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A scheduled email or a small script can do a surprising amount. Sometimes it's all you need. Here's an honest look at where it works, and where it falls short.
When email is enough
When you need safeguards
The DIY route
A cron job, a scheduled send in your email client or a small script can be a perfectly good switch, if you're technical. The risks are about what happens years later, when no one is looking after it.
Servers, API keys, card payments and email accounts all lapse. A switch that silently stops working fails exactly when it's needed.
Most scripts have one trigger and no human check, so a missed check-in during an illness or a trip sends everything.
Emails from a personal script often land in spam. Recipients may never see them.
Messages often sit in plain text on a server or in a drafts folder, readable by anyone with access.
Side by side
| Feature | Scheduled email | DIY script | Sealkept |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free to low (hosting) | $5 a month; everything included |
| Setup | Minutes | Hours, plus upkeep | About ten minutes |
| Trigger | A date you keep pushing back | Missed check-in | Missed check-ins |
| Reminders before release | None | If you build them | Several, by email and in the app |
| Human verification | No | If you build it | Optional: one or two verifiers |
| Soft alert and grace period | No | If you build it | Yes, grace period of your choice |
| Voice, video, documents | Attachments only | Attachments only | Yes, on every plan |
| Per-message timing | Manual | If you build it | After grace, a month later, on a birthday, or on verification |
| Storage | Your email provider | Wherever you host it | Encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM |
| Keeps working for years | Only if you keep postponing it | Only if you maintain it | Maintained for you |
The release, step by step
Sealkept never sends on a single missed check-in. It reminds you several times, can ask a trusted verifier to confirm, sends recipients a soft alert, and waits a grace period you choose before anything is delivered.
Miss a check-in and we remind you, several times, by email and in the app.
Optionally, one or two people you choose are asked to confirm before anything moves on.
Recipients get a gentle note that something may be wrong, with a way for you to say you're fine.
We wait 48 hours, 7 days or 21 days, as you chose. One tap from you stops everything.
Only then are your messages delivered, each by the rule you set for it.
FAQ
Related reading
Start with one letter, with every safeguard switched on.
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