As @iampeter said, a project with subscription instead of donations or sponsors, should be more active and not a side project.
If it was just a project with some donations or sponsors there would be not that many people complaining that the project might be dead.
So maybe the project must change it’s form of income.
@Mailspring team - make a decision, are you backing this project with a commercial effort, or are you going purely OS/side hussle. there is no such thing as a commercial side-project of this sort.
edit: I am paying, and willing to pay, and I believe many people are as well, just keep this project commercial-grade sheesh! you’re in a “shut up and take my money” situation and you’re letting it go!
Hi!
I’m just a (happy) user of mailspring who wanted to give my perspective about this, informed from some of the things I have read from the mailspring team in this forum. The following seems to not be stressed enough: they claim that the money from mailspring pro goes towards covering the mailspring pro features (server, etc) only, and seems that none of the money goes towards paying developers to work on software development. I see two attitudes to take about this: to believe it or to not believe it.
If you do, you should understand that the fact that users pay for pro accounts has nothing to do with the timeline to solve software bugs or improve the project (as long as those bugs are not in the pro features). As long as the pro features work, you are paying for a working service.
If you don’t believe it, you should probably not use a pro account.
I’m not a happy user. Sending email, bang! it’s gone, not sent, not in the “sent” folder.
@mailspring creators - get your shit together! I want to pay and be a satisfied client!
I think you guys should consider a Crowd funding campaign. Try raise enough money for 1 year of development for 3 people, and in return give the contributors Mailspring Pro access for life. Set a contribution amount that work for everyone involved.
I believe this can be one of the Best Email clients for all platforms!
Someone should also really look at this problem:
Failing to send emails in GMAIL in some cases (one of the most basic things of an email client). It really needs to be fixed.
I too am a Pro user and paying for this, and I really want to continue to use (and pay) for it, but its cost me a few missed meetings now.
Yes, this +10000
Crowdfund this.
Though I do not think this should take the place of paid subscriptions as the subscription is for the pro features.
But a crowd fund campaign for the core features that could tale this from a one-man-band side-hustle to a dedicated developer situation would be ideal.
I have a premium subscription and I would happily contribute to a crowd fun campaign in addition to this.
Also, if it is true that subscriptions just cover the cost of providing the pro features, raise the subscription price! Make mailspring a profitable commercial project. That’s the only way it can survive.
Hola
Utilicé por bastante tiempo la versión pro de Mailspring en Windows, sin muchas fallas, pero no entendía ni entiendo un sistema en que uno paga como cliente y quien recibe el pago entiende que solo contribuyo al desarrollo. ¿No les parece conceptualmente confuso?
Antes lo he dicho. Ben debiera vender Mailspring o bien definirlo como un proyecto con contribuciones, porque no puede ser viable ni presentable decir que tienes un cliente de correo Pro y no se considerado como cliente.
Una cosa no me queda clara. ¿Los usuarios Pro no tienen fallas y los no Pro tienen fallas?
Como comentario final: Mailspring es muy buen proyecto de cliente de correo, pero, con respeto y aprecio a Ben y colaboradores, no se ve un liderazgo y objetivo claro, lo que no es una crítica, sino que una invitación a que quien lo ejerce lo revise, reflexione y reconduzca, comunicando en unas pocas palabras a una comunidad que permanece pendiente por años.
Un abrazo
Normally, I wouldn’t add to things like this, but I absolutely love Mailspring. I believe in the product and am totally willing to pay for the pro features. The issues I have haven’t been resolved, nothing has been addressed and that makes me incredibly hesitant about paying for the pro features.
I agree with others that you really should look at crowd sourcing yourself for a year’s worth of updates and work and focus on this. I completely understand that this is a side-project, but you are offering people a subscription and failing to deliver on that.
So, please, make a decision and at the very least post an update about what is going on? From what I can see, this looks dead in the water, because no one has even posted anything from Mailspring since last year. Granted, that may only be 3 months, but the very least you could do is update the community to let us know what’s going on, what your plans are, and if you’re not going to make an effort to update, then the least you could do is warn people so they don’t pay for pro features and get a pile of junk.
I would be more than happy to donate to the Mailspring team IF we could get assurances that you’re actually addressing the issues and working to make this better. Please, just do something to let us know you’re even alive!
It is with sadness that I say: goodbye Mailspring.
After a year of pro I can say: I love the app, I love the service. I don’t love the lack of development and the lack of bug fixes. I don’t love that this is a side project.
Mailspring you are a lovely idea, but I need something I can depend on.
