression, complaint monitoring

A key point: avoid sending a million newsletter emails through your normal employee mailbox domain. If newsletter reputation gets damaged, it can hurt your editors’ regular email too.

If you share your approximate list size (10k, 100k, 1M+), sending frequency (daily/weekly), and whether you need a CMS like WordPress/Ghost, I can narrow this down to the best-fit stack.

Yes. For a media/publishing site sending large newsletters from your own domain, I’d look at an email service provider (ESP) rather than ordinary hosted mailbox providers like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

My top choices

• aws.amazon.com — best for very high volume / cost efficiency. SES is explicitly designed for high-volume marketing and newsletter sending. You can authenticate your own domain and use either shared IPs or dedicated IPs. Its managed dedicated IPs automatically warm up and scale based on your sending patterns, which is particularly attractive if you're doing serious volume. Amazon Web Services, Inc. AWS Documentation
• mailgun.com — probably the easiest developer-oriented choice. It supports custom sending domains, dedicated IPs and IP pools, and Mailgun specifically recommends dedicated IPs once you're above roughly 50K emails/week. Mailgun Documentation Mailgun Documentation
• postmarkapp.com — excellent deliverability, but I'd use it more for transactional mail than a giant media newsletter operation.

What I'd do for a media site

If you're talking something like 100K–millions of newsletter emails/month, my architecture would be:

Your domain
→ SPF + DKIM + DMARC
→ SES or Mailgun
→ dedicated sending infrastructure/IPs once volume warrants it
→ newsletter software/CMS on top

And importantly, I'd separate newsletter/marketing mail from transactional mail. SES, for example, lets you put different traffic types into separate dedicated IP pools so a problem with newsletter reputation doesn't necessarily damage transactional delivery. AWS Documentation

For deliverability, the sending service is only part of the equation. List hygiene, complaint rates, bounce rates, authentication, gradual IP/domain warmup, engagement, and consistent sending patterns matter enormously. SES's current tooling also includes deliverability monitoring and ISP/inbox-placement diagnostics. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation

If you tell me roughly how many emails you expect to send per day/month (e.g. 50K, 500K, 5M+) and whether you need a newsletter UI or just an API, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options and explain the likely architecture/cost.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/mailing list, I would not use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 as the actual bulk sender. Microsoft explicitly recommends third-party providers for legitimate bulk commercial email, and normal mailbox services impose recipient limits. learn.microsoft.com

What you want is usually two separate services:

1. Hosted mailbox — you@yourdomain.com for people to read/reply to email.
2. Bulk email service (ESP) — sends newsletters from newsletter@yourdomain.com at scale.

My shortlist

For your use case, I'd probably look hardest at Amazon SES or Mailgun.

Amazon SES is particularly attractive if you're sending hundreds of thousands or millions of emails. It supports custom-domain DKIM/SPF/DMARC and dedicated IP pools, including managed dedicated IPs that automatically warm up and scale with your sending patterns. docs.aws.amazon.com

Mailgun is a little more turnkey. It supports custom sending domains and dedicated IPs; Mailgun currently recommends considering a dedicated IP around 50k+ messages/week, while noting that consistent volume is important for reputation. documentation.mailgun.com

Postmark has a very strong deliverability philosophy, but its dedicated-IP program starts at 300k messages/month, and historically it's been more oriented toward transactional mail than giant publisher newsletters. postmarkapp.com

The important part: your domain

I'd configure it something like:

• yourdomain.com → your normal website
• mail.yourdomain.com → bulk-mail authentication infrastructure
• newsletter@yourdomain.com → newsletter sender
• hello@yourdomain.com → normal hosted mailbox
• SPF
• DKIM
• DMARC
• custom Return-Path/bounce domain
• dedicated sending IP or managed IP pool once your volume warrants it
• separate reputation for newsletter vs transactional mail

That last point is particularly important. You don't want a bad newsletter campaign to damage password resets, account notifications, contact-form messages, etc. Amazon SES and Mailgun both support mechanisms for separating sending/reputation. documentation.mailgun.comdocs.aws.amazon.com

And don't assume a dedicated IP automatically means better inbox placement. Gmail specifically emphasizes consistent sending, gradual volume increases, low spam complaints, authentication, and monitoring reputation. support.google.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (10k / 100k / 1M+) and how often you send, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best setups and approximate monthly cost, including what I'd use for the actual hosted mailboxes.

