Review on Newsletter Apps

Mailbrew‍

Mailbrew puts the sources you love into a single personal email digest where you receive the top posts from your favorite creators. Here's a coupon code to try it out. You could connect your account with Twitter (which will scan your followers and be added to your daily digest) or sign-up via email (with the option to connect with Twitter when you build your daily digest).

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Easy Onboarding Process
• Allows me to customize/select my time when receiving my daily digest
• I can add newsletters, subreddits, and topics
• Add other sites for updates that I may be interested in.
• Gave me solid newsletter suggestions
• An email that I could subscribe to newsletters with - so all my newsletters are in one place.

Cons:

• I don't like picking "topics" because I may be interested in different things. Yes, I may read more articles on a specific topic, but if people are talking about The Intelligence of Elephants, I wouldn't want to miss that.
• I was only allowed to subscribe to Product Hunt and HackerNews - but I also don't care about all PH's new products, will it trim the fat further? I don't know. (Also missing IndieHackers from this list...)
• The newsletter suggestions were all newsletters I already knew, and if I didn't know about them, I would need a little more information before signing up (give me a description.)
• I like to segment my newsletters based on the topic/category. I'm a newsletter enthusiast, I'd like to segment my newsletters by topic.

My Overall Rating for Mailbrew: 06/10

StoopInbox

StoopInbox helps you discover, subscribe, and consume great content all in one place. Get those newsletters out of your inbox and onto your Stoop. This is a cool app to hoard your newsletters along with finding interesting ones to subscribe to. Is it anything more than a place to find newsletters, no, but it is a great way to have one place for your newsletters.

Pros and Cons‍

Pros:

• Newsletter Directory
• An email that I could subscribe to newsletters with so all my newsletters are in one place
• Shuffling: a surprise newsletter that you probably never heard about that may be cool
• Preview the App before I sign-up with a reading experience
• Allows me to toggle between other newsletters from the same brand

Cons:

• Long Loading Time
• No Reading Experience post-signing up. When you click on a newsletter, you - have to "subscribe on the web"
• Can't view any information aside from category, author, title, and a little description. (I like to read archives before I subscribe, so this concept doesn't work for me.)
• Zero content, pure newsletter directory.
• Only available as an app

My Overall Rating for StoopInbox: 04/10

Itemsy

Itemsy allows you to save personal links for later. You can also use our browser extension or simply email them to [email protected], share links and stories, create a private "group chat" or channel for sharing, set up your newsletter.

Pros and Cons‍

Pros:

• Updated topics when I click on one I'm interested in, however... (see first bullet below)
• I like the coach marks
• Option to create a newsletter but doesn't help guide creators through the newsletter process without paying
• Analytics, layout, and lighting options are a nice touch

Cons:

• Topics changed way too quickly...
• The loading time is very long
• Share was confusing - I didn't realize I could save to a list from "share.
• I couldn't read in the web app, hard to make notes if that's the case, I would have to keep two tabs open.
• Followed was difficult to understand because Itemsy didn't tell me I should follow people during onboarding. If you don't figure it out - you have an unused primary navigation option

My Overall Rating for Itemsy: 02/10

*** Just Updated and Add The Following ***

Hey.com

Hey.com has been getting so much hype, I was super intrigued to review this app (along with the awesome push from our readers asking us to review it.) Hey.com aims to change the course of your generic inbox. The idea is that you now have an email (you create a new email [email protected]) where you have consent as to what comes in. Your email "Imbox," as they call it, is completely redesigned, you can filter your messages by priority. Basecamp, creators of Hey.com, renamed priorities and labels: "The Feed," messages that are not urgent, "The Paper Trail," those messages that you'll never read again, and "The Imbox," the messages that are important. If you know me, this has my name written all over it, I mean, just read the introduction paragraph.

Pros and Cons‍

Pros:

• The strongest pro is that they brand your email with awesome design and eliminates the anxiety-provoking email space.
• The Screener feature allows you to pick and choose what is allowed to come in (i.e. consent)
• Onboarding was excellent - the tooltips and guidance were awesome, however...
• Option to create a newsletter but doesn't help guide creators through the newsletter process without paying
• Analytics, layout, and lighting options are a nice touch
• I like the idea of files and looking

Cons:

• If I fall in love, I'm going to have to pay.
• I feel like I already have so many email addresses, I have to create a new one and start all over. There thing is that this will be THE email, the ideal situation would be to transform my current email to their space.
• When I clicked that Hey.com was okay to come in, I received 6 emails from them...not into it.
• I like the idea of switching up fonts in my email, you can't change the formatting in Hey.com.
• "Previously Seen" is super difficult to navigate and extremely confusing, if I wanted to go back and check emails, I find it would be really hard because of the lack of filter or search.

When I was doing some research on Hey.com, I stumbled upon this thread posted by Nile from Nocode.tech. Here were some of his thoughts/cons:

• If you don't do Inbox Zero, it's incredibly hard to find people you've already spoken to. I currently have to scroll through tons of emails to get there
• The screening feature doesn't do enough to differentiate what is being sent. I don't want the newsletter from the e-commerce company I just bought from, but I sure as hell want the order confirmation. Same "From" address? Too bad
• Forgot to reply to an email or missed someone? No reminders like Gmail and everything is so over-sized that I can only scan 6 emails at once. Again, Inbox zero needed to make this work
• Screening is actually quite an over-head. I've now got 100+ accounts to screen and it's very hard to find the time to sit and do that because I have to actively think about what each address is going to send me and where I want that to go

My Overall Rating for Hey.com: 07/10

Slick Inbox

Slick Inbox was designed for newsletters. It's essentially an inbox dedicated to your newsletters - it has a clean design, an easy subscribe or unsubscribe option, and that's really it. Some features are coming out that are promising, but as of right now, Slick just seems like your average inbox with @slickinbox.com attached...Let's see.

