HN Explorer

Launch HN: Station (YC W18) – One place for all your web apps

107 points by jberthom ↗ HN
Hi HN,

We're Alex and Julien, the founders of Station (https://getstation.com/). Our free desktop app unifies all your work applications in one neat interface. Think of it as an efficient workspace for all your web tools.

We've always had a love / hate relationship with our browser: it's been our main work environment for the last 6 years but we keep struggling to stay focused and never found an efficient technique that would fix my natural impulse to open a new tab and get distracted.

After trying quite a few methods (Pomodoro, White noise, Do Not Disturb, ...) & tools (Franz, Toby, Rambox, OneTab, etc.), we came to the conclusion that distraction is a core-design issue in modern browsers that can't be solved with cosmetic changes or simple hacks. If you look at the very first Chrome interface (released 10 years ago!) you'll notice that it isn't significantly different from today's v69. What has dramatically changed is the number of working hours you spend in it.

That's why we built Station: it's a SaaS focused, distraction-free platform (600+ apps) that's not meant for browsing but solely for working with web apps. This translates in the first features we shipped: a "Quick-Switch" (a la Alfred) that allows you to quickly change page without losing focus, a "Smart Dock" that segments your workspace by automatically linking all pages to an app, a "Focus Mode" that kills all notifications with 1 click and an "Autosleep" (a la The Great Suspender) that intelligently unloads unused apps from your computer's memory.

We realize we still have a long way to go to offer the delightful experience we aim for, but we're committed to it. There are quite a few technical challenges, the main one being pushing the Electron framework to its limits: copy/pasting is sometimes erratic, CPU load can spike, embedded Chrome is constantly obsolete, support of extensions is experimental, multi-window is a bit laggy, and I could go on and on :)

We won PH's Product of the Year award last year (https://www.producthunt.com/posts/station-3) which led to a huge boost in active users. This comes with increased pressure to ship features and kill bugs: the community-fed roadmap (https://community.getstation.com/) is completely crammed but our team of 8 is truly grateful for the user feedback we've been getting. It's been really precious, both motivation and product-wise.

This is just the beginning. Our vision is to build an entire operating system for SaaS applications. We want to provide a platform so 3rd party developers can build new features on top of existing web apps, offering users a more native and integrated experience across all of their work tools. Ultimately, anyone using web apps at work would find value in using Station.

We're really excited to get your insights on what we're building. On average, our users are active 5h per day in the app: we hope you find it nearly as useful!

PS. You can download the app here: https://getstation.com. It's available for free on Mac, Windows and Linux.

123 comments

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UltimateFloofy
I know this seems petty, but I cannot see "Get Station" as the url. I continually read "gestation.com", which doesn't have quite the same connotation.
jberthom
haha indeed, that's actually an inside joke in the team :) It's a provisory domain name and we should have a shorter one soon.
FreezerburnV
I quickly scrolled through the list of supported “apps”, and one of them is Reddit. Doesn’t that kind of go against the “don’t be distracted” idea of Station if something supported as a first class citizen is a distraction site?

Also is it possible to add custom sites to Station? Like if I have an internal tool at work, which can’t be supported by Station at large due to it being custom for my job. And does it support stuff only available on an internal work network? Eg: even if JIRA is supported, if my work has an on premises deployment of it I wouldn’t be able to use the JIRA app if I can’t point to that instance.

EDIT: otherwise I think the idea is interesting. Considering I basically put my life into workflowy, having a nice wrapper around it sounds pretty great. Among the other sites I use.

jberthom
Very good points. We discussed a lot internally before adding content websites like Reddit. There are 2 reasons why we decided to add them in the end. First some people actually use such sites for work (they look up for information they need for work). Second, we offer a "Disable Notifications" option so you can avoid receiving notifications from all or specific apps hence giving you control over what can capture your attention or not.

Yes since recently you can add custom sites to Station. Simply go to the app store in the Station app and click on the "+" button on the bottom right. You will be able to request a custom app (available either just for yourself or your entire team).

Look forward to your feedbacks as you test the app!

aclave1
This is a really cool app! I downloaded it and added my most used apps which allowed me to close some pinned chrome tabs! It's just like franz, but for everything. It does feel a bit sluggish though but I do understand that's mostly a limitation of electron.
jberthom
Thanks! Electron indeed has some drawbacks but we are working hard to improve performance as we speak.
aclave1
So i'm using the system now and whenever i try to use it after stopping for a few minutes, the entire ui is unresponsive. It doesn't appear to have suspended the application. It looks like it happens for around 10 seconds before it finally decides to let me use it.
jberthom
Indeed we know few users have this specific issue you are referring to. We are looking into it.
qiqing
I'd be really interested to find out more about the security model of Station, which would be useful for finding out if our infosec department would be willing to approve it for internal use.

