Canary Mail Reviews

by BA Of MD

I’ve been requesting basic features from canary for months that are found in other email apps, and this “new” version includes none of them. In fact, I can see nothing new in the design, settings, or appearance of CanaryMail . Looks like a ridiculous excuse to charge loyal users again. What a crock of **it.
In response to the developer's boilerplate answer to my review, CanaryMail has basically the same exact features as before with some minor vague "redesign", but basic features such as an instant undelete feature and the ability to see more than first names in the headers of email threads are still missing despite being requested repeatedly by users and being found on almost all other email apps. So to the developer, stop posting BS boilerplate excuses and start delivering done actual new useful features.
To the developer: you completely miss the point. Yes, you have gussied up the interface a little and put a few new features in place that nobody needs, but your app is woefully behind other email apps in basic features that you continue to ignore. People keep requesting these basic features, and you ignore them. So yes, there are some new features and yes each screen looks a little different, but basically you have added nothing of any practical value. Try adding a few features that people actually need and request and maybe people will be willing to pay for them.

by Gsjbdifibdjdq479999432

Email apps have different features but they all should at least give the user access to their emails. Canary does not do this. I trusted canary and assumed all was fine but eventually I realized that I was missing emails and checked and it turns out canary was not showing me all my emails. Interestingly canary on one device will show emails not shown in canary on another device. While the Apple mail app is merely adequate it is now what I am using as support has stopped responding to me (ironically thanks to canary having a read notification feature I can see that they opened my last email days ago). Or maybe they did respond and I just can’t see it. Either way CanaryMail is not worth the money, look elsewhere.
Another flaw that is extra glaring considering the company emphasizes privacy in canary a lot:
Canary doesn’t allow for the downloading of remote images per email. Every email app I have ever tried has allowed you to turn off loading remote images for privacy/security and then in each email you can hit a button to download them. This is a great solution as some emails you need the pictures but want it off by default. Canary makes it an all or nothing thing. Never seen it done this way and there’s a reason for that.

by Hehxhebdhz

The good thing: the PGP encryption and decryption works indeed like a charm! The bad thing: CanaryMail is too buggy for everyday use. The starred messages do not correspond to the starred messages in the email account (unstarred messages appear, even after refresh). The email address is not always shown when you write to someone. You cannot edit text between the incoming text lines when replying. Search only searches locally on the device (and hangs beyond that). Choosing an addressee is painfully slow. When you get a notification for a new email, that email has most likely not yet downloaded. It usually takes several refreshes to get it on the phone, and often some more refreshes to also get the *content* of the email on the phone (even with good internet connection). Sometimes CanaryMail just crashes. Writing a draft on the phone, and then opening it on the email provider Web page fortunately no longer erases the email (as it was before), but the email is not in draft mode (need to copy paste it out into a new draft). In short, too much pain... That is unfortunate, because the idea is great!

by Cr081

The new update looks nice and new but is lacking and buggy. For example, it still takes a long time to download new messages from the server. Sent messages don’t show up in outbox until much later and when composing a new message it will include all of my contacts in the email as opposed to the one I specifically chose. You have to them click down to the body or subject to actually erase your entire contacts from being accidentally cc’d on the email. This is rather annoying. Also when I sent an email last, it’s displaying someone else’s name in place of their contact. For example, will send an email to my mom - let’s call her “Jennifer” for the purposes of this review - and once sent, it will be renamed to “Richard” in the outbox. Really strange.