Yes. For a media site with heavy newsletter/list sending, I would not use normal hosted email (Google Workspace, Fastmail, Microsoft 365) as the mailing-list sender. Those services are designed primarily for person-to-person/business mail and impose sending limits; Fastmail explicitly says it is not a bulk email sending service. Fastmail Google Support

The better architecture is:

• Hosted inboxes: Google Workspace, Fastmail, Microsoft 365, etc.
• Newsletter/mailing-list delivery: a dedicated email service using your domain.
• Website/transactional mail: ideally a separate sending stream/subdomain.

Services I'd look at

For a media publication, I'd probably start with SendGrid, Mailgun, or Amazon SES, rather than trying to make your regular mailbox provider do the newsletter delivery. A recent 2026 comparison similarly puts SES toward the high-volume/technical end, SendGrid toward large developer-heavy operations, Brevo toward an all-in-one marketing setup, and Postmark toward transactional mail. SenderReputation.org

The domain setup matters more than the provider

For example, if your publication is:

example.com

I'd consider:

• you@example.com → Google Workspace/Fastmail/etc.
• news@example.com → newsletter sender
• bounce.example.com → bounce/return infrastructure
• potentially email.example.com or news.example.com → dedicated mailing infrastructure

Then configure SPF, DKIM and DMARC correctly. Google specifically recommends consistent sending rates, gradual volume increases, monitoring spam rates/reputation, and using Postmaster Tools for high-volume Gmail delivery. Google Support

This separation is particularly useful for a media company because a newsletter reputation problem shouldn't unnecessarily damage the reputation of your staff's normal @example.com correspondence.

One important distinction

If by "mailing list" you mean a newsletter to 50,000–5 million subscribers, that's one problem.

If you mean a discussion list, where subscribers can email list@example.com and the system redistributes each message to everyone, that's a different category. For that I'd look at a hosted mailing-list platform rather than SendGrid/SES alone.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/month (e.g. 100k subscribers × 1 newsletter/day), I can recommend the specific architecture and provider I'd use, including approximate cost.

Yes. But for a media site with a large newsletter, I would not use a conventional hosted mailbox provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Fastmail, etc.) as the actual newsletter sender. Those systems are optimized for person-to-person email, and their bulk-sending restrictions can hurt you. For example, Microsoft is enforcing a 2,000 external-recipient/24-hour limit for Exchange Online, while Fastmail explicitly says it is not a bulk email sending service. Microsoft Download Center Fastmail

What you probably want is a platform that combines custom-domain mailboxes + dedicated/high-volume sending infrastructure + newsletter management.

The interesting options

• jetemail.com — Probably the closest match to what you're describing. It offers mailboxes, custom domains, SMTP/API sending, marketing/newsletter functionality, transactional email, inbound filtering, and deliverability tooling in one platform. It specifically advertises unlimited sending based on subscriber count rather than number of messages. JetEmail
• letmesend.email — Another newer platform explicitly designed around combining mailboxes + marketing/broadcast + transactional email + custom domains. It advertises automated warm-up, IP rotation, and deliverability monitoring. LetMeSend.Email
• zoho.com — More established, but I'd treat this as two systems: Zoho Mail for employee mailboxes and Zoho Campaigns for newsletters. Zoho explicitly distinguishes business email from marketing/bulk email and directs bulk senders to Campaigns. Zoho

What I'd recommend for a media site

If you're sending, say, 50,000–5 million newsletter emails/month, I'd architect it like this:

Your domain
→ editor@yourdomain.com / sales@yourdomain.com → hosted mailbox
→ newsletter@yourdomain.com → dedicated marketing/broadcast infrastructure
→ noreply@yourdomain.com → transactional infrastructure

And make sure the domain has properly configured:

• SPF
• DKIM
• DMARC
• dedicated/subdomain sending identity
• bounce processing
• one-click unsubscribe
• suppression lists
• reputation monitoring
• gradual IP/domain warm-up

The key point is don't mix your newsroom's normal correspondence reputation with millions of newsletter messages. Ideally I'd use something like news.yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com as the sending domain/subdomain while keeping your primary domain for human correspondence.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 50k, 500k, 5M) and how often you send, I can narrow this down to the 3–4 best platforms and compare pricing, deliverability, custom-domain setup, mailbox hosting, and API/newsletter features.

