I have been coming an eye on this and eager to check it out. Seems to be inspired from HEY
It’s more expensive than Fastmail but I suppose pricing is so subjective these days.
Seems interesting. But the issue I always have with those systems is that how they’re all in one. I want my email to be integrated with the rest of my workflows, with links, tasks, à la contextual computing, not be siloed in one environment where I have to do it. Especially for email which is, well, about communication.
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I find it interesting that not many apps do not support sending from other email addresses using smtp credentials.
I have tones of email addresses and all of them forward to my primary email address.
HEY is the only one that comes to mine… Maybe Airmail??
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Airmail and Spark do. Send later with Airmail and aliases is extremely flaky, though.
Spark doesn’t exactly do that. Spark does not use SMTP credentials:
Before adding an alias to Spark, please set up it in the settings of your email provider.
Now if your provider is iCloud, there is no way to setup non-icloud alias at the provider level.
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Indeed, confused SMTP and aliases. Fastmail allows you to do that.
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Don’t really think this is comparable to Hey nor Fastmail. Big Mail is a local email client with no server components, not an email service.
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An email client that costs more than Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.? Sorry, I can’t see spending that kind of money for something to make email look pretty.
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Some responses from the company on Twitter when questioned about the high pricing. It’s interesting that they want to be compared to other email services.
NotSoBigCompany: Thanks for the feedback. We think it’s pretty competitive when benchmarked against other services, but we appreciate it won’t be for everyone. We hope you give it a try though and see what you think!
Taxyovio: Just to be clear. Are you even a service? Or are you forcing it to be one? Do you provide the email service at all? I thought you are only a local client.
NotSoBigCompany: We’re a mail client that works with any IMAP mail provider you like.
Taxyovio: So you are not an email service but wants to charge a comparable amount as other email services? Have you compared to the cost of other email clients?
NotSoBigCompany: We want to charge a fair price to cover past and future development of Big Mail. People will either buy it, or they won’t. And it’ll all work out. Hope that clarifies things.
The point is to see if they have better justifications rather than “I can set whatever price I like.”. It turns out there’s not much more. Of course it makes sense as a customer who wants to decide if the asking price is worth it.
I’m so tired of this line of thought that “if you don’t like it, it’s not for you.”. Why would anyone brag about the most obvious thing that doesn’t bring any meaningful discussions? If everyone just shuts up about everything they don’t like, would there be any discussion left?
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Because it’s no use discussing with the haters.
Sometimes people think it’s smart to write to an author telling them they didn’t like their book.
What are you supposed to do? Un-write it? Things are done according to a certain vision. You don’t like the vision, there’s not a lot to say. I am not a customer for this service, but I respect what he’s doing and I understand that he implies that it will find its audience, or it won’t, and there’s not much to say beyond that.
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So I’m a hater now because I questioned about the pricing? I didn’t even say I don’t like the product.
I’m interested in how you define “haters”. If it’s people who hate no matter what, sure. But if you’re referring to people who disagree on a rational basis, then this is just trying to create a positive echo chamber of your own.
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While I’m pretty bored by people complaining about the price of software that’s not really a fair comparison. Complaints can, and sometimes do, lead to developers changing their pricing model.
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I have no complaint with the developer charging a subscription. A developer has every right to charge whatever he or she likes. As a potential customer I decide what I believe provides sufficient value. For my purposes, I’m not willing to pay $80/year for an email client. Others will happily pay it.
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Okay, I admit I went far with “hater”. This was not directed at you as a person but this comment is what sparked my (admittedly, gut) reaction:
There is no meaningful discussion to be had with someone who disagrees fundamentally with a vision, so it’s better to shut down that avenue right away. If the vision is flawed, experience will show you. This is what I get from the developer’s comment. It’s far more productive to not lose any energy with people who disagree with you there, when you’re indie.
“Rational” won’t lead you far when someone is telling “I’m charging x” and someone says “I won’t pay x”. Release, see what goes, and you will see if you have a market or not. Gather feedback, but never engage with negative criticism online to stay sane.
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Like every other email app, I will also try this one out. At first glance, though, it looks like it’s trying to do a little too much… auto-categorization scares me, and all the big aesthetic flairs. I don’t want to spend time in my inbox, stop making me!
I return to the common refrain: just give us rules and a share sheet in Mail on iOS. 
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I generally agree with what you said. I just think it’s misdirected here, unless by “vision” you mean “pricing”.
I didn’t even say anything like “I won’t pay the price” or whatever. In fact I like the promise of a local AI based email client.
When a seller is selling apples for the price of diamonds, and asking to be compared with diamonds, I thought I’d have the right to ask the reasoning. And I think many people would also be interested. Maybe they’re hiding gold in apples, who knows?
I also don’t think questioning about prices is meaningless. Yes it’s boring but not meaningless. The recent update to DTTG 3 was a good example where some companies do take these feedbacks. It’s quite saddening when people try to prevent people who won’t or can’t pay for something from speaking at all. Just like what some people said, if you don’t like it, don’t participate. But there’s no need to call people out and label them as “haters”.
I apologize for the term since you took it personally, but let me reiterate it was not the case; it was an answer to a question. When the question « How come is x happening with y », the answer points to the question, not the person asking it. I was not shooting at the messenger, but I’m sorry if it appeared that way.
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So what’s this doing when it screens out email? Does it create a black-hole-style folder, delete, just hide locally?
I think the newsletter feed looks better than Hey’s. Hey’s is good on mobile but it doesn’t use the space as well on wider screens.
The pricing brings up an interesting question (to me) of how much a Hey user is paying for the backend email service and storage, and how much they’re paying for the nice UI. The pricing of Big Email suggests the Hey backend is worth $20/year, which is a little low when considering the storage and large attachment support, and a little high if Big plus a free IMAP Gmail can accomplish nearly the same thing. So there seems to be a legitimate opportunity here, given Hey’s popularity and the success and audience this developer has had with their other product that takes a similar approach to combining existing services with new interfaces.
The functionality it seems to provide (I don’t have it) is somewhat comparable to SaneBox (which I do use). SaneBox sorts mails into different folders. The big difference is that SaneBox hooks into the mail servers, reads headers and files remotely. It doesn’t provide an email service per se. For 2 mail accounts SaneBox is $99 per year, for 4 , its $299/year.
Big Mail seems cheaper to me, I’ll try it.
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