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Popular Email Client Spark Gets Major Redesign For Mac, Moves to Subscription Model
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As I understand it, Fastmail simply asked Apple years ago, and their own team was willing to put in the work to make it happen. In fact, Fastmail did (and still does) a far better job of supporting push in Apple's Mail app than Apple does with its own iCloud service.
I don't think it's really a matter of Apple withholding this, but rather that big email providers have no interest in adding another layer of complexity to their systems to support Apple's native Mail app. Most expect you to use their own apps like Gmail and Outlook, and for some like Hey it's a requirement as they don't do IMAP at all. Even Fastmail has pivoted so much to promoting its own native iOS app that I'm just happy it decided to implement push in 2015, as it probably wouldn't bother to do so now.
To be fair, it goes beyond that with an app like Spark. Most of the stuff Readdle is now charging a subscription for happens on its servers, and it costs money to keep those running properly. Until now, Readdle has effectively been giving that away for free, or at the very least letting those customers paying for its team-based collaboration features subsidize the rest.
It sounds like Readdle is basically still giving away Spark for free, with an upsell to more advanced features that require cloud-based development, resources, and maintenance. While I have no interest in those features, it's certainly a more reasonable justification for an ongoing subscription fee than standalone apps that don't have any infrastructure behind them and offer nothing more than the promise of regular updates.
Really - anecdotal accounts all over the internet says different… Adobe is declining and companies like Affinity are taking a huge share of their former user base… because they get it… people aren’t going to rent software that can be pulled away from them at the whim of a developer. Are you looking at fuzzy math being produced by the Adobe Wall Street parasites looking to attract the next greater fool?
Looks like they haven't updated the Plan Comparison Section to reflect this "bug"...
Spark Pricing Comparison: Compare Features
Compare the various premium features available and find the right Spark package for you and your team.
sparkmailapp.com
And whoa boy howdy... I'm still taken aback by the price.. $60 a year! I mean, an Email app is a highly used app. But I can easily think of 3-5 more I could all use for Free. I pay for a subscription for Fantastical, a "calendar app", but they provide a robust selection of features, and I use mostly all of them! It's worth it for me, for sure. Even if I wanted to pay for Spark, though, is it really worth it for what you get at that price? I mean, yikes...
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They are ignoring the questions about the promotion of a discount for existing users that doesn't actually exist. I wonder if that too will be a "bug" soon.
uh, I hate to break it to you but nothing you’re saying matches with any kind of reality in the field.
SaaS has existed for a long time in the business community because there are tax advantages for doing so. So Adobe’s moves are a benefit, not a problem, to a business owner like me. Whether they make sense to an individual is up to that individual to decide. But Serif (parent company of the Affinity suite) has not only not taken any significant market share from Adobe, but is facing its own financial struggles as a result of its pricing model.
I like the Affinity Suite. there’s a lot to recommend about it for the casual or semi-pro user, and I hope they can continue to serve that market. And while there’s lots about Adobe I wish were different, it’s pricing model is absolutely not one of them.
Bingo. I think the "huge share of their former user base" that companies like Affinity are attracting are exactly those casual and semi-pro users who at one time had no option but to go with the 800-lb Adobe gorilla. It's understandable that many of those folks find Adobe's pricing model to be too much, and it's great that they now have more choices. However, those businesses that truly rely on professional creative software as their bread and butter aren't going anywhere, and a few hundred bucks a year is a drop in the bucket for a company that's making money from its creative work.
Let's face it, even before Adobe moved to a subscription model, the company's apps were priced for serious professionals. A standalone copy of the full Adobe CS3 suite used to cost as much as a MacBook Pro.
Apple Mail has done the trick for me almost a decade now on both Mac and iOS device. Before that there was Microsoft Entourage (X and 2008). In my experience the best email and calendar software for Mac then. Light years ahead of Outlook. Even today Outlook is bloated slow and can’t do all complex rules Entourage could. It even had AppleScript support.
Of course, Microsoft killed it because its more profitable to sell partly finished software that needs daily paid tech support and patches. Even the current web version is horrible.
Of course, Microsoft killed it because its more profitable to sell partly finished software that needs daily paid tech support and patches. Even the current web version is horrible.
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I wouldn’t call it an email client, more of a Gmail client, as that’s the only thing it supports
We've been using spark in our mac based small business for 3 years, we are paid team premium users and shared drafts, emails and chat etc has been a game changer for us. Feel gutted as not really any slick alternatives out there with same features but I know in the current state users won't be happy to migrate to V3 Desktop. Just not efficient enough UI (no multi windows, too many clicks) and so many missing features. Readdle what were you thinking? Please go back to a native mac app and add new features like V3 iOS and postpone windows electron app. Use that code base for Windows and Web/Browser version. Please see sense. @Nikita Tanchuk
I will never Forgive the devs of this junk so called email client for making me lose my original .mac email address. Due to one of the many bugs they had, I was locked out of my first .mac account due to this piece of junk app auto connecting with a wrong password. Partly my bad as I could not remember the recovery keywords I used back in the day.
