The Showdown
Shortwavevsmail-mcp-bridge
Why pay monthly fees for Shortwave when you can self-host mail-mcp-bridge for free? Let's look at the facts.
VS
Shortwave
The Expensive Option
- Closed Source (Black box)
- Expensive monthly fees per user
- Data stored on their servers
WINNER
mail-mcp-bridge
The Freedom Choice
- 100% Open Source Code
- Free forever (Self-hosted)
- You own your data completely
Interactive Calculator
Calculate Your "SaaS Tax"
SaaS pricing is designed to scale with your success.
See how much wealth transfers from your bank account to Shortwave's shareholders.
10 people
150100200+
$
*Estimated standard pricing for Shortwave. Adjust if needed.
Estimated Annual Waste
$1,440
Monthly Burn Rate$120
5-Year Projection$7,200
Cost with Self-Hosted$0
Calculations based on 10 users at $12/mo.
Detailed Breakdown
0
Cloud-side email indexing
Local processing via MCP
1
Proprietary APIs
Model Context Protocol (MCP)
2
Monthly subscription
Free / Self-hosted