Hey guys,<p>so I've been building my own Gmail for the past few weeks and would like your feedback.<p>Find a preview here: http://i.imgur.com/UDz2y.png
(Mouse cursor is over the "REPLY" button, to show the hover-effect)<p>The app you see in the screenshot is what I've been using in the past week and it starts to feel better than the gmail interface.<p>Just a quick explanation:<p>- It's conversation-based like Gmail.
- Conversations with new emails are on the left.
- Conversations may be labeled ... based on predefined filters or manually.
- Every conversation stays in the left sidebar until marked "Done" or "Pinned".
- Done emails are accessed through the "check"-button next to the "MailApp"-logo.
- Pinned emails are moved to the right sidebar. This is basically a to-do list or for future reference.
- Both sidebars may be filtered by attributes or labels.
- The "list"-icon, next to the filter in the left sidebar, gives you the classic gmail list in the center-panel.<p>Some technical background:<p>- It's build with Rails and PostgreSQL.
- E-Mail sending/receiving is based on the MailGun infrastructure.
- Turbolinks (https://github.com/rails/turbolinks) and Memcache for a speedy UX.
- All mail data is saved in a multi-tenant PostgreSQL db and for backup purposes in a IMAP mailbox on MailGun.
- Hosted on heroku.<p>I'm quite happy with the app by now and only go back to Gmail for older emails.<p>So my BIG QUESTION right now:
Would you even consider using the app, in case I'd make a commercial product out of it?
Would you pay for it?<p>Searching HN yielded that quite a few people are looking each month to leave Gmail (for various reasons),
but of course there are quite a few gotchas with my approach, especially considering trust-issues.<p>Let me hear what you think.
> Would you even consider using the app, in case I'd make a commercial product out of it?<p>No.<p>I use Google because of the stuff that happens in the background, that I never see. Their infrastructure, SPAM blocking, Android app, intrusion detection, seamless support for custom domains, filtering and search, etc.<p>GMail looks like a simple app, but it's actually a herculean effort on behalf of Google, a multi-billion dollar company. There's a reason they have very little competition in that sector.
Open source the app. There's a huge lacking in <i>good</i> web based open source mail clients. Fill it. Offer a pay-for premium hosted version. Have us pay for service, not software.<p>If you released this, assuming it doesn't suck balls, I'd be running it immediately. I'm currently using Rackspace for my email hosting; check them out. They're good, good be better. ;)
I've had similar thoughts to you, and it looks like a good start.<p>However, for me, one of the main reasons I'm dissatisfied with GMail these days is the clutter and UX. Unfortunately your app looks too similar to GMail for me to find it an improvement.<p>For me, the ideal GMail killer would be <i>simpler</i> with more clearly labelled user controls (i.e. less cryptic symbols and more standard UI buttons).<p>It would also have separate FORWARD and REPLY buttons. (Why on earth these most used buttons are in a drop-down is beyond me).<p>Don't get me wrong - I think you're onto something - I just think you need to be very careful which parts of GMail you copy, which you improve, and which you axe completely.<p>If you could deliver a non-bloated, snappy GMail I would consider paying for it. I would probably prefer a cloud solution though (like GMail) because I hate setting up my own email.<p>Good luck with it!
Wow, very nice! Please reach out ot me: ev@mailgunhq.com I want to make sure you're not paying too much for Mailgun. We love smart and ambitious customers.
Here are the first three questions:<p>1. Is this something you host, or something I host?
2. How are you handling searching existing mail, tech wise?
3. Does this start to slow down after you have 10k emails in it?<p>If this supports custom domains and is plugged into decent spam filtering, I'd take a closer look at it.
It looks quite nice. I'd pay for an alternative to Gmail. Here are my suggestions / needs.<p>* Shortcut keys, preferably the same as Gmail but customizable<p>* Custom domains<p>* Both IMAP and ActiveSync support<p>* Everything stored in an encrypted state, no back doors, privacy and security as core components of your service<p>* The same or more storage space as Gmail provides
This app looks incredible but I have absolutely no interest in using a Gmail look alike without all the Gmail features aka android integration, amazing spam blocking, etc, etc, etc (this list could be extensive and most other people have already covered it).<p>You have the looks down but what you need to seriously focus on now is the back-end and how you might be able to bring all the gmail features people love along.
