Mail Layer
Web and SaaS
email sending service
SHOW HN2024
58points
56comments
#1,200of 3,515 in 2024
Top 35%of 2024 by points
How HN took it
RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical
1 positive, 5 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 14 critical, out of 20 comments about the project. Thread score -0.46.
Pricing: 0 for, 6 againstIdea: 0 for, 5 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 againstPrivacy: 1 for, 0 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Cheap sending via AWS SES
From 2 comments
If the normal price is $0.10 for 1k emails, then the normal price for 10k emails is $1. Where’s the high markup?
codetrotter on HNTheir free tier is 10k, you just pay the AWS cost. So 10k for $1.
supermatt on HN
Useful for avoiding SES bounce and monitoring work
From 1 comment
This looks pretty neat. When I used SES at a previous company we had to do a lot of stuff like bounce tracking and monitoring ourselves so I definitely see the value. One…
ItsABytecode on HN
Objections
Pricing is misleading; AWS charges are extra
From 3 comments
It’s actually worse. Their page is a lie. It tells you what you’ll pay to them, but you’ll also be charged by AWS at the AWS rate (this is stated later in the FAQ, but the…
wredue on HNAll of the tiers lie. The solo tier lists $12, but would actually be $17.
wredue on HN> if you send 50,000 emails per month, you would pay $5 to AWS (as AWS charges $1 for every 10,000 emails) and $12 to Mail Layer. Therefore, to send 50,000 emails, your total…
cowsandmilk on HN
Deliverability not guaranteed; depends on sender reputation
From 3 comments
“Guaranteeing Inbox Delivery and Spam Avoidance.” No details as to how. Am not sure this can be guaranteed.
donohoe on HNExcept that inbox deliverability is not "oh your domain is verified? free pass". So many things nowadays play a part into whether you hit spam filters - the content of your post…
judge2020 on HNMy bank and insurance companies can't regularly and reliably deliver their "paperless" email. Not sure anyone can unless they own the infrastructure. Just getting 50% of your…
kurthr on HN
Possibly violates AWS terms of service
From 1 comment
This gotta be against AWS's term... When you sign up for AWS SES, they ask you very detailed questions about how you'll monitor bounces, deal with spam reports, etc. I don't see…
remram on HN
Mobile design problems on landing page
From 1 comment
For those looking for a self-hosted solution which doesn’t require a monthly payment, there’s https://sendy.co/. I never tried it, just remembered it exists. Mail Layer does…
latexr on HN
Requests
Use cross-account IAM role instead of long-lived credentials
From 1 comment
This looks pretty neat. When I used SES at a previous company we had to do a lot of stuff like bounce tracking and monitoring ourselves so I definitely see the value. One…
ItsABytecode on HN
Open source version for direct AWS integration
From 1 comment
Can someone make an open source version of this so developers can directly integrate themselves on AWS?
suyash on HN
Fix mobile layout
From 2 comments
For those looking for a self-hosted solution which doesn’t require a monthly payment, there’s https://sendy.co/. I never tried it, just remembered it exists. Mail Layer does…
latexr on HNSorry, I didn't focus on mobile compatibility. Will work on that in next iterations. Thanks
mddanishyusuf on HN
Questions
Why give credentials rather than use AWS directly
From 1 comment
This gotta be against AWS's term... When you sign up for AWS SES, they ask you very detailed questions about how you'll monitor bounces, deal with spam reports, etc. I don't see…
remram on HN
How is inbox delivery guaranteed
From 2 comments
Tell me more about this inbox deliverability guarantee.
StayTrue on HN“Guaranteeing Inbox Delivery and Spam Avoidance.” No details as to how. Am not sure this can be guaranteed.
donohoe on HN
Alternatives named
Sendy
From 1 comment
For those looking for a self-hosted solution which doesn’t require a monthly payment, there’s https://sendy.co/. I never tried it, just remembered it exists. Mail Layer does…
latexr on HN
listmonk
From 2 comments
Here is another great self hosted solution that I came across. Really high performance (written in Go). No affiliation but well done open source product. https://listmonk.app
codegeek on HNhttps://github.com/knadh/listmonk We use listmonk, extremely flexible and lightweight as well! I want to try to build a Hubspot integration to fetch contacts directly from Hubspot.
arush15june on HN
Keila
From 1 comment
Keila is another one with similar features plus a visual (block) editor for designing the email template/content: https://github.com/pentacent/keila
chime on HN
SendWithSES
From 1 comment
There was another service that did this pretty well and much simpler. Unfortunately, suffers from the same “deliverability is now your own problem“ problem. https://sendwithses.com
Brajeshwar on HN