In addition, CanaryMail continues to freeze. I’ll leave an email to open up another app and when I go back to Canary, I’ll have to wait 5 seconds for it to be clickable otherwise nothing opens. Takes too long to load.

by M@xB@ndwidth

I am an email power user with multiple email accounts and have tried many paid and free email apps. Web based clients do not provide the functionality I require, namely that I need access to email when NOT ONLINE. This is also where Canary has a serious shortfall as it only “syncs a limited number of emails in order to conserve bandwidth and space”. I have plenty of space available and bandwidth is not an issue when I am able to connect. But location and site security restrictions impede access at times. Tech support cannot answer how I can force a download of my mail. A mail client should be able to access all the mail associated to an account. Another major annoyance is that there is no visual indication that you have replied to a particular email. A lot of clients will show a reply or forwarding arrow to indicate it has been acted on previously. This is not the case with Canary, you need to check your sent mail to confirm and that can be tedious to search through. It is a time consuming annoyance. If you leave the threading of messages on then this is not an issue... but there is a problem with that as well as leaving that on is an issue because Canary cannot seem to keep the local database free of errors and it mixes multiple unrelated threads. You are forced to constantly re-index. There is plenty of room for improvement here.

by Saw It!!

Ive gone through at least 5 now, IOS mail, Gmail, Spark, Edison, Airmail—So far canary has met my needs the most. The two issues Ive had are: Sending mail seems to be awkward, and i get an error message several times before it actually (the message) goes out. Finally, the worst issue I’ve seen is: My drafts feature is not working. Ive lost 20 min of work 2x now by CanaryMail timing out and the draft not being saved. Other than that, I’m loving it...

Update on April 2, 21...Drafts are still disappearing. I cant find them after I start them, seems to be a lag in some situations with iOS. I start typing and cant see text for a few words until it catches up. I don’t know if a qualify as a power user. I send and receive about 50 emails a day. Stars keep dropping with continued use. I regret the $20 I spent already. I don’t use the calendar option at all as Fantastical is my go to. So perhaps this was just a poor choice on my behalf

by KateThxBai

I’ve been using Canary on all my devices -iPad, iPhone, MBP- and it was pretty great for a while, and while it’s had some quirks -for example, auto-select behavior is different between all the devices (and I prefer the iPad’s behavior where it’ll only add items as I scroll down, and will not re-select items I de-selected), and magic keyboard support on iPad disappears if you visit a link (and have to close and reopen CanaryMail to get it back)- it was still a decent e-mail client.

However at some point in the last few weeks, it’s become unreliable. It takes too long to load emails (especially on my iPhone 12 Pro) to where I’ll wait almost a whole minute between clicking on a notification and the email finally loading. On top of that, I’ve noticed that it doesn’t always archive or delete emails: they’ll disappear from my email list on Canary, but upon closing/reopening CanaryMail (something I have to do to get keyboard support back on the iPad) a lot of the emails are back, and there doesn’t seem to be rhyme or reason.

I hope these issues get fixed, because mass-deletion of e-mails is what truly sets CanaryMail apart.

by Wolfofteal

I don’t know if this is a bug or a “feature” that I can’t figure out how to turn off. But either way it’s happening with increasing frequency and it’s driving me crazy.

My preferred way to view my inbox is with the “all” view - I use multiple accounts and they are color coded, which is fantastic, and allows me to easily keep up. But for the love of everything.... upwards of 80% of the time when I select a new email, it opens, I’ll glance through, etc. When I go to delete the email using the bottom toolbar, it quickly takes me back to the “all” inbox view and then swipes everything to the right and gets frozen on a screen that is blank, save the Canary logo. And it stays frozen until you force quit CanaryMail and restart it. This makes it absolutely impossible to quickly get through multiple emails in a hurry. Developers, please........ I don’t know what this is but please fix it. I gladly paid for Canary 3.0 but I’m a hair away from returning to Apple Mail and never looking back.

by Das Pike

I've tried them all; Edison, Spark, Airmail, Outlook, Newton. Canary looked to be the endgame for me since it had everything the stock Mail app offered plus some bonuses. And it is/was. The UX is clean and easy to use, WatchOS notifications work well, and I love the color ID option per account. However it's also plagued by sync issues, especially across multiple platforms, and erratic content formatting. I found myself repeating actions on both my iPhone and iPad (also cellular) which can be painstaking. Viewing emails is really a big hit or miss. Some load perfectly fine, some only load halfway or skew the content, and others don't even load at all. This is a fundamental function and after almost 6 months I'm convinced it's the coding that either refuses to be fixed or really is just the way it is. Which leaves me no choice but to dump CanaryMail and return to the native option. Thanks for the time. Maybe I'll revisit in a year and see where things are.

by CaptainSlowbro

I used Canary 2 a few years back and while the built-in encryption was a great feature the overall experience felt lacking. Canary 3 improves on the previous concepts and delivers a more complete email experience.