Also, ditto on the pointing to an internal Jira instance. Would love to know the answer to that question.

jberthom
Good question. We are based on Chromium, the open-source Web browser project started by Google that powers Google Chrome. Therefore on that part the same security model as Chrome applies. On the data side, most information is stored locally on your computer. Very few information is actually stored in our database therefore reducing the risk. For instance we do not store any username, passwords or token you use to login into your app in our database.

Now we haven't yet worked directly with infosec departments so we are well aware that there is still work to be done for us to be fully vetted.

As for adding an internal Jira instance, you can do that directly from the app store in the Station app. Click on the "+" button at the bottom right of the screen and you can request a custom app (visible either just to you or your entire team).

insomniacity
When we add a custom app, do you see those URLs?

Remember that even a URL could contain confidential information, such as a project planning board for a corporate takeover or new product launch.

jberthom
Good point, I definitely understand the concern. We only see the main domain, whatever comes after the "/" in the URL isn't visible to us or anyone else.
riquito
how do you handle chromium updates? Do you produce a new release the same day, the same week, something else?
jberthom
We get Chromium updates when we upgrade to a new version of Electron. We rely on Electron integrating the new version (typically there is always a delay) to be up to date.
qiqing
Could I email you a Vendor Security Questionnaire to see if we can try it out?
jberthom
Yes definitely that would be interesting. You can e-mail it at hello@getstation.com Thanks
blitzo
Pardon me if I 'don't get it' but is this an OS on top of OS? but instead of hosting native app, this thing hosting sass app?
jberthom
Yes exactly. We use the term "OS" because it's an analogy we find well represents our vision. We aim to become the app you use to access your web applications and have built the app following a lot of the codes you find in an OS (notification center, spotlight type of search, etc.). Essentially our web browsers have become the operating system for the web but we think web apps deserve a dedicated environment. The same way consuming Gmail in the Gmail app in your smartphone is way better than consuming it in your mobile web browser, we want to make consuming your web apps in Station better than on your browser.
runaway
I really love the concept and I've used it since August, but I frequently return to the app and it starts "reloading" making me concerned that I'm missing notifications. It's also frustrating that my configuration doesn't transfer between computers which I do frequently.
jberthom
Indeed the reason why you see this reloading is because we have built an auto-sleep algorithm that allows us to make sure you never have more than 8 processes open at the same time (and therefore affecting CPU or memory usage). For apps like Gmail or Slack (apps on which you are expected to receive notifications) we always keep the page active. Ultimately we plan on supporting notifications for apps even if they are inactive but it's not possible for all apps.

For which app are you experiencing reloading that makes you fear you are missing applications? We might have missed some use cases.

Yes we plan on allowing you to use Station across different devices, it's been requested by a lot of users.

runaway
I could swear I've seen it reload on slack, whatsapp, circleci, and clubhouse. Can't wait for the cross-device features. Thanks!
jberthom
Whatsapp, Circleci and Clubhouse definitely possible if you haven't looked at it in a while and opened a lot of new pages.

As for Slack it shouldn't!

applecore
Do browsers not have the concept of Background App Refresh when the tab is not active or visible? Do popular apps like Gmail or Slack not support this?
Lenad
Any insight into what will be your business model?
jberthom
We plan on remaining entirely free for individual users and only charge for team features (we are still discussing what those could be). Hence it's only businesses that decide to use Station across an entire team that would eventually have to pay.
justkez
This isn't an Electron bash, but I tried this a few weeks ago (found via Product Hunt) and after adding a few apps (G Suite, Trello, Slack, Workflowy), I found the UI frustratingly sluggish and ultimately counter-productive. This is on a well specced 16gb MBP.

Should I try again?! It seems you'd have to move the needle on performance quite significantly to remove the lag. In a non-Station workflow I'd just cull the offending tabs/browsers.

jberthom
14 days ago we have released improvements on the performance of the app (see release note: https://community.getstation.com/t/station-1-24-0/4015). If you tried the app before the app you might see a difference. Let us know how it goes.

Performance is a priority and an ongoing work for us. We know Electron has limitations and we are working hard to limit memory & CPU usage.

ttcbj
I downloaded this app, and really like it. Its a simple concept, but it would be really useful for me. That said, in order for it to be useful I need to be able to add an internal administrative app which I use frequently (its just a website). If I could just do that, it would be really useful as-is.

