[HN Gopher] Show HN: I built Mailhub - A scalable API for sendin...
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Show HN: I built Mailhub - A scalable API for sending emails with
ease not tears
Author : clementjanssens
Score : 65 points
Date : 2024-08-09 10:58 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.mailhub.sh)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.mailhub.sh)
| clementjanssens wrote:
| Hi HN,
|
| I'm Clement, a freelance developer for 5 years now. I've worked
| in several startups and often encountered the same problem:
| creating stunning transactional emails was a real headache to
| create and maintain.
|
| So, I created Mailhub, an email API with all the tools to make it
| easier to build, test, send, track & monitor transactional emails
|
| Among other features, you can:
|
| - Use reusable layouts & pages powered by Tailwind - Dark-mode &
| responsive supported - Access a virtual outbox - i18n - Build
| from pre-built templates ...
|
| All of this comes with a simple API & reliable deliverability
| rates.
|
| I hope you like it as much as I do. I'm really open to feedback!
|
| See you soon
| jqpabc123 wrote:
| Looks interesting. API is cool, price is acceptable.
|
| Only 2 real questions in my mind, both of which can only truly
| be answered over time: 1) price stability and 2) deliverability
| rates.
|
| Rant: SMTP is just a bad legacy joke that should be augmented
| (replacement is probably not realistic) with some new API
| standard.
| clementjanssens wrote:
| Thanks for your feedback
|
| Indeed, your two questions will answer themselves over time,
| but we are doing everything possible to keep competitive
| prices. As for the deliverability rate, we have implemented
| several mechanisms to ensure that it remains optimal.
|
| I agree with you about SMTP. Emails in general are a legacy
| joke.
| jqpabc123 wrote:
| One thing I just noticed with your API --- no mention of
| support for attachments.
|
| This could be a show stopper for a lot of applications.
| clementjanssens wrote:
| Yes, I didn't added yet, will do it asap! Thanks
| TZubiri wrote:
| In the meantime we'll use legacy jokes then
| stackskipton wrote:
| >I agree with you about SMTP. Emails in general are a
| legacy joke.
|
| Problem is, most replacements I've seen are even worse
| vendor lock in. While I hate SMTP to, it being one of last
| open two-way long-term communication systems out there is
| something most of us should be thrilled with.
| jqpabc123 wrote:
| A modern, standardized API would negate vendor lock in.
| And it wouldn't have to replace SMTP, it could simply be
| an alternative option.
|
| There is no reason that sending an email can't be done
| with a simple, single API call. The back and forth
| "dance" that SMTP requires is just an absurd waste of
| time. There may have been a good reason for it at some
| point but today, it's hard to imagine what that was.
| Eric_WVGG wrote:
| Really happy to see some action in this space. Sendgrid is
| still pretty decent, but I can't stand their parent company
| Twilio anymore.
|
| Tailwind though... ugh... is proper CSS still an option?
|
| (The expressiveness of the template language is pretty cool but
| uncomfortably similar to ColdFusion.)
| Eric_WVGG wrote:
| Minor critique on your marketing page -- the blurred images
| in the marquee look like they're a glitch, like the browser
| is downloading low-resolution copies on accident. Maybe
| replace with scale-up or a subtle ken burns effect?
|
| otherwise it's really nice!
| clementjanssens wrote:
| Thank you for your feedback, it's very valuable.
|
| Yes, I had needs for my startup clients and never found a
| solution, so I decided to create one. I tried to combine
| the best of both worlds: flexibility by keeping HTML code
| and simplicity with Tailwind and other tools.
|
| Thanks again for your feedback. I'd be happy to hear more
| if you try the product.
|
| About the landing page, I took note of that, and I'll
| address it as soon as possible!
| marban wrote:
| Are you using SES for actual sending?
| clementjanssens wrote:
| Yes, I do
| TZubiri wrote:
| Did you build an api or a server with an api?
| layer8 wrote:
| One of my pet peeves. ;)
| clementjanssens wrote:
| An API
| e38383 wrote:
| Up to 500 emails / month
|
| 100 tests emails/month | 50 emails/day
|
| 100 test emails/day
|
| 50 emails/day
|
| What are the limits really and what is the difference between a
| test email and a non-test email?
| clementjanssens wrote:
| A test email is a request sent with a development API key. The
| email is processed just like in a traditional send but isn't
| actually delivered. Instead, it ends up in a "virtual outbox,"
| which prevents damaging your domain's reputation while still
| allowing you to intercept the emails. It's a bit like Mailtrap.
|
| The pricing might not be the clearest. My apologies.
| welder wrote:
| Nice pricing, slightly better priced than other email APIs.