The iOS app feels the most polished, but I prefer to do most of my inboxing on my computer. Here’s where I ran into an oversight. For all of the features and improvements Canary 3 offers, the text interface is just too small. I have to strain my eyes to scan through my inbox, which isn’t sustainable.

If the developers included a way to scale up the interface text this would easily be a 5-star app that could go toe-to-toe with juggernauts like Spark or Thunderbird. I sincerely hope it’s implemented in the future, because this is seriously a great email client.

by Mclaren_7

This email client is a great option for wanting to have a piece of mind about your data being mined for advertising because that does not happen here. But I will say the interface and the performance definitely lags behind the competition. Which provides an issue that seems to be true. You have a service that is privacy focused but don’t perform as well in fetching new emails and keeping a badge showing on CanaryMail even when there are no unread emails. Or you can go with a data mining client that you can’t trust but can expect great performance.

I believe the service has the ability of being great and it’s amazing that there is a focus on keep individuals data private, but there has to be some quality of life updates to make CanaryMail run smoother.

Using this on iPhone 12 Pro Max

by A. Uzi

Might want to check your security when it comes to bugs, bot net attacks, worms, etc. apparently there is a high demand for cybercrime cats to monitor suspicious activities to warn or present flaws in the system. Since I reside in a heavily society whom like to dabble into private accounts and such, it would be to the interest of the company to ensure that your security services against these types of activities can be preventable or almost preventable of users becoming victimized by cyber terrorists. Granted keeping up with security vulnerabilities are a bit of a challenge, regardless of the user doing anything they can humanely possible on doing their part in solidifying not only their sensitive information but also in securing the devices that are in attachment of CanaryMail, ISP and network services. Hopefully this review helps in reporting any unusual activities in reference towards the usage of this platform.

by ManGoods

I downloaded the desktop and iPad versions of CanaryMail almost a year ago. I wasn’t happy about paying $10 for each, but I needed a solution that allowed me to save & use templates across devices, and I really liked the open tracking.

I’ve since deleted CanaryMail from my desktop & iPad roughly 5-6 times...only to reinstall it. Why? It has quirks. It’s like that slightly racist grandmother that’s given you fond memories of cookies and milk...and racial slurs. For starters, the iPad & iPhone doesn’t save your signature. You can create it, and save it; however, they forget that you saved it as soon as you close CanaryMail . It’s Uber annoying to open Canary mail on my iPad or phone, start an email, then have to save the draft or delete it so I can go into the settings and re-save my signature. ...then go back to writing your email.

Another quirk it still has is the templates don’t sync between devices. You have to re-write them on each device. I don’t understand the purpose of having an iCloud sync across devices if it can’t carry over templates. There are also other little bugs here and there; however, I’ll digress.

CanaryMail has gotten better over time. There used to be far more bugs. I simply wish they could just get it right once and for all...especially since I paid for both versions.

by IBirju

I have tried everything: Spark, Outlook, Spike, Proton, Default Apple mail etc.

Spark has great UI but I missed encryption and read receipts.

Spike offered everything I wanted for free a year ago but now it has some capping to make you a paid user. I found their pricing to be complicated.

Apple Mail app is what I always fall back until I find something great again. Its main issue is, Apple doesn’t think mail is an important part of our lives and it’s ancient approach will make your inbox flooded with unread messages.

Then comes Canary.