Pros and Cons‍

Pros:

• After exploring the landing page, the one thing that I felt l should mention is that on the bottom, section "Coming Soon," the creators listed new features along with their email saying: "Don't see the features you want? Write to me here and I'll be happy to consider it!" To me, this is an awesome, easy way to talk with your users is you are a newer app. I know it doesn't have to do with functionality, but these little things are super important to note.
• I love the design, it's simple, clean, and not distracting. Especially the way they designed "mark as read" - makes me feel like I've completed something by using this task-like checkmark.
• I really like how I could unsubscribe really easily - just go into your newsletters in "Subscriptions" and read stories and/or unsubscribe.
• I love that you could easily customize your notifications, however (con: not sure what this means but I'm guessing that new issues won't land in my inbox but I could check them when I head over to my "Subscriptions."

Cons:

• So, right off the bat, I really dislike it when I have to verify my email before going into an app. The reason being is that it disrupts the flow of onboarding and taking me to a different app. There is so much more room for drop-off there.
• Again, creating yet another email, great...I would love it if I could transport my subscriptions to this new app if there could be some sort of functionality allowing me to do that because I'm now going to have to resubscribe.
• I really feel like Slick doesn't navigate me through the subscription process - when I clicked on James Clear. I was expecting Slick to automatically place James Clear's 3-2-1 in my subscription because this leaves room for users' to question whether or not they did the right thing.
• I'd also expect some sort of discovery, I know it's coming soon, but if you don't take the proactive approach to subscribe, users won't subscribe and come back to the app. I anticipate a low retention rate if this isn't fixed.
• The empty screens: when I click on "Inbox" it reads, "Looks like there's nothing to read now!" - instead, tell the user what to do! Take them to either Substack, Newsletter Stack, InboxReads, Discovery by Revue, etc. anything to get them to subscribe.
• I also think it's weird that my archive and history is in my settings, I don't know where they would be but having them in my settings is super bizarre. Let's say if I want to read something later, can I do that?
• Also, you could only read on Mobile...

My Overall Rating for Slick Inbox: 04/10

Mux

Mux is also an inbox-esque app made for newsletters. Users can verify senders, easily navigate through your favorite newsletters, and an interface made for reading. My first thought is that Mux is combining both Hey.com (consent) and Slick Inbox (newsletter reading), but let's see.

Pros and Cons‍

Pros:

• Has an iOS version and an Android version (huge plus!)
• The Welcome Screens were super easy to read, navigate, and super welcoming. Didn't give me much information, but I got the gist from the Landing Page.
• One email for guiding me through the app is great - if you need 5 emails to explain what you are doing, it's too complicated.
• Read view

Cons:

• It was extremely hard to find in the App Store, I had to literally search "Mux newsletter app" to finally see it. Also, they don't have any ratings! ATTN developers, please do something about this so you could get some exposure!
• Okay, MUX, also on your landing page, why should I pay to join your community? If I want to get updates, give feedback on features, etc. Do I have to pay? I understand that you may not have seed funding to develop this, but you and your readers should have open communication and feel as though you are accessible. You're essentially making your beta testers pay...the testers are spending time helping you develop the app not the other way around eep!
• Creating another email account...
• Why do you need my phone number? But okay, sure.
• I'm immediately welcomed with a big, fat void sign. I thought I did something wrong here. Sweating
• Onboarding should be bigger and not as a notification...
• "A source wants to send you emails" - first of all, the name should be in the title because the text is so small underneath, I could easily accidentally press no...what happens then?
• This was super interesting, I have to open Senders in settings...if this is a big feature that I have control over, I should easily be able to see if I want to accept, decline, or leave unattended.
• This whole void thing is extremely unwelcoming on the landing page.
• I guess I try and subscribe...I subscribed to two newsletters 3-2-1 and Stratechery. 3-2-1, I never got a notification and for Stratechery, I received an invitation to add the sender, but it was hidden in senders...I was so confused at a certain point that I began reloading the page. I know I didn't ask for notifications, but that doesn't mean the app can't indicate that I have a pending request?
• Finally, when I did expect Ben Thompson, the email/message came in as "false" and two, the invite came in as Ben Thompson, not Stratechery... I don't know every curator by name?

Ugh! I know there were a lot of cons, but I'm hoping that Mux cleans their app up. It would be amazing to use this instead of Hey.com and Slick, plus, it would be free (I think.) There is so much to do Mux but I trust you could hopefully work out some of your kinks!

My Overall Rating for Mux: 01/10 (I'm sorry!)

As for your newsletters and ensuring you are up to date with newsletters that you follow, see the important content first (the same as your inbox), I must say, the items out there are lacking. Check Listory out and let me know what you think for newsletter and curator up-keep. I would love to know how it compares with some of these other tools mentioned above.

Lastly, your inbox is so personal and it should be a delightful experience, not an anxiety-provoking one. Try out a couple of tools and tips for cleaning up your email inbox and let us know if there are any that we should include in this post.