Home / Mektup vs Missive
ComparisonMissive is a team email + chat app that layers collaboration onto mailboxes you already host somewhere else. Mektup is the email: real mailboxes on your own domain, worked by your team over webmail and IMAP - and by an autonomous AI agent over a REST API and native MCP server, at the same time. Different layers; here's when each one fits.
Missive's product is the workspace: shared inboxes, internal chat next to threads, assignments, and shared drafts - connected to email accounts that already exist at Google, Microsoft, or another IMAP host, and priced per user. For teams of humans co-writing and coordinating on mail they already host elsewhere, it's a genuinely good product.
Mektup is the layer underneath: it runs the actual mail infrastructure - real MX, IMAP, SMTP, DKIM - for domains you own. The mailbox comes from Mektup, with webmail and IMAP/SMTP for people, a transactional sending API for your app, and a native MCP server plus per-mailbox webhooks so an AI agent can operate the inbox autonomously - reading, triaging, and replying the moment mail arrives, while humans watch and take over from the very same mailbox.
| Mektup | Missive | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosts your email (real mailboxes, MX/IMAP/SMTP) | Yes - it IS the mail infrastructure | No - connects to hosting you already have |
| Send transactional email via API | Yes | No |
| Autonomous AI agent operates the inbox (API + MCP) | Yes, native | AI assists humans inside the app |
| Webhook on new mail | Yes, HMAC-signed | Via rules/integrations |
| Internal team chat + shared drafts on threads | No - deliberate: it's an inbox, not a chat app | Yes - Missive's core strength |
| Assignments and delegation between humans | No | Yes |
| Use any IMAP client (Outlook, Apple Mail) | Yes | Work happens in Missive's own app |
| Provision inboxes programmatically (per agent / customer) | Yes, unlimited | No |
| Pricing model | Free tier; flat plans from $20/mo | Per user, per month |
Missive capabilities and pricing per its public materials as of this page's last update - verify at missiveapp.com/pricing.
If your pain is humans collaborating on email you already host - several people co-writing replies in real time, chatting internally next to the thread, handing work to each other - Missive is built precisely for that, and Mektup doesn't try to be. Keep your Google/Microsoft hosting, add Missive, and your team is well served.
They solve different layers, but for some teams, yes. Missive is a collaboration app on top of mailboxes you already have, priced per user. Mektup IS the email hosting - real mailboxes on your own domain with webmail and IMAP for people, plus a REST API and native MCP server so an autonomous AI agent can operate the same inbox. One platform instead of hosting + app.
Missive's AI helps humans - drafting, translating, summarizing inside the app. Mektup is built for autonomous operation: full API/MCP control plus an HMAC-signed webhook the instant new mail arrives, so an agent reads, triages, and replies on its own while humans supervise from the same mailbox.
When human collaboration inside email is the pain: co-writing, internal chat on threads, assignments across accounts you already host elsewhere. Missive is excellent at that; Mektup deliberately doesn't do co-writing or internal chat.
With Missive, yes - it connects to mailboxes that must already exist at Google, Microsoft, or another IMAP host. Mektup runs the actual mail infrastructure for your domain itself - no second email service underneath.