Yes. For a media site with heavy newsletter/list sending, I’d separate “hosting your normal mailboxes” from “sending bulk email.”

My top choices

• Amazon SES — probably the best fit if volume is very high and you have some technical capability. It is built for high-volume transactional and marketing/newsletter sending, supports your own domain, DKIM/DMARC, and offers managed dedicated IPs that automatically warm and scale. Amazon Web Services, Inc. AWS Documentation

aws.amazon.com

• SendGrid — easier operationally than SES and designed specifically around email delivery, marketing campaigns, domain authentication, analytics, etc. I'd consider it if you want a more turnkey system.
• Mailgun — particularly good if the site/application itself needs to send lots of email, with an API-first approach. Less attractive if your main requirement is a sophisticated editorial newsletter operation.
• Mailchimp / similar ESPs — better if your priority is nontechnical newsletter management: editors create campaigns, segmentation, templates, automation, subscriber management, etc. They're generally more expensive at large list sizes.

For your particular use case

If you're talking about something like a media publication sending 100k–millions of newsletter emails, I'd seriously consider:

Your domain
→ news.yourdomain.com / mail.yourdomain.com for sending
→ Amazon SES or another ESP
→ dedicated/managed sending infrastructure
→ your site's CMS/subscriber database
→ proper SPF + DKIM + DMARC + bounce/complaint handling

SES specifically lets you configure a custom MAIL FROM domain and authenticate it with SPF/DKIM so the sending infrastructure is tied properly to a domain you control. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation

One important point: a dedicated IP isn't automatically better deliverability. At substantial volume, it can be useful because you control the IP reputation, but it needs proper warm-up and consistent sending. SES's managed dedicated IP system now handles much of that automatically. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation

If by “hosted email” you mean you also want actual inboxes like editor@yourdomain.com, that's a separate service (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Fastmail, etc.). I would not use your ordinary mailbox provider to send a huge publication newsletter.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options and explain the likely cost and deliverability tradeoffs.

Yes. For a media site with heavy newsletter/list sending, I would not use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 as the actual mailing engine. Both explicitly constrain bulk sending; Microsoft recommends dedicated bulk-email providers for legitimate newsletters. learn.microsoft.com

A good architecture is:

Your domain

• you@yourpublication.com → normal hosted mailbox (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Fastmail, etc.)
• newsletter@yourpublication.com → bulk sending provider
• Ideally use a sending subdomain such as news.yourpublication.com or mail.yourpublication.com

Providers I'd look at

Mailgun is particularly interesting for your use case. You can authenticate your own domain with SPF/DKIM, send through your own domain, batch-send up to 1,000 personalized messages per API call, and isolate sending domains/reputation. help.mailgun.com

The important distinction is that the provider doesn't magically give you good deliverability. Your domain reputation and sending practices matter enormously. Gmail, for example, treats senders reaching ~5,000 Gmail recipients/day as bulk senders and requires SPF, DKIM, DMARC, alignment, one-click unsubscribe for marketing mail, and low spam rates. support.google.com

What I'd do for a media publication

I'd probably set it up like:

yourpublication.com
│
├── Google Workspace / Microsoft 365
│   ├── editor@yourpublication.com
│   ├── staff@yourpublication.com
│   └── hello@yourpublication.com
│
└── news.yourpublication.com
    └── Mailgun / SES / SendGrid
        ├── newsletter
        ├── daily digest
        └── automated site emails

That gives the newsletter its own sending reputation without jeopardizing your staff's ordinary email reputation.

If you're talking about tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of subscribers, I'd narrow the choice differently. Tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week, and whether you need a visual newsletter editor or just an API/SMTP service. I can then recommend the best 2–3 setups and approximate costs.

Yes. For a media site with large newsletter/list sends, I’d look at an email-sending platform rather than traditional “hosted mailbox” providers.

