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Feature request: Auto-pause sending when ses bounce rate gets too high

jimmybsilvajimmybsilva
edited July 24 in Suggestions

Hi Sendy team,

I would like to request a feature that automatically pauses sending when the Amazon SES bounce rate goes above a safe percentage.

Recently, our SES account was paused because the bounce rate went too high. In our case, the issue was caused by a newsletter server resync that reintroduced old or invalid contacts into the active sending list. Sendy can process bounces and complaints after they happen, but there does not appear to be an automatic safety feature that stops an active campaign when the overall SES bounce rate becomes dangerous.

I think this would be a very useful protection for Sendy users who send through Amazon SES.

Suggested feature:

Allow Sendy admins to set a maximum bounce rate threshold, for example:

Warning at 3%
Pause campaign at 5%
Emergency stop at 7% or 8%

If Amazon SES is enabled, Sendy could check SES reputation metrics or bounce activity during sending. If the bounce rate goes over the selected threshold, Sendy could automatically pause the campaign and show a warning inside the dashboard.

This would help prevent AWS SES accounts from being placed under review or suspended. AWS takes bounce rates very seriously, and once an SES account is paused, it can stop all email sending for the business.

This feature would be especially helpful for cases where a list import, sync issue, bad segment, or accidental resync causes invalid contacts to be sent to. Even if bounce handling is working, the damage can happen before the campaign finishes.

Possible options:

Add a global setting for maximum allowed bounce rate.
Add a per-campaign bounce rate safety limit.
Automatically pause sending if the threshold is reached.
Send an email notification to the Sendy admin when a campaign is paused.
Show a warning in the dashboard explaining why sending was paused.
Allow the admin to manually resume after cleaning the list.

I think this should be a must-have safety feature for anyone using Sendy with Amazon SES. It could help protect sender reputation and prevent SES account shutdowns.

Thank you for considering this feature.

Comments

  • BenBen

    Hi Jimmy,

    Amazon SES recently introduced an 'Email Validation' feature that can help with this.

    When 'Auto Validation' is enabled, SES validates recipient email addresses before attempting delivery and automatically suppresses addresses that are likely to bounce. This helps prevent high bounce rates from occurring in the first place.

    Since the validation happens within SES itself, it provides a safety net against situations like accidental imports, sync issues, or stale lists without requiring Sendy to monitor bounce rates and pause campaigns.

    To enable Auto Validation:

    1. Log in to your AWS Console.
    2. Go to Amazon SES.
    3. Make sure you are in the same AWS region that Sendy uses for sending.
    4. In the left sidebar, go to Email validation → Auto Validation.
    5. Click Enable.
    6. Choose your validation threshold. I’d recommend starting with Amazon SES managed threshold.
    7. Save the settings.

    Once enabled, SES will automatically validate recipient email addresses before attempting delivery. Addresses that don’t meet the threshold will be suppressed by SES before they are sent to, which helps reduce bounces and protect sender reputation.

    This doesn’t require any Sendy code changes because the validation happens inside SES itself before delivery.

    Hope this helps.

    Best regards,
    Ben

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