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Superhuman’s email app is overhyped and overpriced

theverge.com

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Re: Superhuman’s email app is overhyped and overpriced

#41

Post by hellotomyrars »

cercatrova wrote: post #25
taytus wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>30 dollars is extremely cheap There is a wide world out there where $30 is not cheap at all. I wish Americans consider stuff like that before commenting but I gave up years ago.

Sure, it has to be scaled to the market. However, even the equivalent of 30 dollars given a higher per hour rate (such as 50) is cheap. That Superhuman does not institute a region-based pricing is a different story, but you cannot deny that to Americans, 30 dollars is cheap when considering the time saved.

I actually don’t agree. $30/mo for an email service (which most people get for free) is a huge ask for many Americans. Especially when everything is sold as a subscription. Sure it’s “only x per month” but when everything someone buys is a small amount per month it adds up quickly. 30/mo might be chump change for a software engineer, especially one in a tech bubble area.

30/mo for email is however, not cheap or practical for many other people though.

Re: Superhuman’s email app is overhyped and overpriced

#42

Post by mike-cardwell »

KennyFromIT wrote: post #15

Am I the only one that feels like this article (along with this resulting HN thread) is straight out of the Hey PR machine? I guess I just don't understand the value this type of post adds to the HN community.

I signed up for a hey.com trial, to test it with emailprivacytester.com (of which I'm the author). I was a bit disappointed to be honest. When you use hey.com's webmail, it loads remote images when you read an email, and there doesn't even appear to be an option to turn that off. Granted, they hide your IP by proxying the content, just like Gmail does, but they don't hide the fact that you read an email, or when you read it.

These systems should really just fetch all remote content in advance, rather than waiting until it's read. That would make it impossible for a sender to know if a message was read or not.

Re: Superhuman’s email app is overhyped and overpriced

#43

Post by hguant »

KennyFromIT wrote: post #15

Am I the only one that feels like this article (along with this resulting HN thread) is straight out of the Hey PR machine? I guess I just don't understand the value this type of post adds to the HN community.

I feel like that has become my typical experience reading The Verge - "here's this thing! You shouldn't use it, you should totally use this thing that we (or our sponsors) like better!"

I remember reading their articles about the Windows Phone and some early Android devices, and realizing that the 'review' was just some guy complaining about how it's not like an iPhone, as if approaching a user interface or solving a problem in a different manner than Apple was inherently a bad thing for all use cases, in all places. That sort of promoted fanboy-ism permeates, well, almost all of their articles, be it a tech piece or a purported report on politics.

Re: Superhuman’s email app is overhyped and overpriced

#44

Post by hguant »

balladeer wrote: post #39
jonshariat wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got into the "beta" last night only to find out it was a 1 week trial and the cost was $100/year. (Also when claiming emails short addresses costs even more money per year). Right off the bat it put a really bad taste in my mouth. I'm helping you test your product. Changing your email is a really big commitment, I can't imagine this is the way to convince people to try it.

Wait, don't they allow custom domains? I think this lock-in, even if it is for reinvented email, ought to be a big "no".

No no, you see, you must be _brave_, be _bold_ and irrevocably tie yourself to our product.

Re: Superhuman’s email app is overhyped and overpriced

#45

Post by devdas »

balladeer wrote: post #39
jonshariat wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got into the "beta" last night only to find out it was a 1 week trial and the cost was $100/year. (Also when claiming emails short addresses costs even more money per year). Right off the bat it put a really bad taste in my mouth. I'm helping you test your product. Changing your email is a really big commitment, I can't imagine this is the way to convince people to try it.

Wait, don't they allow custom domains? I think this lock-in, even if it is for reinvented email, ought to be a big "no".

I believe that it on their TODO list.

Re: Superhuman’s email app is overhyped and overpriced

#46

Post by cercatrova »

hellotomyrars wrote: post #41
cercatrova wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, it has to be scaled to the market. However, even the equivalent of 30 dollars given a higher per hour rate (such as 50) is cheap. That Superhuman does not institute a region-based pricing is a different story, but you cannot deny that to Americans, 30 dollars is cheap when considering the time saved.

I actually don’t agree. $30/mo for an email service (which most people get for free) is a huge ask for many Americans. Especially when everything is sold as a subscription. Sure it’s “only x per month” but when everything someone buys is a small amount per month it adds up quickly. 30/mo might be chump change for a software engineer, especially one in a tech bubble area. 30/mo for email is however, not cheap or pract…

Superhuman and apps like it aren't designed for every American. It's for people whose job is to basically email all day, like investors, managers, recruiters, etc. For them it is absolutely worth it. It's like asking why a specialized tool is so expensive for those who need it. It's precisely because they need and would use it so much that the tool is worth it.