My shortlist:

What I'd choose for your use case

If you're sending hundreds of thousands to millions of emails/month: I'd strongly consider Amazon SES with a dedicated sending setup. SES now has managed dedicated IPs that automatically handle IP allocation, scaling and ISP-specific warmup. docs.aws.amazon.comdocs.aws.amazon.com

That's particularly attractive for a media site because you can separate reputations—for example:

• news.yourdomain.com → newsletters
• mail.yourdomain.com → transactional/account email
• potentially separate IP pools for different types of mail

SES supports dedicated IP pools specifically to isolate sender reputation between different email programs. docs.aws.amazon.com

If you want something much easier to operate: Postmark is interesting. It now supports broadcast email/newsletters and deliberately separates broadcast and transactional traffic onto different infrastructure/IPs, which is exactly the kind of separation you want for a media business. postmarkapp.com

One important distinction

If by “hosted email” you mean:

“I want editor@mydomain.com to be a normal inbox and I want to send 500k newsletters from my domain”

I would not use one service for both.

I'd do something like:

Google Workspace / Microsoft 365
→ normal human mailboxes (editor@, sales@, etc.)

SES / Postmark / Mailgun
→ bulk newsletter sending (newsletter@, news@, etc.)

And configure SPF + DKIM + DMARC, with a dedicated sending subdomain such as news.example.com. This gives you much better control over reputation and keeps a newsletter problem from damaging your ordinary corporate mail.

Also, don't assume a dedicated IP automatically means better inbox placement. A new dedicated IP needs to be warmed up and its reputation maintained; SES explicitly notes that you're still responsible for bounce/complaint rates and reputation even with managed dedicated IPs. docs.aws.amazon.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 50k/day, 500k/day, 5M/month), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 providers and the architecture I'd use for your domain.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter audience, you usually want two separate things:

1. Hosted mailbox/email service for addresses on your domain (e.g. editor@yoursite.com, support@yoursite.com)
2. High-volume newsletter sending platform that protects deliverability (SPF/DKIM/DMARC, dedicated/shared IP reputation, bounce handling, unsubscribe compliance)

Trying to run a 500k+ subscriber newsletter directly through normal mailbox hosting (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.) is usually a mistake.

Good options:

For a serious media operation, a common architecture is:

• Domain email hosting:
  • Google Workspace or Microsoft 365
  • Handles human mailboxes only.

• Newsletter engine:
  • beehiiv, PostUp, or a custom stack using SES/SendGrid.
  • Sends from something like newsletter@yourdomain.com.

• DNS setup:
  • SPF
  • DKIM
  • DMARC
  • custom tracking domain
  • sometimes BIMI

For heavy sending (hundreds of thousands or millions/day), I would prioritize:

• dedicated IP option
• sender reputation monitoring
• automatic bounce/complaint suppression
• engagement-based segmentation
• inbox placement testing
• human deliverability support

If you tell me roughly:

• subscriber count (10k / 100k / 1M+)
• sends per day/week
• CMS (WordPress, Ghost, custom, etc.)
• whether you need paid subscriptions or ads

…I can narrow this down to the best-fit stack.

Yes. If you mean “host the sending infrastructure for my media site, let me send large newsletters from my own domain, and optimize for inbox placement”, you generally want an email service provider (ESP) rather than ordinary hosted mailbox hosting.

My shortlist

For your particular description, I'd look hardest at Mailgun or SendGrid.

Mailgun supports custom sending domains, SMTP/API sending, mailing lists, analytics, dedicated IPs, and reputation management. It specifically recommends separating marketing and transactional traffic onto different domains/subdomains so a big newsletter send doesn't damage transactional mail. www.mailgun.comhelp.mailgun.com

For example, you could structure it as:

• yourdomain.com → your normal website
• mail.yourdomain.com → newsletter/marketing sending
• transactional.yourdomain.com → password resets, alerts, etc.
• editor@yourdomain.com → actual human mailbox through Google Workspace/Microsoft 365/etc.

That separation is very important for a media site. Mailgun explicitly recommends separating bulk marketing from transactional/corporate traffic, and for senders above roughly 50K emails/week recommends considering dedicated IP infrastructure. help.mailgun.com

One important distinction

If by “hosted email” you mean actual inboxes—e.g. editor@yourdomain.com where people log into Gmail/Outlook to read and reply—then I'd use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 for that.

