Mailspring is a fork of the open-source Nylas mail client but with a native C++ sync engine, fewer dependencies, and vastly improved performance. The company behind Nylas Email stated that they are “sunsetting further development of the product”.
Nylas was a breath of fresh air amongst the somewhat-stale stalwarts of the open-source mail client scene. And while the Electron-based app wasn’t the most resource-efficient of apps it did bring some new features and a striking design to the table.
But you don’t need to miss; Mailspring is the perfect Nylas mail alternative.
MailSpring Email Client
Mailspring keeps many of the useful features that made Nylas Mail popular, but improves the foundation they sit on.
Mailspring features
You can set-up multiple accounts, including IMAP (Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc) and Office 365/Outlook accounts. You can browse mail from all your accounts using a unified inbox, and quickly find any mail using the built-in search. Other mail features are also included, such as read receipts, link tracking, ‘enriched contacts’, and quick reply templates.
Nylas mail themes work out of the box with Mailspring too — perfect if you want the client to look a little more ‘Ubuntu-y’. The Themes future a Dark theme as well as other themes out of the box so there is no need to install themes.
The “Catch”
Although the app itself is open-source the ‘Mailsync’ engine that powers it is not.
If that doesn’t put you off then the fact that app also requires you sign up for a Mailspring ID regardless of whether you want to use the advanced features this ID provides (like read receipts, etc) might!
Pro Accounts Support Development
Naturally there has to be some angle in this to help fund development the client going forward. And to that end paid “pro” accounts remain on offer.
But here’s the really great bit: just one thousand paid subscriptions would make >Mailspring a stable business and help ensure its continued development.
In the Pro version for $8.00 a month you will be able to enable the following futures:
- Powerful template support
- Rich contact profiles
- Follow-up reminders
- Read receipts
- Link tracking
- Send later
- Company overviews
- Snooze messages
- Actionable mailbox insights
- …and much more!
To install Mailspring you can download from Download section of the Mailspring website. There is also a Snap version so you would get the updates automatically. Snap version is available in Ubuntu Software store.
