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Foundation for Emails
Campbell, California, United States
What it is
Foundation for Emails is a free, open-source framework for creating responsive HTML email, including messages intended to work across major email clients such as Outlook. It is positioned for marketing, promotional, drip campaign, and transactional messages. The template collection has 11 customizable layouts, including newsletters, order emails, password resets, and welcome messages. Its grid adapts layouts to smaller screens by stacking content and adjusting padding and row width. Developers can write Inky tags such as and , which are converted into email table markup. The ZURB Email Stack combines Gulp, Sass, Inky, an inliner, BrowserSync live reloading, and automatic image compression. Panini layouts and Handlebars partials help reuse elements such as headers and footers. The web inliner embeds CSS in HTML style attributes, moves media query styles into the body, and compresses the result. The CSS version is a ZIP download; the Sass version includes a build process and requires Node.js. HTML is the listed export format.
For and against
For
- Free and open source.
- Includes 11 customizable email templates.
- Inky converts tags into email table markup.
- The grid adapts layouts for small screens.
Against
- The Sass version requires Node.js.
- The CSS version is distributed as a ZIP download.
The verdict
Foundation for Emails offers reusable templates and a build workflow for responsive HTML email. Choose between the direct CSS download and the Sass setup based on the workflow you need.
Who it suits
It suits designers, developers, and marketers building responsive email campaigns or transactional messages. The Sass version is aimed at users who can work with a Node.js-based build process.
Plans and prices
Open-source Foundation for Emails
MIT-licensed framework · self-hosted tooling · no hosted sending service
Read 15 Oct 2026 · faun.dev
Foundation for Emails
Responsive email framework · CSS and Sass versions · 11 customizable HTML templates
Read 4 Oct 2026 · get.foundation
On the record
- Audience
- The maker describes Foundation for Emails as useful to designers, developers, and marketers, from startups to Fortune 500 companies.get.foundation · read 4 Oct 2026
- Build commands
- The starter uses npm start for development and npm run build to inline CSS and complete the build.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Build workflow
- The ZURB Email Stack includes Gulp, Sass, Inky, an inliner, BrowserSync live reloading, and automatic image compression.get.foundation · read 4 Oct 2026
- Buttons
- The framework includes button components with multiple sizes and colors.get.foundation · read 15 Oct 2026
- Callouts
- Callout components provide colored panels for sections or calls to action.get.foundation · read 15 Oct 2026
- CLI installation
- The documented setup installs foundation-cli with npm and creates a project using foundation new --framework emails.get.foundation · read 15 Oct 2026
- Company history
- ZURB says it began in 1998, moved to Campbell, California in 2005, released Ink in 2013 and renamed it Foundation for Emails 2 in 2016.zurb.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Compatibility
- The maker says the framework and templates are designed for major email clients and describes testing on Outlook, Gmail, and Apple Mail.get.foundation · read 4 Oct 2026
- Compatibility coverage
- The compatibility table lists Apple Mail, Outlook 2000–2016, Android 4.4, Gmail, Google Apps, Office 365, Outlook.com and Yahoo Mail.get.foundation · read 15 Oct 2026
- Compatibility limitation
- The maker notes that Gmail for Android does not recognize media queries and therefore renders the large breakpoint.get.foundation · read 15 Oct 2026
- CSS inlining
- The web inliner embeds CSS into HTML style attributes, relocates media query styles into the body, and compresses the output.get.foundation · read 4 Oct 2026
- Email templates
- The templates page offers 11 responsive HTML email templates, including newsletter, order, password reset, and welcome layouts.get.foundation · read 4 Oct 2026
- Email testing
- The template includes an npm run litmus command that requires AWS S3 configuration.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
- Email use cases
- The maker describes it for marketing, promotional, drip campaign, and transactional emails.get.foundation · read 4 Oct 2026
- Former name
- The project was originally called Ink.get.foundation · read 15 Oct 2026
- Getting started
- The CSS version is a ZIP download; the Sass version includes a build process and requires Node.js.get.foundation · read 4 Oct 2026
- Independent usage
- Your Movement documents using Foundation for Emails v2 to render its emails, with automatic CSS inlining and a 12-column grid.developers.yourmovement.org · read 15 Oct 2026
- Inky extensibility
- The Inky repository describes Rust-based distribution as a CLI, WASM module, native shared library and Rust crate, with bindings for Node.js, PHP, Python, Ruby and Go.github.com · read 15 Oct 2026
