Newton - Supercharged emailing App Reviews

Fantastic app and UI, but not entirely unique. Paid a one-time fee for the OSX app. Months later, received an update notice informing me that the app name would be changed and there will be an annual subscription fee. I understand the economics of it, but this should have been their payment model to begin with. Btw, they keep on updating the app with no significant changes. Seems to me that they’re trying to hide the recent negative reviews. There’s been multiple updates this week alone, and so the customer reviews for the "Current Version" are reset to 0. This worsens their reputation in the eyes of current users (now subscribers). And I think it’s going to make their transition toward a sustainable business model difficult.

I paid $20 for Cloudmagic on Mac earlier this year. A few days ago, the developers “self-destructed” the app with a countdown timer to non-functionality, thus forcing an upgrade to their new app: “Newton”. Newton only offers a 14-day trial and then you have to pay a $50/year subscription fee. This is enormously customer-unfriendly, and I feel robbed. I’ve asked Apple to refund the original app purchase. I understand releasing a new app with a different business model, but self-destructing a app people paid for and hustling them into a new subscription model is not OK. Before this, I would have rated CloudMagic a 4/5, it was elegant, but not tremendously functional: poor gmail tag support. Goodbye forever!

The developers have designed this so that it will fail to function when they choose to update at any time. This happened with the last version known as “Cloud Mail.” Essentially, you are paying for a Office 365 version that only includes mail. When they do this again, this app will become dead weight. Too bad as it had potential.

That way the average works out to 1 star. That’s the only way I could stomach anything greater than 0 stars. PAID for this app once - without complaint. It has a nice interface and it’s worth having iOS and Mac OS clients that behave the same way. That should be enough, but then the nifty new name and icon (because the “power user” stuff is nothing special) is now $50 annually? Dear developer: Not sure what you’re smoking, but it must be some good stuff to lull you into this self-indulgent idiocy of a business model. Smoke some more, have some Doritos, and keep releasing non-updates to reset the ratings from the 1-star hell you deserve. It’ll all work out, I promise.

Bought the application recently and, like others, had it taken away unless I pay more. Questionable business tactics at best. Will not continue usage.

I was one of the many users of cloud magic that really loved the app. It usurped the Apple mail app on my iphone, but I never plunged in on the macOS side. I was one of the many who jumped ship when Cloud Magic became Newton and a surpising annual cost of the app followed. After actually misssing a lot of the features of Cloud Magic and recognizing it was a service that I was now more willing to pay for, I paid for the first year and also jumped in on the macOS app. I find that it really works well for my situation where I juggle 5 different email accounts and really appreciate the snooze feature, unsend (how many times has you wanted to jump into your machine to grab an email?), and general simplicity of use. I hope many who enjoyed and appreciated the features that aren’t found in Apple mail, Gmail Inbox, or other free services, decide some things are worth paying for. I certainly like the best deal possible, but I also have a realization that free doesn’t bring about sustainability.

A once paid app should not suddenly change to subscribtion base without a smooth transaction. Also definitly should not try to hide negative reviews by updating the app frequently without any useful changes.

These are the kind of apps and people that make me want to throw my devices away for good! Just seems like there is no sense of making a good, solid product any more. Just money making scams, like this. Apple & Cloud Magic, I want my $20 back!

I have a been a user of CloudMagic since the very beginning. Amazing interface, intuitive and a tremendous on UI/UX. But let’s face it - this is email. We have so many different ways of using email - and with the advent of the new MacOS (Sierra) the MAIL App has tremendously matured into something that is workable. Save yourself the $50/yr and as far as mobile devices are concerned, you should try SPARK. It’s excellent - not cloudbased, intuitive gestures and really works well just similar to CloudMagic used to. Whoever is running the business @ CloudMagic/Newton, should really re-think their business model because user abandonment is going to be MASSIVE! These days - especially for email - very few people are going to be willing to pay $50/YR for email. That’s just FACT!

I paid $20 for this app. Months later they let me know they were switching to an annual subscription model. Great app. Poor customer relations.

People are trashing the program for the sudden surprise and charge. That’s fair… at the same time admit the program works very well and is a solid permanent email solution. Because it is. If the payment prevents a buyout or an assault of ads, I’ll accept it. If that suddenly changes I will feel kind of used for purchasing it now.

I don’t review.. I have never reviewed an app before. That being said, I’m getting somewhat fed up with the thankless d**ks that want everything an app like Newton (once Cloud Magic) has to offer, without there ever being an add or a subscription fee. This app does for mail what Tesla has done for the car industry: deliver what should have been delivered years ago. Flawless integration of emails across all platforms and exchanges, great user tools, and shortcuts that actually work to your advantage. I read tons of reviews prior to making a selection, so take from someone who’s biggest fear is paying for something not worthwhile; this is worthwhile.

The last thing I want to deal with on the 1st of the month is my email being held hostage, disabled and then gifted a free-trial and the headach of reconfiguring the email settings because the update wiped them. To be honest, I accidentally downloaded Cloudmagic on my new machine, still use Unibox on the other, and thought it was cool. We should all get paid for what we make, but not all of us should have to feel like we got forced into paying for it. Good luck with your new business model but I don’t support the strong arm tactic….I deal with that too much to have an app trying to control my communication abilitiies for money.

