BAREmail
Shares rank 13 of 16 email clients by recommenders
A minimalist, free, open source Gmail client built to stay usable on airplane WiFi and other bad connections.
A minimalist, free, open source Gmail client built to stay usable on airplane WiFi and other bad connections.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works on bad or slow connections
“This is a great use case — airplane WiFi is exactly where most modern email clients fall apart.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: BAREmail ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ – minimalist Gmail client for bad WiFi” “Optimizing for bad Wi-Fi is way more useful than chasing another layer of polish.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: BAREmail ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ – minimalist Gmail client for bad WiFi” “Perfect for travel and spotty reception/ low bandwidth”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: BAREmail ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ – minimalist Gmail client for bad WiFi” Free and open source
“kinda cool to just have a simple, open source interface for the Gmail REST API”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: BAREmail ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ – minimalist Gmail client for bad WiFi” “BAREmail is free, doesn't need a backend, and open source.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: BAREmail ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ – minimalist Gmail client for bad WiFi” “might as well vibe code an open source alternative!”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: BAREmail ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ – minimalist Gmail client for bad WiFi”
Other email clients people recommend
The four most recommended other email clients, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mozilla Thunderbird | 210 | 155 | 58% | 13 | 20 yrs12 owners | — |
| Microsoft Outlook | 117 | 403 | 23% | 12 | 20 yrs8 owners | — |
| Apple Mail | 57 | 88 | 39% | 12 | 10 yrs9 owners | — |
| Penguin Mail | 14 | 13 | 52% | 1 | — | — |
| BAREmailThis page | 6 | 1 | 86% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
All 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I made a version of this also bare gmail API”
“might as well vibe code an open source alternative!”
“Optimizing for bad Wi-Fi is way more useful than chasing another layer of polish.”
“the entire landing page gets replaced with an error if WebGL is not available”
“kinda cool to just have a simple, open source interface for the Gmail REST API”
“BAREmail is free, doesn't need a backend, and open source.”
“Lovely app and it's a shame that Google hasn't created a better solution for oauth CLI apps.”
“Perfect for travel and spotty reception/ low bandwidth”
“This is a great use case — airplane WiFi is exactly where most modern email clients fall apart.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.