Almost perfect app. I got everything I need from it. Encryption, seen, and a modern intelligent design that helps you cut the clutter. Trust me, within a half an hour of integrating my 5 mail accounts, I could reduce 4000+ unread mails into zero inbox. This is huge and I loved how its smart algorithm finds unimportant mails and helps you archive them.

Mac app has some UI and minor functionality issues. App Menu isn’t much responsive. Plus it needs a little bit refinement everywhere. But under the hood, it is a perfect app.

I am trying it for 30 days, and I will mostly go for Pro. I hope the developers of this good app will try to match the detailed refinement of Spark.

by QtrHorse

I have tried every email app there is. I have paid for CanaryMail. I always wind up going back to apple’s email app due to performance. That said, this is by far the best email app in the store. So many things to love about it. The UI and customizations, alias addition, calendar integration (wish it allowed month view, as opposed to weekly and list only). Read email , and encryption has gotten more user friendly. Performance, getting push email notifications consistently and badge counter reset without having to refresh CanaryMail is the only issue. This issue happens with all 3rd party apps, maybe issues Apple causes? I will say outlook works the best performance wise, but UI stinks and can’t add an alias. Seems to be performing well since the update, we’ll see.

by Drastrogeek

I have evaluated many different email apps over the years that claim to support GPG encryption, and Canary has always been by far the best and most seamless at that. Now, is it the best MAIL client in general? I couldn't say. However, I have had as good an experience with Canary as I've had with the built-in iOS Mail app, except the latter does not support GPG encryption.

So, if your primary need is the ability to support GPG encryption , look no further. You can use your existing keys or work with new ones. Canary offers multiple ways of importing your existing keychains if that's what you want to do. They support many different email account types. I've personally only worked with exchange and gmail but both worked seamlessly.

Now, I cannot speak to the quality of their technical support because I haven't had a need to reach out. It's always worked just fine for me.

by Wrc2195

A year ago I needed a new email client after I found out Newton has major privacy concerns and violations. I settled on Canary. A small payment for an email app that respects your privacy. While it was overall fairly good, it had its issues and felt like a downgrade at the time.

That all changed with version 3.0. The new update makes it visually exactly what I want out of an email app. Everything is thoughtfully places and naturally follows the design of an iPhone. It’s packed with many little features I enjoy like the ability to change the icon color as well as adjusting to dark mode based on the iPhone system settings. This update was more than I ever expected and made the in-app purchase for all of the features well worth it – not only for their added usefulness, but also to support the developers.

I really appreciate the developer’s respect of my privacy and am quite content with the most recent update. Keep up the great work!

by K3vinT

CanaryMail isn’t perfect. It seems as though there are still lots of features they plan to implement, but depending on your priorities, this could be a great choice. What I live about CanaryMail :

1. Read Receipts - this keeps me in the know and helps with anxiety
2. Email Encryption - this wasn’t the easiest to set up and I hope it will become more user-friendly, but with all the cyber attacks and hackers out there, I get peace of mind being able to send sensitive information to my wife knowing my mail is secure
3. I like that I can easily pin my mail and it shows up at the top along with a bunch of other swipe options
4. My favorite part is that it is a one time payment!!! Read receipt features are usually a monthly charge and this works just as well for me. I would never go for a monthly charge again.

Things I think could be better:
1. The design could be a bit more modernized. As I said, it looks like they have plans in the work.
2. Add folder rules so that mail can automatically be moved out of the inbox and stored in a folder based on rules
3. An additional type of encryption where both parties don’t need a key, rather just a password when sending one way.
4. Swipe left in the mail message to go to the next mail message in the inbox.

