All posts
AWS Architecture

Amazon Pinpoint Alternatives in 2026: Amazon Connect, End User Messaging and SES, a SaaS Tool, or Your Own

By

November 2, 2026

6 min read

Pinpoint's segments, campaigns, journeys and analytics ended on October 30, 2026. Sending lives on as AWS End User Messaging and SES; orchestration moves to Amazon Connect, a SaaS tool, or something you build. Four paths, what each is good at, and how to choose.

Pinpoint Alternatives
Amazon Pinpoint
AWS End User Messaging
Amazon SES
Amazon Connect

Pinpoint was two products in one: a sending service (SMS, voice, push, email, OTP) and an engagement platform on top (endpoints, segments, campaigns, journeys, analytics). The sending side continues as AWS End User Messaging, with email on Amazon SES. The engagement platform ended on October 30, 2026. Replacing Pinpoint means replacing the second part.

Want a second opinion on this for your system?

Book a free 30-minute call. You'll leave knowing what we'd do first and roughly what it costs, whether or not you hire us.

Four paths

Path

What it is

Good at

Watch for

Amazon Connect outbound campaigns and Customer Profiles

AWS's recommended home for segments, campaigns and journeys

Multi-channel campaigns with agents in the loop; contact-center teams

A contact-center product; more than many app teams need

End User Messaging and SES, triggered by your code

The same sending APIs, called from your backend

Transactional messages: receipts, alerts, OTP, reminders

No segments or journeys: you write the rules

A SaaS engagement tool (Braze, Customer.io, OneSignal and others)

Segments, journeys and a campaign UI, hosted

Marketing teams that want a UI tomorrow

Per-contact pricing that grows with the list; your users' behaviour data lives with the vendor

Your own, on AWS

Events in your lake, segments in SQL, sending through SES and End User Messaging

Products where engagement is core, and where it must connect to revenue

Build time; you own deliverability and the UI

How to choose

  • Mostly transactional messages: End User Messaging and SES, called from your code. The smallest change, because the sending APIs you already use keep working.

  • A contact center already on Amazon Connect: Connect outbound campaigns.

  • A marketing team that needs a visual journey builder this quarter: a SaaS tool, with your events also flowing to your own store so you can leave later.

  • Engagement is how the product grows, and you want to know which messages produce revenue rather than opens: build your own. Our next post walks through it.

Whatever you choose

  1. Remove code that still calls the stopped APIs: analytics and KPIs, SendUsersMessages, sends to a stored endpoint ID.

  2. Move audiences into a table you own, with consent and channel preferences per person. Every path above starts from it.

  3. Rebuild suppression: bounces, complaints and unsubscribes. Sending to people who complained is the fastest way to lose your email reputation.

  4. Measure outcomes, not opens. Apple Mail Privacy Protection preloads images, so open rates have been unreliable since 2021.

hoolco Monthly Review

Once a month: what changed in tech that month and what it means for you, from cloud and AI to security and the tools you build with. Every item links to its source. No sales pitch, unsubscribe in one click.

As of November 2, 2026. Provided as is, for general information, and accurate to the best of our knowledge on the date shown. Not legal, compliance, tax, financial or other professional advice. Prices, limits and vendor services change; check current vendor documentation before relying on anything here. Terms of use.