The free option that's already sitting in your Gmail settings
Before you install anything, check this: Gmail has a built-in feature called Nudges that resurfaces emails you sent that never got a reply, usually after about three days of silence, and emails you received but never answered. It's free, it's already on for most accounts, and you can adjust it under Settings > General > Nudges.
The catch is that Nudges only reminds you. It doesn't draft anything, doesn't know which threads are actually worth chasing (a stalled $50,000 proposal gets the same nudge as a "thanks!" that didn't need a reply), and it disappears back into your inbox the moment you archive the thread. For casual use, it's genuinely enough. For anyone running deals, client work, or hiring through email, it starts to feel like a smoke alarm that only tells you there's smoke somewhere in the building.
What NudgeForMe adds, and what its free tier actually gets you
NudgeForMe, which launched on Product Hunt on August 1, 2026 and was built by the team behind Snoooz, goes a step further than reminders: it scans your sent conversations, decides which ones look like real open loops (a proposal, an intro, an approval, a client request), and writes an actual follow-up draft sitting in your mailbox, ready for you to edit or send.
It connects to Gmail, Google Workspace, Outlook, Microsoft 365, Yahoo, iCloud, or any IMAP mailbox, and it starts every account in draft mode, meaning it never sends anything without you clicking send first.
| Free | Pro ($12/mo or $96/yr) | |
|---|---|---|
| Connected mailboxes | 1 | 3 |
| Follow-up draft credits | 100/month | 1,000/month |
| Lookback window | 30 days | Longer |
| Draft creation | Manual review | Automatic for due opportunities |
| Branding | NudgeForMe branding included | Removable |
| Writing instructions | Default tone | Custom instructions |
For one person managing a normal volume of outbound email, 100 free draft credits a month is a real free tier, not a bait-and-switch trial. It only becomes tight if you're running multiple mailboxes or sending high volumes of proposals and outreach.
The other free-ish route: Boomerang
Boomerang for Gmail is the older, more established name in this space, and its free Basic plan gives you 10 message credits a month. A credit gets burned every time you track a message, schedule a return reminder, or run Respondable on an email, so those 10 credits disappear fast if you're using more than one feature per email. Paid plans start at $4.98/month for the Personal tier. Boomerang is a solid choice if you want scheduled send and simple "remind me if nobody replies" nudges, but its free tier is built to get you to upgrade within a week, not to be your permanent setup.
Which one should you actually use
If you send a handful of important emails a week and just want a safety net, turn on Gmail's native Nudges first. It costs nothing and takes thirty seconds to enable.
If you're a founder, salesperson, recruiter, or consultant who has ever realized three weeks later that a proposal just... died in someone's inbox, [NudgeForMe's](https://questloops.com/tools/nudgeforme) free tier is worth connecting for a month. The difference between "here's a highlighted email" and "here's a drafted follow-up ready to send" is the entire point, and 100 credits covers a realistic month of single-mailbox use without paying anything. If dictating replies is faster for you than typing them, pairing it with a dictation tool like [Willow Voice](https://questloops.com/tools/willow-voice) covers the other half of a slow inbox.
Boomerang still makes sense if scheduled send matters more to you than AI-drafted follow-ups, but treat its free tier as a trial, not a long-term plan.
None of these fix the actual problem, which is that most of us are bad at circling back. They just make the cost of doing it lower, which is the entire trick.