If you mean sending your site's newsletters to 100K/500K/millions of subscribers, use an ESP such as Mailgun, SendGrid, or SES. Don't try to send the mailing list through Google Workspace/Microsoft 365.

For a media operation, I'd also want SPF + DKIM + DMARC, a dedicated/subdomain sending identity, bounce/complaint processing, unsubscribe handling, suppression lists, reputation monitoring, and gradual IP/domain warming. Mailgun provides tooling around these areas. www.mailgun.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 50K subscribers, one newsletter/day), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 providers and estimate the monthly cost.

Yes. For a media site with heavy newsletter/list sending, I’d separate mailbox hosting from bulk sending rather than try to have Google Workspace/Microsoft 365 do both.

My shortlist

Amazon SES is particularly interesting for your use case. It supports sending from your own domain and, at high volume, offers managed dedicated IP pools that automatically warm up and scale according to your sending patterns and ISP capacity. docs.aws.amazon.comdocs.aws.amazon.com

The architecture I'd recommend is:

Your domain

• you@yourdomain.com → Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 for actual human mail
• newsletter@yourdomain.com → SES/Mailgun/SendGrid for newsletters
• updates@yourdomain.com → bulk/automated mail
• noreply@yourdomain.com → transactional mail

That separation is valuable because you don't want a newsletter deliverability problem damaging the reputation of the IP/domain used for your staff's ordinary email.

For SES specifically, you can also isolate marketing vs. transactional traffic into separate dedicated IP pools. AWS explicitly recommends this type of separation because problems with marketing traffic then don't necessarily affect transactional mail. docs.aws.amazon.com

One important distinction

If by "hosted email" you mean "I want one service that gives me mailboxes AND sends 500k+ newsletter emails", that's a somewhat different requirement.

If you mean "I want email infrastructure for my media site, using my own domain, with excellent deliverability for a large mailing list", then I'd strongly consider:

Google Workspace/Microsoft 365 + Amazon SES

or, if you want something much easier to operate:

Google Workspace/Microsoft 365 + Mailgun/SendGrid.

Also, don't assume a dedicated IP automatically means better deliverability. A dedicated IP gives you control over reputation, but you have to warm it up and maintain good bounce/complaint rates. SES's managed option automates much of the warmup/scaling, but AWS explicitly says you still remain responsible for reputation and list hygiene. docs.aws.amazon.com

If you tell me roughly how many emails/month you're sending (e.g. 100k, 1M, 10M) and whether they're newsletter-only or newsletter + transactional, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options and compare approximate costs.

Yes. If by “hosted email” you mean a service that both hosts your publication/newsletter and sends large volumes from your own domain, there are several good options. I would not use ordinary business email hosting (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.) for the mailing-list side; bulk newsletter sending should be on a dedicated email platform.

My shortlist

For a media site, I'd look hardest at beehiiv or Ghost.

beehiiv is particularly interesting if your mailing list is a major part of the business. It supports a custom email sending domain and branded links, so your publication can send as something like news@yourdomain.com rather than appearing to originate from the platform. www.beehiiv.com

beehiiv custom-domain documentation

Ghost(Pro) is probably the better fit if your website itself is a publication/CMS and the newsletter is tightly integrated with it. Ghost bulk-sends newsletters using infrastructure optimized for deliverability and allows a custom sending domain on its Publisher plan and above. ghost.orgpublishinghouse.org

Ghost custom sending domains

One important distinction

I'd structure it like:

yourdomain.com → website
mail.yourdomain.com → newsletter sending/authentication
you@yourdomain.com → normal human/business mailbox

Then let the newsletter platform handle the actual bulk delivery.

That separation is useful because sender reputation matters enormously. SPF, DKIM and DMARC need to be correctly configured, and list hygiene and sending behavior matter just as much as the software you choose. publishinghouse.org

For example, Buttondown explicitly recommends a dedicated sending subdomain such as mail.example.com or newsletter.example.com and can manage the sending infrastructure behind that subdomain. docs.buttondown.com

If you're talking really heavy volume

If you're talking hundreds of thousands or millions of emails/month, I'd look beyond a newsletter SaaS and consider Amazon SES, Mailgun, or SendGrid, potentially with a dedicated sending subdomain/IP strategy. That gives you considerably more control, but also puts more responsibility for reputation, throttling, authentication, bounce handling, suppression lists, etc. on you.

