Building an affordable business suite, together

When we opened FranklyMail to the public in August, we were sharing email infrastructure we had already used inside our own team for years. Today, with Calendar and Meet alongside email, the shape of what we want to build is becoming clearer: an affordable business suite for people working on their own domain.

I want FranklyMail to become a practical Google Workspace alternative for small businesses. We still have a lot of work ahead of us. But being able to send a client an email, put a meeting on the calendar and join a video call with the same business identity feels like a meaningful step.

I’m Muhammed Emin Ayar, founder of Naylalabs, the team behind FranklyMail. I wanted to share why we are taking this direction, what you can use today, and how your support helps us keep going.

Why I’m building an affordable business suite

I’m in my sixteenth year as a software developer. Since starting Naylalabs in 2018, I’ve worked across software delivery, product decisions and the everyday work of keeping a team moving. A surprising amount of that work happens between the bigger things: answering a question, finding a time to talk, helping someone understand what you mean.

Those moments matter to a small business. Your email address carries your name. Your calendar is where a conversation becomes a commitment. A video call is often where a client finally sees what you have been working on.

I want those essentials to be accessible when you are just getting started, and to remain affordable when someone joins you. Adding a colleague should feel like progress. I don’t want the cost of giving them a business email address to make that decision harder.

That is the direction behind FranklyMail. Reliable email is the foundation. We are building outward from the work that already happens around it.

Calendar and Meet bring more of your working day together

Imagine you run a small design studio. A client emails about a proposal. You suggest a review, send a calendar invitation with a meeting link, and share your screen when it is time to talk. That is an ordinary working day, and it is the kind of day we want FranklyMail to support well.

Calendar gives the conversation a time and place

FranklyMail Calendar lets you plan events, send invitations, share calendars and keep recurring meetings beside your email. Reminders help you keep track of what is coming up. CalDAV access gives you a way to connect compatible calendar apps, too.

You can add a FranklyMail Meet link while creating or editing an event. The people you invite receive the meeting details, and you have a place to join when the time comes. Our Calendar guide explains the available features and setup.

Meet gives the conversation room to happen

FranklyMail Meet launched on 27 October. It includes browser-based video meetings for up to 10 participants and 90 minutes per session, with screen sharing and in-meeting chat. You can start a call now or create a reusable link for a regular conversation.

You create meetings with your FranklyMail mailbox. Guests can open a link and ask to join without creating a FranklyMail account, so a client does not need to move their email to meet with you. A trusted participant admits them to the call.

Meet and Calendar are included with FranklyMail email. There is no separate Meet subscription. For the full joining flow and current limitations, see the FranklyMail Meet announcement.

What affordable means for us

Our current core plan costs $9 a year, with unlimited mailboxes and 10 GB of pooled storage. There is no per-person fee for that plan. Additional storage costs $0.40 per GB per year. A domain registration is separate; you can use a domain you already own. The pricing page has the current details and optional extras.

Pooled storage is an important part of that explanation. Unlimited mailboxes does not mean unlimited storage. A team keeping large archives will need more space, and I want that cost to be clear before they choose us.

Affordability also means having a useful starting point. You should be able to put your own domain on your email and arrange a conversation with a client without buying another meeting subscription from us. That is something we can offer today.

Our path toward a Google Workspace alternative

Google Workspace sets a broad expectation for what a business suite can do. When I say that we want to offer an alternative, I mean that as a direction we are working toward. FranklyMail today focuses on custom domain email, Calendar and Meet. We do not currently provide a shared document editor, a spreadsheet app or a Drive-style file workspace.

If your team depends on those tools, moving its entire workflow to FranklyMail would leave gaps. I would rather be clear about that than have you discover it after signing up. For a small team whose immediate needs are email, scheduling and short video meetings, the product we have today may already be useful.

Meet also has boundaries: 10 participants, 90 minutes, and no recording or transcription in this release. It does not offer end-to-end encrypted meetings. Meeting media uses LiveKit Cloud’s global network, so our email hosting location should not be read as a promise about where a video call is routed.

There is plenty left to build and improve. My ambition is to make more of your working day fit comfortably here, while keeping the product understandable and the price accessible. That ambition is not a release date for an unannounced feature. We will keep showing what is available as we ship it on our product updates page.

Your support makes this possible

Choosing a young product for your business email is an act of trust. I don’t take that lightly. You are putting us in the path of conversations that matter to your work.

When you tell us where something feels confusing, we get a better view of the product than we could from our own desks. When you explain how your team actually works, it helps us decide what deserves attention. And when you recommend FranklyMail to someone, you give a small team a chance to earn another person’s trust.

We have a long way to go. Your support gives us room to keep building, and your honest feedback helps us choose where to spend that effort. I want us to stay open to those conversations as FranklyMail grows.

If you already use FranklyMail, try putting your next client conversation on Calendar and adding a Meet link. Then give our Reddit community a shout and share how it went. Tell us what felt easy, where you got stuck, or what would make it useful enough to become part of your week.

If you are new here, take a look at what is included and see whether it fits the way you work today. You do not need to buy into every part of our vision to find a useful home for your email.

Thank you for giving us the chance to build this with you.

Muhammed Emin Ayar
Founder, Naylalabs
The team behind FranklyMail