HEY Email vs Jitsi

What HEY Email is

HEY is a revolutionary email service from the creators of Basecamp that aims to fix everything wrong with modern email. It replaces the traditional inbox with the 'Imbox'—a place for things that actually matter. With its unique 'Screening' feature, YOU decide who is allowed to email you. HEY blocks all spy trackers, protects your privacy, and offers innovative features like 'The Feed' for newsletters and 'The Paper Trail' for receipts. It's a premium, opinionated take on email for people who want to reclaim their focus and sanity.

What Jitsi is

Jitsi is a collection of open-source projects centered on Jitsi Meet and Jitsi Videobridge. It can be self-hosted using Debian packages or Docker, embedded through web and mobile APIs/SDKs, consumed through paid 8x8 Jitsi as a Service, or tried on the public meet.jit.si instance. Those options have different guarantees: meet.jit.si is free but its current terms cap aggregate use at 25 Monthly Active End Points and say users should not rely on the service for commercial purposes. Self-hosting removes the service fee but transfers capacity, certificates, authentication, TURN, updates, abuse controls, recording and availability to the operator.

What HEY Email is built to do

The Screener

Thumbs up or down on every new sender before they ever enter your inbox.

The Feed

Read your newsletters like a social media feed instead of individual emails.

The Paper Trail

Keep all your receipts and confirmations in one quiet place out of the way.

Spy Tracker Blocking

Stops companies from knowing when or where you opened their emails.

What Jitsi is built to do

Video meetings

Provides WebRTC audio/video, screen sharing, chat and collaborative meeting controls.

Self-hosting

Offers Debian and Docker deployments with configurable authentication and infrastructure.

Embedding

Supplies an external web API and native mobile SDKs for integrated conferencing.

Optional E2EE

Encrypts audio, video and screen sharing end to end on supported clients, with feature exclusions.

Choose HEY Email if

• Privacy Seekers and Busy Professionals who hate email.

Choose Jitsi if

• Products embedding video meetings through supported web or mobile interfaces
• Organizations self-hosting for custom moderation, identity or data-path requirements
• Low-volume informal trials that fit meet.jit.si's current public-service terms

Skip Jitsi if

• The free public instance is assumed to provide an enterprise SLA or unlimited commercial use
• Every chat, poll, recording and meeting artifact must be end-to-end encrypted
• No team owns capacity planning, patching, TURN, abuse prevention and recovery for self-hosting

HEY Email: pros & cons

• Total Privacy: Automatically blocks all tracking pixels used by marketers.
• Screening: No more spam or unwanted emails ever—you approve every new sender.
• Aesthetic UI: A completely fresh, modern take on what an email app looks like.
• Productivity: Features like 'Reply Later' and 'Set Aside' keep your inbox clean.
• Subscription Only: There is no free version of HEY; it is a premium service.
• No Folders: It uses a specific organization system that might be jarring at first.
• Locked Domain: Requires using an @hey.com address (unless you use the more expensive custom domain plan).

Jitsi: pros & cons

• Open-source components can be inspected, modified and deployed under organizational control.
• Web, iOS and Android access plus embeddable APIs/SDKs fit browser and application workflows.
• Self-hosting supports custom authentication, moderation, data path and integration choices.
• Optional E2EE protects supported audio, video and screen sharing on compatible clients.
• Jitsi's optional E2EE does not cover chat, polls or every meeting feature and depends on supported clients.
• On meet.jit.si all users are moderators, while room creators require an account and analytics services are used.
• The public service has a 25-Monthly-Active-End-Point fair-use limit and no dependable commercial-service promise.
• A production self-hosted deployment requires real operations work: TLS, networking, TURN, capacity, authentication, monitoring, upgrades, backups and incident response.