Re: Superhuman’s email app is overhyped and overpriced

#47

Post by cercatrova »

jlbnjmn wrote: post #38
cercatrova wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is strange that people don't consider the money value of time when addressing the prices of products. 30 dollars is extremely cheap, since 36 minutes per month as you say is such a small value as to be negligible.

I think people do consider the money value of time? If you're an employee, it's irrelevant. If you're self employed, the mental overhead and switching costs are high. And if you are the person for which those things are true, do you believe the marketing? Wouldn't 5 minutes memorizing keyboard shortcuts be a better use of time, at $0/monthly cost? I would argue that the area in which people fail to consider the value…

Maybe the switching costs are high, or maybe not. Superhuman is designed such that every single interaction can be done on the keyboard, I'm not sure of another email client that has that level of control, so I'm not sure as to your point about memorizing keyboard shortcuts.

It's like an email version of vim (or emacs if you prefer), but more GUI-based and for non-technical people. Would you pay for vim, is I think the real question, given that one is an active vim user already. Since it saves me so much time and switching cost from keyboard to mouse, I would pay for it. That it is currently free and open source is nice, too, but I think some programmers would definitely pay if it weren't.

Re: Superhuman’s email app is overhyped and overpriced

#48

Post by jlbnjmn »

cercatrova wrote: post #47
jlbnjmn wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people do consider the money value of time? If you're an employee, it's irrelevant. If you're self employed, the mental overhead and switching costs are high. And if you are the person for which those things are true, do you believe the marketing? Wouldn't 5 minutes memorizing keyboard shortcuts be a better use of time, at $0/monthly cost? I would argue that the area in which people fail to consider the value…

Maybe the switching costs are high, or maybe not. Superhuman is designed such that every single interaction can be done on the keyboard, I'm not sure of another email client that has that level of control, so I'm not sure as to your point about memorizing keyboard shortcuts. It's like an email version of vim (or emacs if you prefer), but more GUI-based and for non-technical people. Would you pay for vim, is I think t…

I've saved hundreds of hours by ignoring email and I highly recommend that option as well.

By keyboard shortcuts I'm referring to any software that one uses frequently, whether text editor, email, video editing, analytics, or something else.

If someone is not using the keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, why not just start there? No migration necessary.

Re: Superhuman’s email app is overhyped and overpriced

#49

Post by graeme »

jlbnjmn wrote: post #48
cercatrova wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the switching costs are high, or maybe not. Superhuman is designed such that every single interaction can be done on the keyboard, I'm not sure of another email client that has that level of control, so I'm not sure as to your point about memorizing keyboard shortcuts. It's like an email version of vim (or emacs if you prefer), but more GUI-based and for non-technical people. Would you pay for vim, is I think t…

I've saved hundreds of hours by ignoring email and I highly recommend that option as well. By keyboard shortcuts I'm referring to any software that one uses frequently, whether text editor, email, video editing, analytics, or something else. If someone is not using the keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, why not just start there? No migration necessary.

I made the original post you’re replying to, and I agree. Web gmail + shortcuts is actually a great service. I think most people who are fairly satisfied with their email and just want to improve some would be best served starting there.

Personally I found superhuman just better enough that it’s worth it, but that’s because I wasn’t very good at managing email in a web interface, and I like the command line approach in Superhuman.

Re: Superhuman’s email app is overhyped and overpriced

#50

Post by cercatrova »

jlbnjmn wrote: post #48
cercatrova wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the switching costs are high, or maybe not. Superhuman is designed such that every single interaction can be done on the keyboard, I'm not sure of another email client that has that level of control, so I'm not sure as to your point about memorizing keyboard shortcuts. It's like an email version of vim (or emacs if you prefer), but more GUI-based and for non-technical people. Would you pay for vim, is I think t…

I've saved hundreds of hours by ignoring email and I highly recommend that option as well. By keyboard shortcuts I'm referring to any software that one uses frequently, whether text editor, email, video editing, analytics, or something else. If someone is not using the keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, why not just start there? No migration necessary.

Sure, that works for many people, I am not disagreeing. I'm just saying why shouldn't people pay for more specialized tools? Sometimes Gmail and keyboard shortcuts aren't enough.
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