Built from a familiar
kind of frustration.
Over the last 10 years I've helped many companis, from one-man-bands to big businesses set up and maintain their business email. From Microsoft's death-by-1000-addons, to Gmail's per address pricing I've seen it all. You're either given too much crap you don't need that's overwhelming or are forced to upgrade to a more expensive plan for everyone just to get basic features...
I'm building Postie as a simpler, focused alternative. It's for people that want reliable email that works their way and get's out of their way.. Whether you're just starting out on your sidehustle or have been running a business for years, Postie is for you. Whether you spend your life in email or you check it once a day Postie is for you.
Conor Ryan
Creator & Developer of Postie
A couple of things to know
Can I use Postie yet?
Postie is still being developed. While I originally set myself a deadline of the 4th of October 2026 I realised it meant I was racing against an imagined deadline causing me undue stress and I felt like I was sacrificing speed for care and attention to features.
With the original deadline now passed I want to focus more in terms of "Chapters" where over time I can say I've done x amount. The countdown still exists and I'll work towards getting stuff done in that given time frame but now I just want to focus on having fun enjoying the process.
In the Development Log I'll now begin showing pictures and screenshots of the application. So please follow along and see Postie being built in public.
What do I need to use Postie?
At present to use Postie the following requirements need to be met:
1. It requires your DNS Name Servers to hosted be on Cloudflare (ie to have a Cloudflare account with at least one domain set up already)
2. An account with a Cloudflare Workers Paid Plan ($5)
This is because Postie (currently) relies on Cloudflare Email Service to send and receive email which has to be scoped to (and previously enabled on) the users account.
I realise this is less than ideal for the vast majority of users but these are the current limitations of the platform which I hope will change in the future. Ideally i want to get Postie to a state where it doesn't matter if you have a Cloudflare account or not.
For those with a Cloudflare account and Workers Paid plan I have set up a one-click install flow where connector worker is created that lives on your account that acts as a bridge between Postie servers and your email.
What will it cost?
At this point I am focused first on making the product that meets my own standards first. As such I don't want to commit to any hard numbers before I get to the pricing stage.
What i can say but it'll be comparable, if not slightly cheaper than, current entry business email offerings. I really believe Postie can make an impact but in order for that impact to be long-lasting service sustainability has to be front of mind. This is not my day job but I want this to be.
Will it have AI?
As a coder and developer I use it every day to help me be productive. As a business owner I couldn't care less about it and am extremely frustrated that it's forced in my face when I'm just trying to work. I know other "normal" people feel similar.
My philosophy on AI is that it is a tool to help you, not to replace you. While Postie may have some AI features they won't be forced upon you and you can enable/disable them as you please. Choice is key. Your choice and Postie will respect that.
As I said it can be helpful, with things like classification or "if this email comes in do this..." but i'm not going to waste my time and yours just putting AI in "just because"
How's the project going?
It's getting there! I realise progress is quite opaque with these sorts of projects especially when they're in the alpha page like Postie is currently.
As such I've decided to create a "Dev Diary" to keep people interested in the project updated as I go along.
Will this actually get built?
These days anyone can have an idea and even without coding experience can have an MVP farted out in 5 minutes or less with the help of AI... Marketing for these projects is more important than actually making something that other people use. Projects can make great in demos but are barely functional and hard for normal people to use, maybe that's not even the goal. That's not to mention that even developers can just get bored or busy and move onto the next thing...
My day job (Freelance IT Consultant/Developer) is helping small businesses update and maintain their IT infrastructure. Over the past decade I have helped business owners and small teams create bespoke software just for them. I love helping people solve problems and giving pepole access to custom solutions that fit their business needs.
One of the services I provide is email setup and maintenance. Whether it's Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or other cost-sensitive solutions i can do it.. Thing is even though I am good at it (enough to continually get paid) I absolutely hate dealing with it. From setting up DNS/DMARC/DKIM/SPF, to dealing with deliverability, to the overly complicated licencing issues it's all a mess.
Forget about the impact on businesses and users for a minute. I am developing Postie for me... (selfish I know). I am building it primarily to make my life easier and that's how I know Postie will last. The projects I have made that "last" more than just a weekend or two are ones I use to make my life easier. Like "ScreenShooter" my time tracker / project manager or CMSTron my headless CMS. The projects that I continue to develop are those I use every day for my work. See more about my open source projects here
Postie is one of these projects that will make my (and my clients) lives easier and that's how I know that it will last. While I'm not ready to show demos yet I have created a "Development Diary" that shows off my progress from first commit to now. See the "Dev Diary" here
Postie