Ideally, I'd also like to add an internal electron-based web app that runs only on my machine as well, though that is lower priority than the standard web app.

jberthom
Yes you can do that since recently! If you open the app store in the Station app and click on the "+" button at the bottom right of the screen, you can request an custom app such as an internal admin app you are referring to.

As for adding an internal electron-based web app it's not yet possible but it's something we could imagine indeed!

ttcbj
Thanks, I just tried adding two apps (our internal one, and bank-of-america small business login page).
acconrad
As a freelancer and consultant I find this app to be incredibly useful because it essentially puts all of my client work into one app. I basically run this, my terminal, and Sublime and I've got everything I need that is fast and quickly toggle-able. Thank you for putting out a great product!

A few suggestions, after having used it for quite a few months now:

- I have probably 15-16 apps connected and it would be great to get keyboard shortcuts for them all. They stop at 9, but would be great to extend the top row further for app tab movement.

- The notifications bar is dominated by slack and feels redundant. I would like a "do not disturb" for Station only...so I can turn off the redundant notifications that Station sends me without putting my on do not disturb in Slack.

- Zeplin integration is funky. Other apps will move to the correct page (like a pull request in Github) but Zeplin for some reason doesn't move to the correct page of the mockups I want to see. Would love to have this fixed.

Thanks!

jberthom
Thanks a lot!

- Good point. It's exactly facing this issue that we build a feature called the "Quick-Switch. Not sure if you had a chance to give it a try. Basically hit "Cmd+T" and you will see a spotlight type of search bar. From there you can search for any app or even page opened within an app. For GDrive (if you connect it) you can search for any document directly there, on Slack you can search any channel or person. We are working on even more integrations. We have built an algorithm that learns from it as you use it, therefore the results will get even better overtime!

- You can already do that by clicking on the bell icon on the left bar (Disable Notifications). It will snooze all notifications from all your app so you can stay focused. We obviously need to communicate better about it :)

- I see what you mean with Zeplin, some of our team members have the same issue. That's because we do not handle well when a URL has a "#" and whatever comes after. We are investigating this issue to fix it.

theseanstewart
Any plans to support custom icons/colors for apps? I just set up multiple gmail accounts in Station, but it's really hard to distinguish between the different accounts. I can see the account's avatar at the bottom right of the Gmail icon, but it's really small. Another idea would be to provide an option for adding a separator on the menu bar.

Also, another nitpick. The "on" toggle button is really ugly and doesn't fit with the rest of the UI design (which is really nice looking overall).

jberthom
Good points. I agree the avatar app is too small and does not help much. We plan on fixing this either by making the profile page more obvious or maybe as you suggest allow for custom colors.

As for adding a separator on the menu bar, indeed we plan on doing a revamp of the dock and the ability to separate apps in different groups is a feedback we will take into consideration (if I understand correctly what you meant here)

Agree on the toggle button. Feedback forwarded to our brand new Product Designer who is currently working on our design system and will fix that.

theseanstewart
Thanks for the response. Loving Station so far. Keep up the great work.
jbverschoor
Tried it. Didn't like it. Sticking to manageyum for now
jberthom
Interesting. Would love to know what you like about Manageyum that you couldn't find in Station.
wink
This sounds useful.

I haven't tried it yet so please excuse if this has been answered - but this sounds just like I use several browsers, being logged in to different accounts. And also why I don't like webapps as much (lack of alt-tab and separation).

But I have a pressing question: How does it handle opening links in new tabs? Imagine me going through a pinned TweetDeck and looking at all the links? It's hard to describe, but if I "break out" a webapp via chrome for example, I either get a lot of windows or all the tabs in the wrong window. How are people using this? will I have all e.g. articles on random websites inside Station or in my default browser?

jberthom
Interesting point!

If I understand what you mean correctly, you are concerned about how we handle links that are not from an app (articles or anything that does not belong to an app we support). It's a big question for us we are still discussing. Ultimately I think we will want to handle links so you are not constantly sent back to the browser if all you want to do is just quickly read an article from a link you clicked. The question remains on whether we also want to handle full-on navigation.

You can divide navigation in two categories: 1. quick read you won't access again 2. longer term navigation including articles or pages you wish to read again later

For case n.1 I think we should definitely handle it (the same way when you click a link on a mobile app you are usually sent to a provisory browser and can later decide to open it in your default browser) For case n.2 there are still discussions on whether we should leave this to the default web browser, integrate an existing web browser inside Station to handle all external links or build our own within Station.

wink
Yes, thanks. Meanwhile I could think of a good example.

Someone shares a Google+ post via Twitter. Right now I have TweetDeck in my normal chrome instance where I am not logged in to Google (for reasons). So everytime I click this link I have to copy/paste the link from the newly opened tab into Firefox, where I am logged in to Google.

