People have tried to kill email for so long and it hasn't worked. I think this is a much smarter approach. How does this compare to Inboxapp.com?
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@oprostrednik This is a LOT cheaper. Inbox's official pricing is $5 - no, not cents - per e-mail account (10 free like this).
I wrote them and they responded they're working on a more startup friendly pricing plan.
@oprostrednik When abstracting away complex and archaic email protocols, there's a number of API design choices. I'd say the main difference between us and Inboxapp is how much data we choose to cache/index on our side. We index all the message headers to power features in our 2.0 API and we don't index anything for our lite API. Inboxapp caches 100% of the messages, which could explain the pricing.
It really comes down to what kind of app you want to build. I'd be happy to chat more about it! Lemme know.
@oprostrednik as Tony mentioned, big difference is the underlying implementation. InboxApp creates a complete clone of the mailbox on their service, then responds to API requests from that clone. Context.IO just keeps headers and metadata (in the 2.0 version, no data at all on lite version). Most API calls only return metadata so we can serve those straight from our cache, requests for message bodies and attachments imply Context.IO connecting to the original email account to fetch that info before the response is sent back.
Also, Context.IO has been in production since early 2011, initially as the backend of our own app and grew as a public API since mid-2011. It's now owned, funded and operated by Return Path (i.e. it's no longer a tiny startup). InboxApp came in more recently.
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I think there is so much more that can be done with email. Tell me again what proportion of the population have or have ever had an email account? Looks like this just needs to be mixed with a handful of open-minded entrepreneurs to create some very exciting applications...
@dotcomdude I am a bit skeptical of email innovation. There have been a ton of attempts at "killing email" that haven't worked. But it can definitely be improved on. I think Google Inbox - which has managed to rid me of the fear of archiving - has really made a huge leap forward in that area.
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I used ContextIO during my Bloc.io Full-Stack web-development capstone. I was able to create a relatively full-featured webmail client in a little over 4weeks. It took a little bit of support from their Dev Evangelist Tony Blank, but he was always there to answer questions when I was being stupid. Great team and great set of API's. We're evaluating building a mobile email client with the Glider.io classifier built into it right now and using their API's to do it as it will save a ton of work.
@karangoel not sure where you got that "no SSL" from. Yes, the main public site uses plain HTTP but the developer console is HTTPS only, API calls can only be made over HTTPS and connections between Context.IO and email servers always happen over secured connections unless the email server doesn't support it
@karangoel Hello Karan, we take security and privacy VERY seriously! I can assure you the API is secured by industry-standard best practices. I'd be happy to chat more with you about your concerns!
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Hello! I'm the Product Manager for Context.IO. Thanks for the great feedback and the upvotes. Please let me know if you have any other questions or thoughts on Context.IO!
Hello all - Tony here, developer evangelist for Context.IO. More than happy to answer any questions about Context.IO! I appreciate the upvotes! Thanks :)
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