POOR customer care, and a buggy “email client” that I am surprised is still around… subscription! HAHAH!! They should be paying people NOT to use this buggy piece of junk.
POOR customer care, and a buggy “email client” that I am surprised is still around… subscription! HAHAH!! They should be paying people NOT to use this buggy piece of junk.
A hard pass on subscription software like this... Even if I didn't hate the concept, the price is too high.
Many professional publishing houses have rubber stamp purchasers and budgets… but those who are aware of what they are paying for and compared it to something that is nearly if not equal in abilities will be the ones who move away from Adobe, and the exodus has already begun. I won’t continue to argue or debate it, but will tell you that i would never recommend an Adobe product again when at one time thats all i would recommend to fellow enthusiasts… and it is due to their greed driven pricing model. The Serif/Affinity products are very capable products and are also compatible with many of the same things that were created for the Adobe products… the add-on’s, filters, affects, etc… so again… the big company that doesn’t care to migrate its software choices are the ones losing out… and are viewing Adobe like Microsoft Exchange and Server, where they are shackled to the product… thats no longer true with Adobe… and mail mail clients (the original subject of this thread) are a dime a dozen… they will lose out on the subscription based model… they will be avoided like the plague…
In search of alternatives. Not paying this asinine price....
This company will quickly start losing subscribers and get negative reviews just like Fantastical did when they went to subscription, and they are still trying to gain a user base and recover from the negative reviews/press.
This company will quickly start losing subscribers and get negative reviews just like Fantastical did when they went to subscription, and they are still trying to gain a user base and recover from the negative reviews/press.
You're certainly right on that point, but it's not a fair comparison as one can still argue that for many publishing houses, the Adobe suite does offer some value. If nothing else, just like they used to say in the old days of IBM, in the corporate world nobody gets fired for purchasing or recommending Adobe.
However, a subscription email client is an extremely hard sell in a world where businesses are already paying for email services that include a standard client like Outlook or have long since abandoned desktop clients entirely and moved to webmail. I'm not sure what Readdle is thinking here, but it seems like yet another misguided attempt to "reinvent" email by adding a bunch of new bells and whistles that will likely have only niche appeal.
It's funny, as Fantastical actually does offer enough to justify its price tag for many folks who have the kind of schedules that require its features, but it's obviously been priced out of being a calendar app for anybody who isn't in that category. While Flexibits made a few missteps in the transition, I think it's managed to recover pretty well and has a solid base of users, particularly with the addition of some of its cloud-based meeting and scheduling features. It's fair to say that if you need what Fantastical offers, it could very well be worth the subscription. Still, it's understandable how many folks who liked the look and design of Fantastical were disappointed when the company effectively changed its target audience by moving to a subscription model.
Email apps are an entirely different breed. They're considerably more basic than a calendaring app, so companies like Readdle have to add a bunch of other things of dubious value to try and justify charging a subscription fee in a world where people are increasingly moving to their providers' own web-based interfaces. I suppose that like Fantastical, Spark may be able to attract a few folks who like what it offers; certainly other pricey mail clients and services have done so in the past. Still, all of these strike me as much more niche, since every one of them seems to be trying to redefine the email experience in some way or another.
Oh for god sake, you made a piece of crap from Electron, put a price tag on it and removed a bunch of stuff, and were supposed to fork out 60 bucks to remove the mandatory sent by Spark message, to read emails? You do realise, there are actual providers that offer this for free?
On that note, I have an O365 sub and I gave Outlook a try since so many people rave about it. I found it less than ideal on my Mac and iPhone. Maybe it is a better experience over on the Windows side? On Apple devices, it seemed no better to me than just using Apple Mail. In fact in some ways, I found it clunkier.
I'm noticing they are giving that reply (or a close variation of it) on twitter to every comment they get. That's what people want while being asked to pay a subscription, a company that seems robotic.
Mimestream is still in Beta and they haven't announced their pricing yet. It will not remain free once out of Beta!
I can’t get over the price per year For this app. You can get 1Password for Families for the same price, and that supports 5 people.
No one rents software. Your work should pay for your outgoings anyway or you should see value in things you purchase. If not you are doing it wrong.
Adobe CC subscriptions made the unaffordable affordable to the masses. Remember, Adobe Photoshop on its own used to cost the same price as a MacBook Air.
I personally think the Adobe CC Photography plan that gives us Photoshop, Lightroom and Premier Rush etc and all the iPad Apps represents very good value for hobbyists or those that specifically just need those apps.
The full fat Adobe CC plan is also very good value for those that needs a wide range of Adobe apps for their work.
If the tool doesn't do the job you need or you don't think you get value from it, then look for cheaper alternatives. However, some people seem to have a memory blank when it comes to standalone software pricing. Adobe were never giving it away and still had the cheek to charge for updates!