
Ash HN: Is it worth investing in paid email services hey/superhuman? - harshamv22
With a lot of hype around paid email services like hey.com and superhuman - Is it worth all the money or is it just a hype?
======
alexmingoia
I think it’s mostly hype.

I was excited for Hey. I’m disappointed. The interface is colorful but
disjointed. Way too much whitespace for my taste. I was hoping for a truly new
take on email UI, like an IM-style interface. Hey feels like they took the
traditional email UI and split it into different screens with lots of
whitespace.

I don’t like the screening feature. In Fastmail, I have a separate folder for
people not in my contacts. Anyone I respond to is automatically added to my
contacts, so I don’t have to manually approve them. This functionality is
available in any email client. The screening feature seems like more work,
with pressure to look at them.

No custom domain is a dealbreaker. I’ve used the same email for almost 10
years. I’m honestly amazed so many techies are fine with the shared domain.
Paying $999 for a two letter user on a shared domain? Nuts.

The newsletter feed view is nice. But I actually prefer my newsletter folder
where I click each email, because I know which ones are unread. The feed view
gives me a feeling that I don’t know what I missed.

After playing with it, I sold my invite for $175 within minutes on Twitter.
FOMO is very powerful.

------
leokennis
I’m a paid Fastmail user for these reasons:

* With my own domain, my e-mail address is my own property, which is good because I intend to keep it for another 70 years.

* With proper support for the good old boring standards (IMAP, WebDAV etc.) I can use my mail from almost wherever. I’m not at the mercy of Apple approving an app or not. I’m not depending on others for keeping my mail safe; I can back it up myself.

* As I’m paying for it, there’s way less incentive for Fastmail to invade my privacy than for example Google.

* As I’m paying for it, there’s way more incentive for Fastmail to improve my experience than for example Google.

------
stakkur
Hey charges $349/yr for three-letter user names; $999/yr for two letters. Four
letters and up: $99yr.

I watched a video walkthrough. I noticed four things:

1\. The cost for potential benefit seems disproportionately high.

2\. I can duplicate most of Hey's features just configuring my own email.

3\. The gimmicky UI seemed way too much for me.

4\. Despite attempting to sign up 72 hours after the invites went out, every
possible permutation of my first name, last name, and initials was already
taken. I tried them all.

I've been using ProtonMail for a year or so now, and love it. I realize Hey is
aiming at a 'premium' market of users who don't blink at prices, and I'm not
in that market.

More simply, I haven't lived in email for years, and keep moving away from
email, not towards it.

------
dhruvkar
Not sure about the hyped email providers (hey etc.), but I switched to
Fastmail earlier this year.

Beyond the control part (own domain, not sharing data with Google etc.), I
love how snappy it is. Gmail bloat didn't bother me this much until I started
using Fastmail (still Gsuite for work).

I've paid for a couple years already, just to lock myself down. I'm happy so
far ~3 months in.

------
seanwilson
I've been really put off with the number of messages I've seen in the last
couple of weeks of the form "Just used X for 2 hours and I'm switching now!
Life is so much better!" and "My new email address is bob@X.com. Amazing!"
(wait until they find out you can buy a custom domain). Are these for real?

Surely it requires you to have received and sent some number of emails over
several days first? I don't see how you can evaluate a new workflow that quick
unless the workflow is obviously transformational.

I don't have a lot of issues with gmail to be honest. I use archive and snooze
to keep at inbox zero most days, get minimal spam, and only get a handful of
emails each week I need to reply to. Maybe I don't get enough emails but I do
what I can to avoid getting emails too.

------
BjoernKW
It depends on your use case and usage patterns.

I like Basecamp’s opinionated approach and what they’ve done with Hey.com

As much as I’d like to use it as my primary email tool I depend on G Suite and
Gmail for my business because of the integration and automation those tools
afford me.

------
sky_rw
Superhuman paying customer here. For starters, they are not equivalent
products because Hey.com is client + server. Superhuman is an app that sits on
top of an existing Gmail account.

I have no problem paying for Superhuman. I use it exclusively for my business
email and the way I see it, if improving my email management lands me one
single customer it more than pays for itself.

As far as paying in general, I enjoy the feeling that this product won't die
off in the same way so many clients have before. Hopefully they are able to
build a sustainable business and support a reliable product. Superhuman also
has outstanding customer support.

~~~
idoh
This is the right way of thinking about it. If it saves time / money / expand
capabilties enough (and you can afford it) then make the investment.

------
brudgers
Unless it’s making you money, it’s an expense not an investment. Unless you
own the domain, your address is not portable.

Everything else in the equation varies case by case.

------
passwordguesser
I pay for my email services and receive a VPN service for doing so as well
being able to create up to 5 email accounts. Paid email has its benefits for
example, the actual email I use is not at all similar to the login email
therefore there’s improved security in some paid emails.

------
noodlesUK
I think it’s worth paying to have email on a domain you control. I’m not sure
any of the hype email services like hey or superhuman get you that much you
won’t get with any other email provider.

------
hkarthik
I'm 16 years into using gmail, so the thought of converting to a new email
address feels harder than trying to change my social security number right
now.

Anyone done this successfully?

~~~
kyawzazaw
I am just slowly switching to my hey email.

The only problem is that I chose a rather funny hey email addrsss so I still
have to use my gmail for job applications. Maybe when hey support custom
domains, I will exclusively use it.

~~~
zarmin
Does Hey have a way of migrating from gmail? Or do you have to finagle it
yourself?

~~~
mguerville
You can’t import old emails

~~~
sevilo
I'm liking Hey so far, but this is frankly a huge bummer

------
Nextgrid
The hyped services that you mention, probably not.

However, investing into an Office 365, FastMail or even G-Suite subscription
and a domain is absolutely worth it.

------
topspeed11
Yes paid emails have high quality and it converts well. Unlike free.

------
thirtythree
I am going to pay for hey. I like the concept and it is one less thing on
Google

~~~
terrycody
hey mate, I got 3-4 really good names, what about you? If you interested, I
can show you.