Okay, so maybe the changes weren’t rolled out in the best way, but I have to say I think all this whining about an annual subscription is frankly kind of embarrassing. Talk about champagne problems, y’all. It’s basically $4 a month for an email service that goes way above and beyond what other apps provide. Yes, there’s the free app Spark, but Spark doesn’t offer a desktop version so it’s basically useless for those of us who need both. I’m excited to use Newton and will be recommending it to my friends and colleagues. It’s the only way I’ve been able to keep track of hundreds of emails without completely dropping the ball. EDIT: I do think they should be offering refunds of the $20, for those who recently paid for the Mac app.

I like the app a lot. I paid a one time $20 fee for it. Now they changed the name, my app doesn’t work and I’m supposed to give them $50 / year. Ridiculous.

I can fully appreciate the fact that many users who paid a one-time price for this app when it was CloudMagic are upset because it changed to a subscription based app with no notice. However, that is not a reason to write a negative review of an app that is actually a great email product. I just downloaded the trial and after spending my entire working life looking for the perfect email app, have finally found something that’s at least close to perfect. I just never tried CloudMagic before it was Newton because they didn’t have a trial and I didn’t want to waste the money if I didn’t care for it. For minimalists and users who want an absolutely beautiful user interface, Newton is what you need. It’s well designed, but still does almost everything a complex email app achieves. It’s not perfect, but since app features are subjective, it probably never will be. I am a Gmail user so I wish it supported all the Gmail keyboard shortcuts. I also wish there was a larger array of user preferences. The one I miss most is the capability to change the font size. With Newton you’re stuck with the font size you see, unless you increase/decrease it in each message you read, which is cumbersome (and even then you can only change the font size within the message body of each email). Overall I really like Newton. Yes, $50/year is a lot to pay for an email app, but it sounds better as $4/mo. I spend so much of my day using email, I feel I should be using the app I like the most, regardless of price. In the end, I’m sure I’ll fork over the $50, but for now, I’ll wait until the end of the trial period. I’ll update this review at that time.

I paid for the Mac version of Cloudmagic several months ago. It was a stretch bc the mac version was a littel barebones in form but also unfortunately in function. However it allowed me to have a unified app presence on my computer and phone so I went for it. The iphone app was similar to others on the market and pretty sleek. Nothing special overall but worth the one time $20. Fast forward several months and now and we’ve been given an ultimatum to pony up $50/yr or lose functionality. Even though my purchase qualified me for a free year, I had no intention to download the upgrade so that the developers could count me in their downloads/active users. Appears this company took investment money from inpatient investors who’ve probably pressured them for more ROI and to change their business model. So many startups out there taking bad advice. Too bad they overestimated the worth of their product. It’s no better than a handful of other cheaper apps on the market and only marginally better than the native email client. They’ve lost my business: I’ve deleted the apps on both laptop and iphone.

Its amazing to me the number of people leaving bad reviews for this email app simply because they don’t want to pay. They are asking for merely a little over $4 per month. That is nothing for what this app provides you. It is far and away the best email app there is out there and if you don’t want to pony up the cash, go find another email program out there that offers all of these features (hint, there isn’t one). This is hands down the best there is and the features this provides do wonders for me from a productivity standpoint. Hats off to the devs. You don’t desere these ridiculous negative reviews from people who want everythign for free. Newton is worth every penny, and I will happily pay the $50 annually to support your work. To those leaving negative reviews, get a life. You are trying to desparage a great app because you are upset you can’t get it for free anymore. Move on with your life and let those who are actually paying for it comment on it for others to decide if they want to pay as well.

I have no problem paying for something that brings value to my workflow. However, when there are several free options that bring the same quality and features that Newton boasts, I would be stupid to pay; especially when the amount is something unreasonable like $49 a year (ongoing). As I said, I have no problem paying a reasonable amount. For example, I tried Spark which is great and free but wanted to try something that offered a Mac solution as well (Spark is only for the iOS at this time). I tried AirMail and loved it! I didn’t even bat an eye paying the ONE-TIME price for their products ($14.99 - Mac and $4.99 for iOS). So to the 2 or 3 reviewers who speak down to the rest for not being willing to pay something I would say two things 1) Why pay when equivalent options are available for free (supply and demand) and 2) I did pay because another option that was available priced themselves reasonably (supply and demand). If you want to pay $49 a year for email that is your right but I think it is silly when other comparable (dare I say even better) options are available for free or much, much cheaper.

I can forgive the sudden and drastic price change and switch to a subscription model. I can forgive the disrespectful way that Cloudmagic blindsided its userbase with these changes (they’ve since been punished by hundreds of the worst reviews I’ve ever seen). But here’s what I cannot forgive. This $50/year email app doesn’t even open emails properly. Let that sink in for a moment. If you get lots of long emails and newsletters as I do, Newton will almost certainly cut off the content well before the end. Sometimes you have to open the email multiple times for all the content to load. Sometimes the content doesn’t fully load at all. Basically, Cloudmagic is charging more than anyone else on the market for an app that doesn’t do the single most basic thing you could ask for: open an email properly. Make no mistake, I loved the original version of Cloudmagic’s Mac app. The update to Newton has some promising and useful features in addition to everything that made the original so great. But right now, this one bug is pissing me off so much that I can hardly stand to use it. Cloudmagic, if you’re listening, I will remove this review once you fix this asinine problem. However, until it’s fixed, I will go out of my way to make sure this review sticks with every single update you roll out becuase this is simply unnacceptable.