I'd pay in a tune of $100 for an installable version of this, but would never consider using it as a service.<p>PS. Though you could probably license it to smaller, well-established email service providers like pobox.com.
I would consider using the app and I would pay for it.<p>The primary motivator for me to change from Gmail is the privacy, security issues. So long as you make for sure everything is encrypted and I only have the key to unlocking that, I would switch in a heartbeat.
Arguably the one thing missing from Gmail right now is the ability to pick up the phone and speak to someone when something isn't working.<p>If you can offer that level of support at the same time, I can't see any reason for a company not to give you money.<p>Oh, and don't be discouraged by the people saying "no, never!" You can use third parties for handling spam, and it'll be easy enough to get mail onto peoples' phones via IMAP or Exchange. The thing to remember is that plenty of techies will say "no" because they see email as a free service. Regular consumers - and companies in particular - will be much more open to giving you money.
To me, this looks like a reskinned Gmail. If it were that, then yes I would use it as it's an improvement over the current layout, albeit marginal. However, there are no ads which Gmail needs and imagine if Gmail didn't need adds they would use their real estate more wisely as in your design.<p>I use Chrome, which allows you to add styles to custom.css to override the look of any website. As such I'm able to add my own styles to customize the look of Gmail to look cleaner, hide ads and customize like in your mockup. If you package the new look as a Browser Plugin to restyle Gmail, then yes I would use it, but now I would not pay for it.<p>If you are attempting to recreate gmail itself, then also no I would never use it. Because once again this only offers an improvement in design. Gmail is great compared because of Google. Aka, best spam prevention, far better than Apple, Yahoo and Outlook and scaleability and up-time. There is simply no way you can compete with the resources Google has. Which is why even Apple who has incredible resources and Money and amazing design sense still can't compete with Gmail's infrastructure and servers.<p>There is a market for retheming however, whether in the web interface or through Apps such as with Sparrow.<p>So in reality stick with theming Gmail and be aware that Gmail can change their look at any time and that you won't get any direct money out of it but will get your name out there. Good luck.
I think people are leaving google because of privacy concerns. Providing a new service does not change anything from the privacy perspective.<p>Privacy concerned people want to host their own mail server.<p>Cheers,
Jan
I'd consider paying for a clone of Gmail classic, but their new UI sucks IMHO. Another compelling feature I'm looking for is the ability to self-host. It's clear that many governments and cloud service providers don't consider hosted data "really all that private", despite best intentions. It only takes a single national security letter to remind us why it's nicer to have our data reposed locally.
This looks really well done, but as a consumer I wouldn't trust a small-timer (no offense) with something as ubiquitous as my email.<p>As a company looking to self-host, however, your product looks very appealing, but then your battling other players than just GMail. I think in the corporate sector, it would be very hard to dislodge Outlook, which is a shame really.
I do pay $40/year for Fastmail because I like having a service I pay for that is separate from anything Google offers. I still use Gmail day to day, but the new Fastmail interface is pretty damn good.<p>I would definitely pay for a premium email service, but design alone wouldn't be enough for me. The key factor in my decision was trust/reliability.
The reason I'm using GMail (as opposed to FastMail) is primarily their terrific integration with Android. The excellent GMail app, the contact and calendaring syncing.<p>I'd really love to use Fastmail, but I see no way I could sync my contacts in a seamless way.<p>I can't see how your solution would solve this, so no, I would not use.
I personally would use it on top of something reliable like Fastmail. I mainly use Gmail over IMAP and it's painful slow and glitchy.<p>If what you're building could give me a great UI on top of Fastmail for when I want to use the web, and access to some kind of self-hosted archive, I'd probably go for it.
If you can give a trial, and nice transition option, as well as backup option to mbox format, I'd pay around the same rackspace is asking for managed email.
[Added on a second thought]: I'd also consider to pay a license fee for a domain or several domains for client websites.