For a typical digital media publication with 10k–500k subscribers, though, I'd probably choose beehiiv or Ghost rather than building an SES stack yourself.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 50k subscribers × daily newsletter), I can narrow it down to the best 2–3 options and compare pricing, sending limits, domain reputation/warm-up, Gmail/Yahoo deliverability, and migration.

Yes. For a media site/newsletter business sending large mailing lists from your own domain, I’d look at dedicated email-sending infrastructure rather than ordinary hosted inbox providers like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

My top choices

For your particular use case, I'd shortlist Amazon SES and Postmark.

1. Amazon SES — probably the best value at scale

Amazon SES

SES lets you authenticate your own domain and send large volumes. More importantly, it now has managed dedicated IPs that automatically provision, scale and warm IP addresses according to your sending patterns. docs.aws.amazon.comdocs.aws.amazon.compostmarkapp.com

That's particularly attractive for a media site because you can separate reputations—for example:

• newsletter.yourdomain.com → newsletter/bulk mail
• mail.yourdomain.com → transactional mail
• separate IP pools for marketing vs. transactional traffic

SES explicitly supports this kind of IP-pool separation. docs.aws.amazon.com

The downside is that SES is infrastructure, not really a beautiful newsletter-management product. You'd typically put something like your CMS/newsletter application on top of it.

2. Postmark — my choice if deliverability + simplicity matter more than absolute cost

Postmark

Postmark is interesting because it now supports broadcast messages/newsletters, while keeping broadcast and transactional traffic on separate infrastructure/IPs. postmarkapp.com

That's a very good architecture for a media site:

Your site → Postmark → newsletter subscribers

while

Your site → Postmark → transactional stream → users

remain separated.

Postmark also takes a somewhat unusual stance on dedicated IPs: it says a dedicated IP isn't automatically better and generally prefers its shared pools unless your volume warrants one. Dedicated IPs are currently available to customers sending 300,000+ messages/month. postmarkapp.com

One important distinction

If by "hosted email" you mean:

I want editor@mydomain.com and support@mydomain.com inboxes AND I want to send millions of newsletters

I'd separate those two systems.

For example:

Inbox hosting
→ Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 / Fastmail

Newsletter sending
→ SES / Postmark / SendGrid

Don't use your normal mailbox provider as the engine for your mailing list.

For a media site, I'd architect it like this

yourdomain.com
     │
     ├── Google Workspace
     │      └── staff@yourdomain.com
     │
     └── newsletter.yourdomain.com
            │
            └── Amazon SES / Postmark
                   │
                   ├── SPF
                   ├── DKIM
                   ├── DMARC
                   ├── dedicated/broadcast IP
                   └── subscriber reputation

And I'd strongly recommend not sending newsletters directly from the same domain/subdomain you use for employee mail.

If you're talking about 100k, 500k, 1M+ subscribers, the recommendation changes somewhat. At those volumes, I can compare SES vs Postmark vs SendGrid vs Mailgun specifically for a media publisher, including approximate monthly cost, dedicated-IP requirements, domain setup, unsubscribe handling, bounce/complaint processing, and what I'd choose at 100k / 1M / 10M emails per month.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/list, I would not use ordinary hosted mailbox email (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Fastmail, etc.) as the bulk-sending engine. Use a normal hosted mailbox service for people, and a specialized email-delivery platform for the mailing list.

My top choices

Amazon SES is probably my first choice if you're technically comfortable. It supports custom sending domains, very high sending quotas, and managed dedicated IPs that automatically warm up and scale based on your sending pattern. docs.aws.amazon.com

Amazon SES

Mailgun is probably the easiest choice if you want a specialized email provider without building as much infrastructure yourself. It supports custom domains, dedicated IPs, IP pools, automated warmup, SPF/DKIM/DMARC, and high-volume sending. www.mailgun.compostmarkapp.com

Mailgun

SendGrid is particularly attractive if this is primarily a newsletter/media operation. Its higher-tier offerings include dedicated IPs, deliverability optimization, domain authentication, analytics, and deliverability expertise. sendgrid.com

