Build a Serverless Contact Form with Lambda + API Gateway + SES 📩

#aws #cloud #devops #tutorial

"Want to send emails from your website without running a server? You’re 15 minutes away from magic."

Serverless architecture is a game-changer — especially for simple, powerful features like contact forms. No more PHP mailers or backend servers. Just a few AWS services and you're good to go!

In this guide, we’ll create a fully functional serverless contact form using AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and SES (Simple Email Service).

Let’s dive in and get your inbox buzzing. 💌

🧱 What We'll Build

A user submits a contact form on your static website. Here’s what happens:

API Gateway receives the request (HTTP POST)
Lambda processes the form data
SES sends the email to your inbox

Like a digital postman that never sleeps.

🛠️ Prerequisites

AWS account with SES verified email
Basic knowledge of JavaScript and AWS Console
A static site (e.g., React, HTML, etc.) hosted on S3 or anywhere else

🚀 Step 1: Verify Email in AWS SES

Go to SES Console → Email Addresses
Click Verify a New Email Address
Enter your receiving email (e.g. yourname@gmail.com)
Click verification link in the email

Done! SES can now send emails to (and from) that address.

🧠 Step 2: Create Lambda Function

Go to Lambda Console → Create function → Author from scratch

Name: sendContactForm
Runtime: Node.js 18.x

Paste this sample code:

const AWS = require('aws-sdk');
const SES = new AWS.SES();

exports.handler = async (event) => {
  const { name, email, message } = JSON.parse(event.body);

  const params = {
    Destination: {
      ToAddresses: ['yourname@gmail.com'],
    },
    Message: {
      Body: {
        Text: { Data: `Name: ${name}\nEmail: ${email}\nMessage: ${message}` },
      },
      Subject: { Data: 'New Contact Form Submission' },
    },
    Source: 'yourname@gmail.com',
  };

  await SES.sendEmail(params).promise();

  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify({ message: 'Email sent successfully' }),
  };
};

✅ Don't forget to update the ToAddresses and Source to your verified SES email.

🔁 Step 3: Connect Lambda to API Gateway

Go to API Gateway Console → Create API
Choose HTTP API
Add integration: Lambda function → sendContactForm
Add route:

Method: POST
Path: /contact
1. Deploy and copy the Invoke URL

🌐 Step 4: Connect Frontend to API

Example fetch call from your React or HTML form:

fetch('https://your-api-id.execute-api.region.amazonaws.com/contact', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    name: 'John Doe',
    email: 'john@example.com',
    message: 'Hey there, this is awesome!'
  })
})
.then(res => res.json())
.then(data => console.log(data));