Very cool idea. I'd like to use the app but my main concern is spam blocking. Maybe you can partner with someone like Cloudmark? I think Cloudmark has an API or something you can use to block spam effectively.
Yes. I would surely love to use this as an email client if it works well with my Google Apps account.<p>And I would definitely be willing to pay a nominal amount for a year long license or a lifetime license.<p>What I like about your app -<p>* UI<p>* Well thought-out panels<p>* Utilization of white space<p>What you can possibly work on -<p>This is one feature that is not there on GMail and I really really crave for it. Sometime I feel the need to create a <i>note for myself</i> for a specific email I have received. But I can't do that. It would be a great addition to the Mail App.
Kudos on making a slick looking product. I'd say that if your UI was less like GMail, I'd consider using it. If it was just that, a UI for <i>any</i> web mail from any domain, like a Mail.app for the web, I'd definitely pay for it.<p>And to anyone who says they use Gmail for Security: They're an advertising company who openly mines and sells your personal data. Exactly <i>how</i> is that safe?<p>Keep on working man. Doing good.
I'd use it, and pay for it, if you gave me direct and private access to my data, hosted on a third-party. Control and portability are a huge concern of mine, and one of the reasons I'm terrified about keeping my data life with Google where I can get locked out with zero notice.<p>THe design looks great, and I'd love to see a host that helped me negotiate ways to protect my privacy and portability.
The UI looks good - but its not even remotely intuitive.<p>I had to read your entire post to figure out what the right side bar is. Its very difficult to just focus on the main content (which is what the user should actually care about). Also the title seems disjointed and un-connect from the email, I had difficult determining if they were related, or if the title was some other kind of reminder.
I would use it if I could host it on my own server and run it on top of Gmail using IMAP and Postgres as a cache.<p>I could pay 30-50$ for it, but I think this would be even more awesome as an OpenSource solution, your product rocks compared to other alternatives as SquirrelMail, and you can always offer a hosted plan as a way to make money from it.
I would definitely try it out if something can match Google's spam filters and search.<p>From a first look, I like the UI however, in my opinion, there's way too much white and it's not intuitive enough. I'd definitely add a little bit of colour, but it looks like a very good start.<p>You have nailed the visual appeal though. Great job on that!
You should disable images in mails by default (the way gmail does it) or at least add an option for disabling them. Images are usually used to track if and how many times you read the mail.<p>You're also missing the chat.<p>As for your question. I would not consider switching from gmail or paying money for an email client.
I will use it because of the UI (but for free). I love the simplicity. I'm also happy that you are using your own product. It's a good start that you satisfy needs with it.<p>If it has a very special feature, or will revolutionized the email, I'm sold! And I might pay for a subscription.
How did you make the layout? Graphics design is my biggest weakness, all my webapps look like the design is made in Paint. And yours is so clean, the fonts are good, everything looks so professional.
Open source it. There is more value in it. You'll attract devs who want to use it and give back to it.<p>Is that you btw: <a href="https://github.com/jubari" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/jubari</a> :)
As a quick intermission:<p>This is a GREAT discussion regarding the state of webmail. Although my app clearly isn't "there yet" (regarding going public), I'm having a great time reading your comments.
This interface looks really good, but as previously stated, there are a lot of behind the scenes features (security, spam filter and keyboard shortcuts) that keep me with gmail.
Hi,<p>I haven't seen all of your user interface to give my opinion, but I know that Sparrow (sparrowmailapp.com) had a nice one. They've even been bought by Google.<p>My 2 cents
A lot of people here seem to like gmail.<p>Well gmail sucks. Its slow, buggy, now has a bad user interface and is generally not what it used to be.<p>It was awesome when it was first released, but there is better now,much better.<p>We now have outlook.com(the new hotmail) which is just awesome in every way.<p>And we have fastmail which I don't use, but the new ui is really groundbreaking.<p>I left gmail the day outlook was released; funny thing is I didnt even realize how much gmail sucked until I moved.
I like it, I think people will adopt it if it was a Chrome plugin that converted Gmail into this UI. Their infrastructure and your skin. You could charge for some features for power users that Gmail does not have.