SendGrid

Postmark has an interesting architecture for your use case: it explicitly separates broadcast/newsletter traffic from transactional email onto separate infrastructure and IPs. It now supports bulk/broadcast sending as well. postmarkapp.com

Postmark

The setup I'd use for a media site

Something like:

Your domain

• hello@yourdomain.com → Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 / Fastmail
• newsletter@yourdomain.com → SendGrid/Mailgun/SES
• news.yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com → dedicated sending subdomain

Then configure SPF + DKIM + DMARC, and keep newsletter/bulk reputation separate from your employees' ordinary email.

For example:

yourdomain.com → normal human email
newsletter.yourdomain.com → newsletter sending
transactional.yourdomain.com → password resets, receipts, alerts, etc.

That separation is important. Postmark, Mailgun and SES all provide mechanisms for separating different mail streams/reputations. postmarkapp.com

One important caveat about "good deliverability"

A dedicated IP doesn't automatically mean better deliverability. At lower/variable volumes, a good shared pool can actually perform better. Dedicated IPs become more useful when you're sending substantial, consistent volume and can properly warm the IP. Mailgun, AWS, and Postmark all emphasize this point. help.mailgun.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 50k subscribers × 1 newsletter/day), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 setups and approximate monthly cost, including whether I'd use a dedicated IP.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/mailing list, I would not use ordinary hosted mailbox providers like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 as the sending engine. You generally want:

• Your own domain/subdomain, e.g. news.example.com
• SPF, DKIM, and ideally DMARC
• High-volume marketing/newsletter sending
• Reputation management and bounce/complaint handling
• Dedicated IP capability once volume warrants it
• List-unsubscribe headers and engagement controls
• A platform that can separate newsletter traffic from ordinary one-to-one email

My top choices

Mailgun is particularly compelling for your use case. It supports your own sending domains, SPF/DKIM authentication, dedicated IPs, IP pools, and specifically recommends dedicated IP infrastructure once you're above roughly 50,000 emails/week. documentation.mailgun.com

Mailgun

Amazon SES is the option I'd investigate if you're talking about hundreds of thousands or millions of emails per month. SES supports dedicated IPs, including a newer managed-dedicated-IP system that automatically handles IP allocation, scaling, and warmup. docs.aws.amazon.com

Amazon SES

One important distinction

If by "hosted email" you mean actual mailboxes such as:

editor@example.com
john@example.com

and you also need:

newsletter@example.com → 500,000 subscribers

I'd use two systems:

Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 → employee mailboxes
Mailgun / SES / SendGrid → newsletter and automated bulk email

And I'd preferably send newsletters from a dedicated subdomain, such as:

newsletter.example.com

while keeping employee mail on:

example.com

That gives you much better reputation isolation. You can also have separate IP pools for marketing vs. transactional mail. SES explicitly supports this kind of separation. docs.aws.amazon.com

If deliverability is your #1 priority

I'd rank them:

1. Mailgun — easiest combination of serious deliverability infrastructure + control
2. Amazon SES — phenomenal infrastructure and economics, but more engineering work
3. SendGrid — easier marketing-oriented experience
4. Postmark — superb reputation, but primarily designed around transactional mail

One caveat: a dedicated IP doesn't automatically mean better inbox placement. You have to warm it up and maintain good engagement/reputation. SES, for example, explicitly warns that new dedicated IPs need gradual warmup. docs.aws.amazon.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (10k / 100k / 1M+) and how many emails you send per day/week, I can recommend the specific setup—including domain/subdomain, Mailgun vs. SES, dedicated IP strategy, DNS records, and approximate monthly cost.

Yes. If by “hosted email” you mean a service that sends large mailing-list/newsletter volumes from your own domain, I would not use ordinary mailbox hosting like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 as the sending engine.

For a media site, I’d look at these:

My pick for a media site

Amazon SES is probably the strongest infrastructure choice if you're talking about hundreds of thousands or millions of emails/month. SES lets you send from your own verified domain, and you can use dedicated IPs/IP pools to isolate your sender reputation. Its managed dedicated IP option automatically handles IP allocation, scaling and ISP-specific warmup. docs.aws.amazon.com

Amazon SES

The downside is that SES is infrastructure rather than a polished newsletter platform. You'd typically pair it with your site's mailing-list software/CMS or build the sending layer around its API.

