The Best Alternative to Spark
The release of the new version of Spark sent me hunting for a better alternative. Here is what I found...
Spark just released a new update: sparkmailapp.com/blog/all-new-spark. Unfortunately, their free plan now injects a footer that says "Sent with Spark". While this is fine for most casual email users, it is a bit unprofessional for me so I will need to upgrade to their paid plan. While I fully respect their decision to become paid, and would happy pay for a product I like, I thought I'd shop around for other paid options to find the best one.
Missive (My choice ✅)
Pros
- One account logs you into all of your email accounts
- Windows, Mac, iOS support (these are the platforms that matter to me)
- Has a free plan good enough for most people
- Unlimited private accounts
- Todoist (and others) integration
- Dark mode
- Web browser login for quick access
- Actively updated
Cons
- If you are using it for personal use and want your full email history, you will have to pay $14/$18 a month.
- No read receipts or email tracking
Spark
sparkmailapp.com - I'm specifically ranking their new version
Pros
- Free with "Sent with Spark" footer
- One account logs you into all of your email accounts
- Windows, Mac, iOS support
- Unlimited accounts
Cons
- The new version doesn't have dark mode
- The new version is buggy, settings don't sync
- No web browser version
- No read receipts or email tracking
Newton
Pros
- Read receipts
- One account logs you into all of your email accounts
- Windows, Mac, iOS support
- Unlimited accounts
- Dark mode
Cons
- $5 a month
- Hasn't been updated in months
- Long history of sales and no maintenance
- No web browser version
Superhuman
Pros
- Windows, Mac, iOS support
- Unlimited private accounts
- Actively updated
- Learning curve
- Dark mode
- Great UI + lots of data, great for people whose job is to email
Cons
- No unified inbox
- $30 a month 🤯
- Need to sign into each account on each device
- Confusing UI (to me), seems to be a learning curve
- No web browser version
Edison
Pros
- Windows, Mac, iOS support
- Unlimited private accounts
- Actively updated
- Free plan covers everything
Cons
- UI felt unpolished
- They sell your aggregated data (at least they are up front about it)
- Paid plan if you want to support them
- Some settings didn't sync properly
- No read receipts or email tracking
- No web browser version
Canary
Pros
- Windows, Mac, iOS support
- Unlimited private accounts
- Actively updated
- iOS app looks great
Cons
- Need to sign into each account on each device
- No read receipts or email tracking
- macOS app felt really bad, not well thought out
- No web browser version
Airmail
Pros
- $10 a year, more affordable than most on this list
- Privacy first
- Great UI/Experience
- Unlimited private accounts
Cons
- Need to sign into each account on each device
- No read receipts or email tracking
- No Windows app
- No web browser version