I don’t usually review apps, but I want this to succeed. There’s a lot of potential here. It’s already an awesome app.

by RomeoThaPro2K14

CanaryMail has made working from home a whole new game changer. I have always found it absurd how convenient it is to have an email app on mobile yet when it comes to replying and composing emails through them, it just takes away the whole emailing experience. Canary Mail has officially revolutionized the world of mobile emailing. When I use CanaryMail, I feel that I am still using a computer to professionally reply and compose emails. What I love best about CanaryMail is that it has a read receipt feature to let me know when the recipient(s) have opened my email, cross-device syncing for when I am alternating between devices, and the auto-filter feature that selects unimportant emails for me to delete without having to go through the trouble of picking them off one by one manually. Overall, CanaryMail replaces all mobile email clients and I paid for the pro version with no hesitation. :) CanaryMail really stands out and I don’t think any other app can ever compare.

by ToxiKDeath

I'm sick and tired of going back and forth between email applications and I know you are too. I tried settling on Gmail but it does only one thing well, it grabs your emails. I tried using Apple Mail, which is actually one of the better applications but it's not creating new features so to say. I tried Outlook, which is another great application but for me, it's too feature filled for my needs (I highly recommended it though). I've tried Edison, Spark etc. and always came back to Gmail but not any longer. I found Canary!

It's a great balance between personal and professional needs. The GUI is excellent and navigating Canary is as easy as navigating iOS. Like you,I depend on email and use it constantly on a daily basis. I LOVE how it has read receipt power without the receiver knowing) , an easy dashboard, great calendar and it gets granular too if you need that. The price is high at $20 for Pro BUT think about this, it's not a subscription, which is a trend I hate on CanaryMail Store and Pro unlocks a bundle of more useleful tools! Go Lite or Pro, either way, you just found your last email application you'll ever have to try!

by Chuck-IV

I was looking for another email client when Airmail decided to recharge their customer base. I found Canary and ended up buying version 2 only a couple months ago for $10 because they said 3 would be a free upgrade for people who bought prior. Now they come back and basically say well not really. They expect us to pay ANOTHER $10 for the new features... so its not really a free upgrade. Never mind that 3.0 seems like a bit of a downgrade to me.

I loved the ability when reading an email to be able to swipe right from anywhere on the screen to get back to the email list. Now you have to stretch your hand all the way to the far left edge of the screen to get this to work. It’s very awkward and not convenient at all.

Also, in 2.0 you used to be able to set long swipe to nothing and it would make the short swipe work immediately. Now if you set the long swipes to none, the short swipe will STILL pause with a default menu option along with the short swipe option or, going the other way, the short swipe will only function as a long swipe.

I’m also not a fan of the new design either. While 2.0’s UI needed work, it was unique. Now it looks generic, like Apple Mail.

Sorry folks but between the NOT free upgrade and the somewhat of a downgrade that 3.0 is, you’ve lost me. Time to move on.

by Hobss

I like that you are able to try the tool for 5 days. Unfortunately 5 days is not enough to stick to a new email client from a previous experience, specially when there are limitations and bugs. I contacted the chat business support which I have to say is quite neat and works fine, with replies next day. They answered my questions and were interested in things that were not supposed to be wrong but indeed where in an iPad Pro with Apple Keyboard. Some of these bugs apparently got resolved in an update but since the trial period was over I updated CanaryMail and couldn’t verify this. I suggest that the trial period is zeroed with each new version. This would eventually attract new customers that are seeking for bugs to be fixed or new functionality implemented (to me, being able to load external images on a message by message basis). Otherwise CanaryMail will be deleted and forgotten.

by Ron Reed

I perform IT functions for Mac as part of my job, to provide some context. I purchased this software today because the interface for Apple’s Mail for iOS is not that great and I’m looking for alternatives.
The software stalled out on an IMAP email account for my musical group’s website. Hmm, I know all of the required information and checked it closely to make sure the entry was correct - not impressive at all. OK, let’s try something dead simple - iCloud. Ouch, it stalled out on that too, referring to the need for two-factor identification but not actually initiating that process the way almost all software that requires this would.
So now I have purchased this software but it will not install any email addresses at all and is therefore useless and a financial loss, albeit a small one.
I’m sure that with enough time and tinkering I can force this software to set up these email accounts - but the claim is made for ‘effortless’ email and in that regard it is clearly a failure right out of the gate.