Mailgun is a particularly good middle ground

Mailgun is attractive if you want something more turnkey for developers. You can authenticate your own domain, use dedicated IPs, IP pools, mailing lists and batch sending. Mailgun specifically recommends dedicated IPs once you're above roughly 50,000 emails/week, and offers IP-pool infrastructure for higher-volume senders. documentation.mailgun.com

Mailgun

One important distinction

For a media publication, I'd separate:

1. Your actual mailboxes

• editor@yourdomain.com
• staff@yourdomain.com
• tips@yourdomain.com

from

2. Your mass-mailing infrastructure

• newsletter@yourdomain.com
• daily@yourdomain.com
• alerts@yourdomain.com

You can host the first with Google Workspace/Microsoft 365 and send the second through SES/Mailgun/etc. That's generally a much better architecture than trying to send a 500k-recipient newsletter through your normal mailbox provider.

Also, don't assume that a dedicated IP automatically means better inbox placement. Reputation, authentication, complaint rates, bounces, engagement and sending consistency matter enormously. SES, for example, explicitly emphasizes gradual ramp-up because sudden volume increases can cause providers to throttle or block mail. docs.aws.amazon.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 50k, 500k, 2M), how often you mail them, and whether you need a Mailchimp-like newsletter UI, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best setups and approximate monthly cost.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/mailing list, I would not use your normal hosted mailbox provider (Google Workspace or Microsoft 365) as the bulk-sending engine. I'd separate human email hosting from newsletter delivery.

My top choice: Amazon SES

Amazon SES is particularly attractive if you're sending substantial volume from your own domain.

• Send as newsletter@yourdomain.com while keeping your domain under your control.
• Supports SPF, DKIM and DMARC, which are essential for domain authentication. aws.amazon.com
• For high volume, SES offers managed dedicated IPs that automatically warm up and scale based on your sending patterns. docs.aws.amazon.com
• You can separate reputations—for example, one IP pool for newsletters and another for transactional mail. docs.aws.amazon.com
• It is designed for application/bulk email rather than pretending a mailbox is a newsletter platform.

The important caveat: a dedicated IP doesn't automatically give you good deliverability. Your list quality, complaint rate, engagement, authentication, sending consistency, and unsubscribe handling matter enormously. AWS explicitly notes that you're still responsible for maintaining your sender reputation. docs.aws.amazon.com

What I'd build for a media site

yourdomain.com
       │
       ├── Google Workspace / Microsoft 365
       │      └── normal staff email
       │
       └── newsletter.yourdomain.com
              │
              └── Email service
                    ├── SES
                    ├── dedicated/managed IP
                    ├── DKIM
                    ├── SPF
                    ├── DMARC
                    ├── bounce processing
                    └── unsubscribe/complaint handling

I'd actually consider using a separate subdomain for newsletters, e.g. news.yourdomain.com or email.yourdomain.com, so newsletter reputation can be isolated from your organization's ordinary email.

One important warning about Google Workspace

Google Workspace is excellent for staff mailboxes, but I wouldn't use Gmail itself to blast a media mailing list. Current Workspace limits are only 2,000 messages/day per user, with 3,000 external recipients/day, and Google can restrict accounts that hit sending limits. knowledge.workspace.google.com

Furthermore, Gmail considers you a bulk sender once you reach roughly 5,000 messages/day to personal Gmail accounts, and that status is permanent. Bulk senders have additional authentication, spam-rate and unsubscribe requirements. support.google.com

SES vs. a turnkey provider

If you have an engineering team, I'd lean SES.

If you want something where the newsletter team can operate campaigns without building much infrastructure, I'd look at a dedicated email platform such as SendGrid, Mailgun, or Postmark, depending on the exact workload. The tradeoff is generally ease of use vs. control/cost.

For a media company doing, say, 100k–10M+ emails/month, I'd seriously consider:

Website/CMS → newsletter platform → SES → your domain

rather than having the CMS directly send email.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 50k subscribers, one daily newsletter), I can recommend the best architecture and whether you actually need a dedicated IP.