And yes, this is a homemade problem, I should just be reading RSS feeds, but some people seem to prefer G+ and so I get no RSS feed :(

holychiz
what tool/service are you using for your Community Forum site? It looks very well-designed.
mahesh_rm
Discourse. I personally don't like its design or functionality, though.
jberthom
Indeed we use Discourse. It requires quite a lot of customization to look really good. But the depth of feature and the flexibility are unbeatable!
aeschenbach
When using google analytics, when I try to switch to my default property/view (which GA knows), Station opens it a separate window, meaning i can't navigate there from within the app.
jberthom
Indeed we are aware of this bug and we plan on fixing it!
aeschenbach
Your website says pagerduty is an integration, but i cannot add it from within the app.
jberthom
Indeed it is an app we added just yesterday and that will actually be available starting tomorrow. There is a slight delay between the time it is available in the public app store and in the app store of the application.
drewmol
Looks interesting. Is auth0 the only option or am I missing something? Also, just FYI I'm getting an Access Denied when clicking on the auth0.com privacy policy link.
jberthom
For now only Google login indeed but you will soon be able to login with username & password if you do not have a Google account.

Thanks for letting us know on the privacy policy link, we are going to check that out.

nkg
It sound useful and it looks good. I am giving it a try
jberthom
Look forward to your feedbacks!
pbreit
Neat!

One thing for me: I could not find any sizable things to grab on to to move the window, especially on non-Google apps (using Mac version).

jberthom
Indeed good point. We have slightly increased the area for moving the window since previous versions but this is something we can still optimize.
jason_wang
I have been using Station for ~6months now. Fantastic product! The biggest win for me is I no longer have to hunt down which tab has email app and which tab has the calendar cap.
jberthom
Great to hear! :) Means a lot to the whole team reading this.
crooked-v
This desperately needs an option for a plain solid background and actual contrast for the sidebar icons. Also, badging on the sidebar icons.
jberthom
Very good points. Indeed we plan on revamping the background of the app that can be disturbing and make the app icons more visible.
indigodaddy
Station finally getting some HN love. That's great to see. I use this everyday at work for Slack, Outlook Pro/365, Salesforce, DataDog..

I would like to see the ability to specify jira.mydomain.com for the main Jira app (eg kind of like how you can do custom domain login to the Salesforce app, but I do understand that that is actually accomplished by Salesforce WebUI functionality itself there). Having Jira accessible within Station would really complete the circle for me.

I know we can request custom/private Station apps, but not sure I want to request that, as I'm really the only one at the company who uses it... I've shown Station to co-workers and they think it's cool, but they love all their individual apps I guess... :)

I wish the Station team continued success and all the best!

jberthom
Thanks a lot!! When you request a custom app you can pick the option to have it just for yourself and not for your co-workers.
rajekas
I have used it off and on from the time it came out and love how it aggregates many of the apps I use everyday. Nevertheless, I find myself leaving Station for standalone apps/web apps for three reasons:

1. By aggregating all the apps I use, it invites almost as much distraction as the open web :) I would love it if there was a distraction free mode that locks Station for X amount of time in a pre-chosen cluster of apps. That way, I get to work with all the apps in my current workflow while being protected from the big bad web out there.

2. Resource use: not only does it become slower with multiple apps open, my laptop fan spins like crazy. Not the silent meditation I want as I attempt to enter a flow state.

3. My mental UNIX wants to work on one thing at a time and do that well. When I am in UNIX mode (i.e., whenever I am not distracted by the spawn of Zuck and Jack) I use the native/web app for that specific use case. I know switching out of that one app into another takes time, but it's still under my control.

In all, I am wondering if by recreating a full-fledged OS for apps Station is replicating the very problem that it's trying to eradicate.

jberthom
1. Good idea, this is definitely something we have in mind as we look to revamp our dock and the way we handle notifications across all your apps

2. Improving performances is one of our main focus at the moment. You should definitely see improvements over the next few weeks and months.

3. Interesting. Actually one of the developers in our team has edited the app to remove the dock so he is not distracted by the icons on the left side. Essentially what would help you here is having some sort of full-screen mode that allows you to stay focused on one app only without being distracted by the Station interface.

The frustration we are trying to address is the way browsers handle applications. Indeed we could end up replicating the very problem we were trying to eradicate if we end up just creating yet another browser. We started from a blank page for that very reason - so we could in fact build the best experience possible for web apps. I do believe it gives us enough freedom to avoid running into the same issues you can find on traditional browsers. The future will tell!