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HEY Email

HEY is an opinionated email service from 37signals (makers of Basecamp) that rethinks the inbox with a Screener for new senders, an Imbox for what matters, and separate feeds for newsletters and notifications.

Our take

HEY is the most opinionated email product in the market, and that is both its strength and its natural filter. The product’s premise is that your current email workflow is broken — not because you need better tools, but because the default model (everything lands in the inbox, spam filters decide what to hide) is fundamentally wrong. HEY’s answer is: you decide who can reach you, and everything else is sorted into feeds you read on your own schedule.

The Screener is the core of this. The first time someone emails you, they go into the Screener. You say yes (they land in the Imbox permanently) or no (they are blocked immediately and forever). This is a completely different relationship with new senders than any other email service offers.

What stands out

The Screener. Most spam solutions fight a retroactive battle. HEY’s Screener is proactive: unknown senders never reach your inbox unless you approve them. After a few weeks of setup, the Imbox contains only people and organizations you have explicitly invited in.

Tracking-pixel disclosure. HEY blocks tracking pixels and names the sender that tried to track you. Where most blockers are silent, HEY surfaces this information. For people who care about email surveillance, this is a concrete and transparent feature.

The Feed for newsletters. Newsletters do not go into the inbox; they go into a separate chronological feed you read when you want. No unread count pressure, no inbox clutter. The model works well for anyone subscribed to 10+ newsletters.

Where it falls short

HEY is a closed service — no IMAP, no SMTP, no way to connect an existing Gmail or Outlook account. You either use HEY for your email, or you do not. The migration overhead is the biggest adoption barrier. The $99/year price also positions HEY as a premium choice, which is hard to justify if you are evaluating email on a functional rather than philosophical basis.

Who should pick HEY

Pick HEY if you are willing to move your primary email to a new address and adopt a new email philosophy. It rewards users who buy into the system fully. Skip it if you want to keep your Gmail, if IMAP access matters, or if the $99/year price point is a friction point.

References

Pros

  • The Screener is a fundamentally different take on spam control — blocking new senders at the first message rather than after the fact
  • No algorithmic inbox sorting: you decide who goes where, which means the system is predictable and opt-in
  • Tracking-pixel blocking with named disclosure (HEY tells you who tried to track you) is more transparent than silent blocking
  • The Feed model for newsletters is genuinely better than folder-based newsletter management
  • Opinionated design means HEY does not try to be everything — the workflow is consistent

Cons

  • No free plan and $99/year is above the personal email market average — this is a premium for a philosophy
  • The Screener workflow requires active management at first; every new sender needs a decision
  • No IMAP or SMTP access — HEY is a closed email service, not a client for existing accounts
  • Cannot import existing email from Gmail or Outlook into HEY without third-party tools
  • HEY for Work at $12/user/month is expensive relative to alternatives for teams that just need shared email

Features

  • The Screener: every new sender requires your approval before landing in your inbox
  • The Imbox (Important Box): only approved, priority senders land here
  • The Feed: newsletter and bulk email delivered as a scrollable feed, not inbox clutter
  • Paper Trail: receipts, invoices, and transactional email automatically separated
  • Reply Later: snooze emails you want to come back to
  • Clip: save important sections of long emails for quick reference
  • Tracking-pixel blocking with named sender identification
  • Merged threads: combine related emails from the same topic into one view
  • Sticky notes on emails for personal context
  • Custom domain support with your own email address
  • HEY for Work: shared team accounts and admin controls
  • Native apps for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android