Like several others, I’ve been very tempted to support eM Client by paying for the Pro license and lifetime updates. I love using it and consider it to be the best combined email/calendar client I’ve ever used.
My problem is that the developers haven’t released a new version, or even a .1 version, since July 2016, and this worries me. I’ve seen this happen before with other software products: the developers gradually lose interest and new releases become ever further apart, until it eventually becomes “abandonware”.
I almost spent £60 on this software yesterday, but I hesitated at the last moment due to my fears that £30 of that (for the lifetime updates) might be wasted. If I had confidence that we would be seeing some “dot” releases and eventually a feature-rich V8 I’d be much more inclined to spend the money.
I hope they never stop, i use this for + - 4 weeks now and testing, i never have used version 6 ,started with 7. I hope 1 thing if they ever stop they make the source public, it’s so good for connecting on icloud with no apps,plugins,…
Version 7.1 is due out next month, which is supposed to have some significant new features and refinements. Interestingly they never had a “dot” release for version 6. Version 7 was long in coming, as it was a significant rewrite away from IE to Chrome as the rendering engine. Obviously I don’t know their internal/financial situation, but I don’t foresee them going away. As this is their only product, can’t imagine they would loose focus.
I just hope they make the new version better for printing from, because I have been testing 7.0 and it’s awful, no facility to make emails smaller using less paper like you can do in Thunderbird in the print preview by having percentages, so for example, if I have an email that spans 3 pages, I can in T/Bird lower the percentage to 75% or lower and it reduces the print size so as to use 1-2 pages and still be readable, nowhere in the settings in eM Client am I able to do this, it uses a very very basic printer interface dialogue box with hardy any options. When I try to print a pdf, the quality is rubbish, I don’t think the software developers had printing in mind, so I certainly wouldn’t waste £36 on a pro version. Yes the user interface is quite nice, but it’s all compromises. Another gripe I have is, that when the application is fired up from Mailwasher it won’t fetch and download the emails, I have to use the refresh button (Using POP3 account) which T/Bird does automatically. It does have some nice touches, but needs a bit more work done on it to get my vote.
I think people have to understand that eM Client, or any company for that matter, must give priority to its largest market share. The “vast majority” of eM Client’s customer base uses gmail (their words, not mine), so they must prioritize those users and ensure the client works well in that environment. In my opinion, it is very solid with gmail (all I use). Unfortunately, users with more fringe needs will be lower on the priority list from a development standpoint.
Therefore, if you are one of those users that is not in the core competency of eM Client, you either must be very patient or look elsewhere. Unfortunately, just a fact of life.
Respectfully, I disagree. Their largest user base may well be gmail users, but most that are requiring the pro license (paying customers) would definitely be seeking a platform that is refined and supports many practical applications required in day to day business operation emails (such as Bretskyboy’s post above). I would love to move all of my emails over including my business and would find the cost appropriate for a business expense IF the functionality was there. From what I see in this new version, I love many of the new features…HOWEVER, many things such as templates, tables, copy/paste function are NOT working as they should, therefore not reliable nor practical enough for me to justify the expense. My business emails must look professional and keep their format, but sadly at the moment, the font, tables and templates are never received the way they are intended. ALL bugs must be fixed. I am hoping that 7.1 will deliver that. I do love many features of EM Client such as ability to sync with calendars BUT obviously, delivery of emails as they are intended is priority. Fringe for business = corporate PRO user accounts.
I switched back to my latest The Bat! release, because I waited since November 2016 for a bug fix for this issue: https://forum.emclient.com/emclient/topics/system-outofmemoryexception-b133g3fnw5lps I’m really disapointed about support and bug fixing for eM Client Pro. I use eM Client in professional environment and could not use a mail client which crashes every day. For me: No eM Client any more. My 2 cents.
“Another gripe I have is, that when the application is fired up from Mailwasher it won’t fetch and download the emails, I have to use the refresh button (Using POP3 account) which T/Bird does automatically” from my post above…this now works, so apologies for that comment.
No, the main bug bear with me and this program is the printing side, more and more utility and services are going Paperlite and therefore leaving it up to the customer to print out, invoices, service/utility bills, bank statements even wage pay slips/advice notices etc etc because now everything is done electronically, so I like to have a hard paper copy which I can either print to paper or pdf ( I use PDF Exchange editor) and eM Client is just not flexible enough for me to do that. I do like to nice GUI for it’s simplicity, I have mine set on Classic, its not cluttered or frumpy looking…just can’t make the switch because of this printing issue…shame.
Just found another bug, the side bars have a habit of going minimised so I am constantly having to make them regular, this could be something to do with the minimise to tray and Close application to tray, I’ve set to the latter and it seems to be OK, but it doesn’t like Minimise to tray.
Hello,
I’d like to assure you that we are serious about eM Client and still very much at work with eM Client 7.1, which is currently undergoing Alpha testing.
We are fixing some things from version 7 based on users’ feedback and implementing few new features.
If you check our release history on our website - http://www.emclient.com/release-history - you can see that new versions are being released, they just aren’t pushed globally yet.
Thank you for your support and patience.
Olivia, thank you so much for replying. I’m delighted work continues on eM Client.
I hope you will understand that when we are asked to pay £30 for lifetime updates (a perfectly reasonable price, by the way), we just want to be sure we will, in fact, get some updates.