

MailerJS: Send email with client-side JavaScript - unignorant
https://www.mailerjs.com/

======
bcrescimanno
Flagging for an incredibly misleading topic / tagline. This isn't actually
"sending email with client-side javascript;" it's simply a script that allows
you to send a message to a service that will generate an email for you.
Seriously, it's basically a scripted email form--how this at all interesting?

~~~
patsantre
You can also ask how HTML forms are interesting? (Answer is WuFoo)

------
wvl
Interesting idea. This could be useful for signup and contact forms from a
static website.

It's amusing to me that the contact link is just a mailto. Why not use
MailerJS?

~~~
kijin
> _It's amusing to me that the contact link is just a mailto. Why not use
> MailerJS?_

In case someone wants to complain that MailerJS doesn't work in their browser,
I guess?

------
the_bear
I don't see any pricing info on their site. If this is intended to be free for
life, then I guess it's pretty nifty. But it would take about 30 minutes for
any web developer to duplicate this functionality, so I hope they don't plan
on charging for it.

~~~
chromedude
It's hidden until you sign up: \- Free - 5 emails/day \- Basic ($5/month) - 50
emails/day \- Big ($29/month) - 500 emails/day \- Huge ($99/month) - 5000
emails/day

~~~
jorde
That is pretty steep taking into account that even Postmark, which many
consider expensive, charges only $1.50 per thousand emails. The basic plan is
$3.33 for thousand and you're limited to specific daily limits... I usually
don't complain about pricing but this just feels too much. Of course these two
services are different but I chose Postmark as it's from the expensive end of
email sending services. And one can replicate MailerJS in just one evening
(when writing this there might already be a open source clone).

Enough with the whining... The main reason why I'm not a fan is that the
pricing is hidden behind sign up and the site gives the impression that the
service is free.

~~~
the_bear
I don't see why you'd need to use a third party at all for this type of thing.
Postmark is designed to increase email deliverability, but if you're only
sending emails to yourself, that shouldn't really be an issue. It seems like
good ol' sendmail would do the trick.

Agreed on the pricing though. Doesn't seem very honest.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Sendmail doesn't work if you're serving up your site statically from S3. Then
again, their pricing is so ridiculous, its cheaper to just POST the email
message via REST to a service to send the mail (Postmark, Sendgrid, AWS SES).

I'm not sure what this solution solves.

------
jrockway
_You need to tell Mailer.js about your API key_

What exactly stops me from stealing someone else's API key and using it to
send spam? You can't trust the client.

~~~
wvl
That was my first thought, however, from the docs:

 _MailerJS will send mail to the address you enter on your account page. You
can't specify the receiver dynamically, as client-side JavaScript is publicly
accessible by definition, and we want to protect you from spammers._

Why steal someone's api key just so you can send them email?

~~~
oconnore
(not something I would do, but someone else would) To put them over their
account limit.

------
thomasjoulin
This is terrible. Overpriced web service that sends emails to a single
address, 20-lines script calling the API using jQuery $.ajax (why the
dependency ?!) and sends the request with GET instead of PUT or POST...

~~~
JRambo
Indeed. Why would you pay for, and be dependent on, a service like this when
you could quite easily make something like this? Running on your own server
where you have full control.

------
tauv
This is great but ridiculously overpriced that 1 months delivery is how much I
would tack onto a clients bill for building a customer form or implementing
this service.

This is just bad value for money

------
le_isms
Cool. I can think of many reasons it would be bad to have a mailer on the
client side, but a big pro w/ this is that you can send mail easily when you
only have file access to say, a client's website.

------
mardiros
Oh, collect email in an html form ?

------
drivebyacct2
Why email? It seems like an inefficient method to deal with bug reports. Not
to mention it seems like this would be really open to abuse.

~~~
zackattack
I agree, it's overpriced. I would rather just put a snippet in that tracked
javascript errors somehow, and also grabbed all of the user's browser
information etc. And bonus points if it takes a screenshot (doable with HTML5)
and copies over everything from console.log. Would really help with debugging.

P.S. They should have put the pricing information on the home page. Didn't
realize they were a YC company either.

~~~
untog
_I would rather just put a snippet in that tracked javascript errors somehow,
and also grabbed all of the user's browser information etc._

That's a worse user experience, though. And you have no opportunity to ask
follow-up questions, or even say "hey, it's fixed!". That kind of customer
service goes a long way.

~~~
zackattack
_That's a worse user experience, though._

How? Worse than what?

------
josscrowcroft
Open source it. I know, I know, but just do it. Charge for support or
something.