by Advocatology Com

After latest update I lost ability to move emails to folders as I did before. Major setback. Contacted support and nothing but a runaround and no help nor answers. Worst of all I lost a spellcheck! Contacting support with questions and screenshot proof was a-waste of time and they completely ignored me. So they either know of issues and don’t want to admit or they just don’t care. But wait that is not all. Their first response was a claim that it’s not working because I did pay extra for pro on iPhone but I have to pay double extra if I want the desktop update too! So I paid double extra and got worse product that is nothing short of a scam or a sabotage. They charged extra for app that is worse that it was before. I see their ratings decline as others are not happy neither. Shame. It was a good email before. “support” # 2567 and # 3087

by Dr. Atavist

So far, so good… or OK. There are some features I'd like to see here that I've seen in other clients that are useful… export to EML, undo doesn't undo anything, message filtering to folders, single price for iOS and desktop … though the thing that gets me most is the inability to turn of the the sent mail 'swoosh' sound. Which is baffling since there's no sound for new mail even when on. It may seem trivial, but that annoying take-off 'swoosh' makes me regret my purchase. Support has told me that's not an 'option' which makes me nervous about what else wont be after more use is under my belt. It's my own fault for getting excited something actually worked and not diving in deeper with the trial version, but I assumed turning sound off/on would be a given at any level. It's a dealbreaker for me unfortunately though there's a lot to like here.

by Jhlee19

I’m very picky about email apps and Newton has spoiled me for the past three years. When they told us they’re closing shop, I went through more than a dozen third party email apps to find one that suits my preferences. I am a firm believer that premium features are worth paying for if done it’s done right.

Canary, though relatively new, has a lot of key features all email apps should have: color coded email by account, email tracking, and EXCELLENT tech support just to name a few.

Though not quite up to Newton standards, CanaryMail seems promising and I look forward to future features and releases. There are small nuisances like the inability to sort accounts after you create them, and the ability to pick notification sounds but these are trivial next to the functionality and the security provided by Canary. It’s also a bit slower to load emails than Newton. But for now, it seems I will stick by Canary and see what it becomes!

by Rocketship69

I like until I realized that when you leave CanaryMail then come back (I’m not talking close CanaryMail , just put it in the background) it sometimes opens with the logo... as if it’s opening for the first time. A few times I have written a portion of an email, went to grab or take an image, and come back, only to have lost what I was writing. This can also be annoying if you click a link in an email then want to go back to being within that email.

For example, I wanted to click 4 links in an email. I clicked 1, then went back to canary to click the second, clicked the second, then went back to click the third, and it started with the logo. I don’t want to find that email again. Why would it work the first time but not the Second. There doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason.

by Dareyoutolaugh

I’m an IT professional. Much of my life, a lot of people’s lives, revolves around email. I’ve been surprised with how hard it is to find a good email client for iOS. The default mail app is too basic, the “free” apps have shady business models, most paid apps are either clunky, unstable, subscription based, and/or also have shady business models. Canary is the first mail app I’ve found that does what I want in a streamlined package that isn’t from a company that’s keeping my emails or my passwords. I’ve bought or tried almost every email app for iPhone and Canary is the best of the bunch. Hoping for a unified inbox for WatchOS and maybe some tool-tips for icons, but otherwise, this is close to perfect and a steal at $4.99

by Newfnutt

I have been playing with all the email apps today. This was the last one I tried. I wish I started with it. All the other email apps did something good or had the something about the appearance I liked. Unfortunately , they all had some problem. Push notifications didn’t work, accounts were not colored , no unified box, etc. Then I came across this. Everything works so far. All my email is pushed from yahoo, iCloud, and gmail almost instantly. Interface is crisp and clean. Pro trial is 30 days, which is a good trail length. I will definitely pay my 20 bucks after thirty days as long they keep CanaryMail as is or better. Very pleased. Thanks Canary , whoever you are.