Mailspring is indeed a lovely idea. People are willing to pay for the Crowdfunding campaign. So, why @CodeMouse92 are not considering launching it? I think it can provide you all resources you need to offer a much better service.
Hey guys, would you like give a update whats happen with mailspring?
I think, is really dead…
When you look at the github history, then you’ll see that it is not dead.
I’ve been wondering the same thing. I’ve come back here after a year since MailSpring is such a good mail app in so many respects. But the same issues remain: Cannot create or send to groups; there is no ability to adjust the preview lines (after changing themes, it default to no lines, no subject); and there is no hotkey to move a message to a folder.
I’ve read in other threads the idea of this being crowdfunded to support the developer. I’d pitch in. But until these basic features (sending to groups for sure!) are working, I won’t fork out for the Pro features. So far, only Spark and Airmail send to groups (along with OSX Mail, of course). As has been pointed out by others, if this is subscription-based, then we ought to have the reassurance that this is going to be a supported product with bug fixes along the way or, at the very last, some sort of pulse on the forums.
I fully agree. I’ve paid for the Pro version, and I already really appreciate the notifications for opened messages and link tracking. However, at the same time, I’m disappointed with some features not working as expected. For that reason, I checked the GitHub repository for any activity. There is activity, but nothing indicates really active development or bug fixing.
I sponsor other open-source projects where I see the developer or group of developers actively working on the project, and where I have direct conversations with them about issues and suggestions. In some cases, developers work on it full-time, as they can live off the sponsorship money.
As I am a developer myself, I’m tempted to fork my own version and dive into MailSpring to address the issues myself. I like the product, but it lacks the final touch. However, then I would be doing the work I’m already paying someone else to do… Speaking of paying, I’m curious about how the link tracking and message opened tracking functions. Do they have a service running for it somewhere, or are they using an external service? Is that what we’re actually paying for? Well, reasons enough to dive into the source code. If only I had the time for it… Oh well, retirement is coming in a year… 
Yes, I’ve tried every single mail app for Mac, and I like MailSpring the most… or I would if it worked. Airmail is a close second.
I can maybe shed a little bit of light on some of the questions.
For the pro features the are some servers running. The subscription money is used to pay the server rent and for the most part to cover necessary certificates/checks for Google & macOS. The sole maintainer is dependent on his full time job to live. You can find don’t more information about this here: A free, open-source future for Mailspring
I started contributing to see some features like color-coded mail accounts as the Thunderbird plugin I used for this use case was discontinued and I war looking for some mail software that I liked. I try to fix the bugs and minor issues that I see, but I also depend on my paid work and I don’t have the knowledge to fix any sync related bugs. So anybody who wants to chip in there is highly welcome.
So Mailspring is sometimes a bit slower than might be wished, but definitely still alive.
Thanks for your reply, @Phylu.
There are a few annoying issues in the client. So my hands are itching (is this good English? At least it is a Dutch saying) to dive into the source code and improve it. I hope to have time for that soon.
In German, I would say that my pinky is itching. 
If you have any questions regarding the code, let me know and I will try to help.
I have been using Mailspring for some time, but only recently discovered this community forum.
Reading through the comments in the thread, I have to say that I am saddened.
To all of you who are crying that things aren’t going along in the development of the application as fast as you wish - grab some bugs and try and fix them.
Yeah, your paying for Pro features. Great! So am I! And we are all getting the Pro features that we are paying for!
Yes, sometimes bugs pop out… Have you ever used FOSS software before? That is part of the deal - you get bugs.
And you should not compare development speeds with those of multi-billion-dollar corporations that have tons of developers working 24/7 on their products. This is a side project. The amount that you are paying for pays so those Pro features can run. All the developers who are contributing are donating their free time to work on this app out of passion and love. They don’t get a penny from your/our pro subscriptions.
I remember the time when there were no subscriptions or Pro features and instead, the app was asking for donations. I am assuming they changed the model, so they can support the features, because not enough people were donating, compared to how many were using them. And I support this!
So SHAME ON YOU! And if you want things to move faster, then contribute to the development work. If you can’t - stop yapping and say thank you to the people donating their free time, so you can have this client. And if the bugs bother you that much and you can’t wait - go use Thunderbird, Betterbird or Outlook/Gmail - your call!
TO THE DEVS! - Thank you for your work and the amazing email clients, that I can use and enjoy, thanks to all of your efforts. As long as I can afford it, I will be paying my pro subscription happily! Even if you decide to increase the price for it!
On a side note, I hope that the work you are putting in to get link-tracking and read-tracking for Microsoft-hosted receivers pays off! The fact that you have to deal with this is another proof that Microsoft has some real idiots behind the wheel of some of their projects…