HEY email by Basecamp
Ranked 10 of 17 email services by recommenders
People recommend it for the Screener sender whitelist, a smooth web experience and a usable private email address. Critics mostly object to its lack of IMAP and the founder's views.
People recommend it for the Screener sender whitelist, a smooth web experience and a usable private email address. Critics mostly object to its lack of IMAP and the founder's views.
42 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 23
- criticize it
- 19
- approval share
- 55%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 23 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, 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
Smooth, pleasant workflow
“The flow with hey.com so much better that being an app or in browser is irrelevant.”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Gmail thinks I'm stupid, so I left” “I swapped to Hey shortly after it came out, and I'm very happy with it.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Claude Desktop spins up a VM without no way of stopping it” “I've been happy with hey.com. No plans on switching.”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Google denies 'misleading' reports of Gmail using your emails to train AI” - Comment from 28 Feb 2026 in “Leaving Google has actively improved my life”
Screener sender whitelist
“It's been hit or miss on some stuff for me and I hate the way the website looks, but otherwise its a great way of whitelisting senders.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “The Future of Email” “The attack doesn't work on hey mail, since new senders have to be accepted before they go the inbox.”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Your sign-up form is a weapon” “the Screener whitelist is probably the most important feature”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: I wrote an email app that accepts only one sender per inbox” Usable private email address
“Hey is the only way I can have a public, usable email account anymore.”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Canceling "Hey"” “You need Tuta or Proton or Hey for that.”
Comment from 8 Jan 2026 in “Gmail is entering the Gemini Era” Hard to give up
“HEY.com introduced it, and I can't see email without it”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “The Future of Email” “I'm moving everything to Hey.com.”
Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Canceling "Hey"”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
No IMAP support
“I don't particularly like all the other opinionated choices of Hey.com (especially the fact that you can't use IMAP)”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Someone at BrowserStack Is Leaking Users' Email Address” “Since the organization is non standard, imap doesn't map cleanly and it all ends up being a huge mess.”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M” Objections to founder DHH's views
“Do you really wanna work with a company whose professional blog references "[insert ethnicity] rape gangs" and "the decline of Europe"”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “Rails World 2026 Opening Keynote [video]” “I do try to limit supporting people who have actively advocated for things that harm my family.”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Canceling "Hey"” “I've never been particularly impressed by anything he's built, from Basecamp to HEY”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M” - Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Canceling "Hey"”
- Comment from 24 May 2026 in “Your Dotfiles Are Not a Distro”
- Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “Canceling "Hey"”
Regret or staying only for address
“The only people I know still using Hey are doing so because there's no way to move your address elsewhere.”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “What About Rails?” “I currently use hey.com for most email...a decision I am considering revisiting in the future”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Leaving Google has actively improved my life” “I'm a Hey customer, and it's one of my biggest regrets.”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M” - Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “Omacom Foundation Launches with $8M”
Overpriced and slower than Gmail
“I guess the E-mail-service is still overpriced due to them believing in non-existent value of their web client.”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Canceling "Hey"” “found I was paying for the privilege of having a slower, buggier, less feature-rich gmail”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “What About Rails?”
Other email services people recommend
The four most recommended other email services, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fastmail | 388 | 95 | 80% | 13 | 5 yrs90 owners | Approved |
| Gmail | 295 | 797 | 27% | 12 | 20 yrs58 owners | — |
| Proton Mail | 196 | 222 | 47% | 13 | 3 yrs29 owners | — |
| Tuta Mail | 49 | 17 | 74% | 13 | — | Approved |
| HEY email by BasecampThis page | 23 | 19 | 55% | 9 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 43 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the Screener whitelist is probably the most important feature”
“maybe even Hey itself is outdated in the Ai era”
“In a sane world such a "service" would be outlawed.”
“The only people I know still using Hey are doing so because there's no way to move your address elsewhere.”
“found I was paying for the privilege of having a slower, buggier, less feature-rich gmail”
“Not the flex you think it is, Dave!”
“Do you really wanna work with a company whose professional blog references "[insert ethnicity] rape gangs" and "the decline of Europe"”
“Personally, I wouldn't want all my emails stored on a service where the dude doesn't even look at the code anymore.”
“I like it for how I use calendar and mail”
“I've never been particularly impressed by anything he's built, from Basecamp to HEY”
“Since the organization is non standard, imap doesn't map cleanly and it all ends up being a huge mess.”
“I quit hey three years ago for the reason you listed”
“I'm a Hey customer, and it's one of my biggest regrets.”
“I'm moving everything to Hey.com.”
“keep supporting someone i already don't like”
“Someone thinking differently just didn't have an experience.”
“I do try to limit supporting people who have actively advocated for things that harm my family.”
“I guess the E-mail-service is still overpriced due to them believing in non-existent value of their web client.”
“I wouldn't get email from someone I knew was virulently racist as DHH is.”
“Hey is the only way I can have a public, usable email account anymore.”
“doesn't fit on a 16:9 laptop screen”
“I swapped to Hey shortly after it came out, and I'm very happy with it.”
“It's been hit or miss on some stuff for me and I hate the way the website looks, but otherwise its a great way of whitelisting senders.”
“HEY.com introduced it, and I can't see email without it”
“The flow with hey.com so much better that being an app or in browser is irrelevant.”
“I really like it. No AI features yet!”
“The author is doing the same for DHH promoting things like Grok/Hey/X”
“every once in a while, there's a huge success … like Rails, Basecamp, Hey”
“I have heard good things about all of them.”
“I don't particularly like all the other opinionated choices of Hey.com (especially the fact that you can't use IMAP)”
“The attack doesn't work on hey mail, since new senders have to be accepted before they go the inbox.”
“couldn’t be happier :). Highly recommended.”
“I currently use hey.com for most email...a decision I am considering revisiting in the future”
“I like Hey.com more but I don't want the utility company or some online service I barely care about cluttering it up.”
“has recently shipped a very nice year view”
“You need Tuta or Proton or Hey for that.”
“I've been happy with hey.com. No plans on switching.”
“So many daily drivers of mine refuse(d) to work from time to time”
“The project is still early, but the underlying idea feels promising, and the current implementation already shows coherent (and sometimes surprising) emergent behaviour.”
“Don't forget the pre-installed Basecamp and Hey!”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.