|
| I can also use it with my own templates, where I pass your API
| the full email body as HTML? I've already done the work for
| managing my own email templates and would only need a swap-in
| replacement for the email deliverability part if Mailgun becomes
| too expensive or their service declines after their acquisition.
| clementjanssens wrote:
| You can use the templates you've already built elsewhere; it
| will work exactly the same way. You can also convert them to
| Tailwind for better clarity. And you can split them into
| layouts and pages to take advantage of reusability.
| stackskipton wrote:
| As Ops person responsible for email at my company, I looked it
| over. We are not coming off SendGrid so I'm not your customer. I
| didn't make an account but just looked over the documentation.
| Here my initial thoughts.
|
| First thought, UI looks great. Better than I've dealt with.
| However, this awesome UI information needs API desperately. While
| you are working on this API, please make a reporting API key
| only.
|
| Pricing isn't ideal. I get wanting simpler pricing and initial X
| per month with Y Limit is great starter but being able to buy in
| utilization as an option after that point is better.
|
| Premium having no daily limit will bite you. Telling you now,
| someone will sign up with stolen credit card, spam like hell and
| you will be left with clean up. Been there, done that.
|
| Lack of SMTP Client support means it's nonstarter for us. While
| most of our apps use SendGrid API to send email, we have some
| SMTP legacy lying around.
|
| to field in your API being string or string[] is frustrating. I'm
| sure it helps with onboarding, but I've found weakly typed fields
| always bite in the end.
|
| You got a misspelling in Premium: "For all needs, all teams & all
| *projets*"
| old-gregg wrote:
| Hacker News delivers again. What an incredible example of
| quality feedback from a would-be customer. As one of Mailgun
| founders, I can also confirm/agree with all of the suggestions
| above.
|
| > Telling you now, someone will sign up with stolen credit
| card, spam like hell and you will be left with clean up. Been
| there, done that.
|
| Ignoring this advice killed some companies in this space.
| clementjanssens wrote:
| Exactly, it's incredible. It's a pleasure to exchange like
| this. As mentioned earlier, we've already experienced similar
| issues and have done everything we can to prevent it from
| happening again. Thank you for emphasizing this point,
| especially considering that Mailgun is a pillar in the field.
| clementjanssens wrote:
| Thank you for your feedback; it's incredible. Precise and
| effective, it's exactly what helps us improve the product. So,
| first of all, thank you!
|
| I understand your comment regarding billing, and we will work
| on that to make it easier to understand.
|
| Regarding the daily limit, Mailhub is a v2 product of a
| previous one called Mailwind, which was a similar "plugin." We
| decided to rebuild everything from scratch--the code, branding,
| everything. So, we've already encountered scammers as you
| described and have implemented an effective system to prevent
| that:
|
| Maximum security on our payment provider (Stripe Radar) A
| custom AI that analyzes sent emails (by code or template) and
| reviews the content. In case of excessive fraudulent sending,
| the account can be blocked. Thank you for the warning; we've
| already dealt with this kind of problem. I understand your
| request concerning SMTP. We aren't ready for this service yet,
| but we will work on it very soon. Do you have a contact I could
| use to alert you when this service is implemented?
|
| As for the "to" field, you're right, it could be an issue. We
| prioritized ease of integration but will ensure this feature is
| monitored closely.
|
| Regarding the typo, fix in progress, thank you!
| stackskipton wrote:
| You're welcome about the feedback.
|
| As for contacting me, not really, I enjoy my anonymity of
| Hacker News and anyways, we are satisfied-ish with SendGrid
| right now. So even if you got the feature, we are not
| potential customer at this time. I'll keep your company in
| mind in case that changes with SendGrid or I change
| companies.
|
| EDIT: When I say Ops person in charge of email, email isn't
| my sole focus, in fact it rarely comes up. However, when
| SendGrid misbehaves, I'm first one that is called.
| miyuru wrote:
| Is it just me or the fancy animations makes the page laggy when
| scrolling?
|
| I am on firefox on Linux.
| clementjanssens wrote:
| I'm working on a relatively powerful PC. Thanks for bringing it
| up; I'll look into it soon!
| wackget wrote:
| The pricing info is confusing and maybe inaccurate(?)
|
| It says:
|
| Up to 500 emails / month 100 tests emails/month | 50 emails/day
| 100 test emails/day 50 emails/day
|
| That's a bunch of conflicting info. I'm not sure what the actual
| limits are.
|
| It also says "Remove watermark" in the free tier, but "No
| watermark" in the paid tier... what's the difference between
| those? Seems like you can have no watermark in either tier?
|
| Finally, do you use dedicated IP addresses for sending? If so,
| how do you keep your IP reputation clean? What if a spammer signs
| up and sends thousands of spam emails - will my email sends also
| be affected because we share the same IP?
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(page generated 2024-08-09 23:01 UTC)