Jun 14, 2023 3 min read Watercooler

What's the best email client for Mac & iOS? Newton Mail vs. Polymail vs. Mailspring

Newton or Polymail? Wait - what about Mailspring?

If you're here, you probably use an email client and look for options beyond Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, and Thunderbird.

I have used email clients on Mac & Windows for a couple of decades, and here's my take on the best email client for Apple Mac and iOS platforms. I will keep this article focussed on the pros & cons of Newton Mail, Polymail, and Mailspring and not go into the 'what is an email client or why use one.'

Newton Mail

What I love about Newton Mail / Pros:

+ Works on both desktop & mobile
+ Offers a separate mobile calendar app
+ Solid email open tracking & link click tracking
+ Email track also features the device type (computer, mobile) and location information (city)
+ Removes tracking pixels (for most trackers) w/o having to block all remote images
+ Cheaper at USD 50 per year (they offer a 20% off coupon for the 1st year on this price)
+ Snooze an email to the desktop app from the mobile app
+ Newton mobile app supports Apple iOS’s Dynamic Type feature (allows the user to make the text size bigger or smaller in the interface)

Issues I faced with Newton Mail:

- The desktop app is finicky and zooms in/out on its own
- Cluttered UI
- The Grammarly Desktop app doesn’t work with the Newton macOS app
- The Newton apps are not authorized for Google Advanced Protection accounts

Mailspring

What I love about Mailspring / Pros:

+ Beautiful macOS app - very good UI, templates, font size, etc.
+ Gmail folders/labels are always visible
+ Templates are powerful
+ Signature control is lovely
+ Superior font control
+ An exemplary implementation of send now & undo send
+ Easy to use ‘auto-remind if no one replies’ feature
+ Mailspring macOS app works with the Grammarly Desktop app
+ Powerful Gmail-like search

Issues I faced with Mailspring:

- Expensive at USD 8 per month
- No mobile app for iOS; desktop-only ecosystem
- No built-in calendaring
- Uses SMTP auth - doesn’t work with Microsoft 365 accounts unless SMTP auth is enabled
- Weaker Mailspring account protection, no 2FA (a HUGE issue)
- The Mailspring app is not authorized for Google Advanced Protection accounts

Polymail

What I love about Polymail / Pros:

+ Superior desktop+mobile app combo
+ Superior pixel blocking without the need to block all remote images (best of the lot)
+ Activity feed for tracking clicks/reads across all accounts (very useful)
+ 2FA protection available for the Polymail account
+ Polymail integrates with Grammarly Desktop
+ UI: Gmail folders/labels are visible and not tucked away
+ Fast customer support on the Premium plan (response time is US working hours)
+ Customer support is available on the Basic plan (response time is a day or two)
+ Sequences support in the Premium plan — the only app in the trio that offers this
+ Seamless integration with Microsoft 365 accounts; no SMTP auth needed; uses Microsoft Graph APIs
+ Best-in-class implementation of automatically reminding the user that an email wasn’t responded to after a few days (the number of days after which the reminder auto triggers is customizable)

Issues with Polymail / Cons:

- Expensive at USD 120 per year for up to two connected email accounts in the Basic plan; the Premium plan, which includes Sequences and up to 20 connected accounts, comes at an eye-watering USD 288 per year
- Sometimes, the app goes into sync mode and slows down
- Have to clear the app cache once a month or two, in my experience, as the sync breaks
- Font control and signatures are iffy (to date, I don’t know what the ‘default’ font size is - it’s neither 9 nor 10 nor 11)
- Send now or Later could be better (Mailspring’s implementation is the best in the category)
- Gmail folders/label two-way sync doesn’t always work
- Emptying Trash and Spam emails is not intuitive
- Combines all labels/folders from multiple accounts into one list (should host an option to combine or show them in categories)
- Polymail apps are not authorized for Google Advanced Protection accounts
- Polymail iOS mobile app does not work with the Dynamic Type feature of iOS (can’t make the email text bigger or smaller in the mobile app)