Spark Mail Alternative: How Does Missive Compare?

If you're looking for Spark logo Spark Mail alternatives, then you're in the right place. Spark Mail and Missive are both great products, with fantastic features and a beautiful design. They both help you achieve better communications through different degrees of collaboration.

I am a paid subscriber of many email clients and using them eveyday @SpikeNowHQ , @Superhuman, @heyhey, @SparkMailApp . I use each of them for a specific need. @missiveapp is the best one for @remoteteamcom for many reasons.

Sahin on Twitter

We switched from Spark to Missive lately and I gotta say it's a huge upgrade! Feels like a really well put together app. Hoping to bring more folks from the team into it.

Tim Richardson

We recently switched over to Missive from Spark Mail and so far I have been impressed with your platform. Nice and responsive, good feature set. I like that you have an API.

Scott Harris | BhA Inc.

What's the difference between Spark Mail and Missive?

Short answer: Missive's collaborative nature.

Spark Mail and Missive’s offer can overlap in some segments of the market, but they thrive in very different use cases. Spark Mail was initially built as a supercharged personal email app, whereas Missive was conceived with true team collaboration as its core feature.

Spark Mail is a good email client choice for individuals or small teams looking for a product with entry-level collaboration features.

On the other hand, Missive is geared towards small/medium teams looking for a team communication tool that scales easily.

If you're part of a team looking for a product that helps you collaborate better around email (and other channels), then you're in the right place. With Missive, you can focus on growing your business instead of trying to hack your email client into something it's not.

Six reasons why companies use Missive over Spark Mail

We've condensed six propositions that explain why you might consider Missive to be a better alternative to Spark Mail.

1. No Spark version on the web

While it's been impossible to download Spark for Windows for a long time, they recently released a Windows version of their app. However, Spark is only accessible via its application, so Linux and ChromeOS users are left behind. Missive is available on all platforms, Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android, and on the web. None of your employees will be left behind because they prefer using Linux over Mac or Mac over Windows.

I have just discovered Missive and am very impressed so far! I have been waiting for over 12 months for Spark to add a Windows app for my team and if I knew you existed I would have made the jump a year ago.

Ash Huxtable | Vehicle Safety Flags

2. Tasks and ownership are crucial

In Missive, every conversation can be assigned to a whole team, a specific person, or multiple people. In Spark Mail, you can only delegate an email to one person at a time.

Even more useful, in Missive, you can activate the team inbox flow for shared inboxes (e.g. help@acme.com). This will let your team triage the conversations from a dedicated inbox. This resembles more to a real-life collaboration scenario, where a team can share the caseload.

Tasks creation is another essential feature that can be found in Missive but not in Spark Mail. These can also be assigned to yourself, to one, or multiple teammates.

Task and assignments in shared inbox in Missive

3. You get to automate part of your work

Missive offers Rules which are programmable conditions that help you automate your team's workflow.

With Rules, you can, for example:

  • Apply labels upon reception to properly categorize conversations.
  • Assign emails to specific team members based on the content of the email.
  • Send automated replies based on the hour of the day.
  • Incorporate an SLA program to ensure an excellent customer experience.
  • Snooze emails that arrive outside of business hours to help you achieve a better work/life balance.
Rule interface in Missive
When an incoming email contains the word refund, assign it to the Finance team.

This nifty feature can help you save time that was previously invested in repetitive chores.

Learn more about Rules

4. Multichannel is essential

A business communication tool cannot be limited to just email. Customers, clients, and stakeholders nowadays communicate in a diverse array of channels. Not being able to concentrate many of them in a single app can lead to lousy customer experiences.

With Missive you can collaborate around these mediums:

If one day someone sends you an email and the next they use WhatsApp, you can give them a proper follow-up from a single app.

Collaborate with coworkers inside WhatsApp messages in Missive

5. Useful integrations

Because Missive is built to help you grow your business, we understand having an integration is more than just exporting emails to different apps. With Missive you can see data from Asana, Pipedrive, Todoist, Trello, Shopify, Full Contact Enrich, and PieSync right next to the conversation. That helps you get a better context and provide a customized and in-depth reply.

Shopify integration with Missive

You can also create a custom integration. It will be able to bridge the gap between your team inboxes and your business data.

Custom integration developed by an e-commerce platform.

The integration will let you take over a part of the user interface with your business logic. Amazing.

Learn more about integrations

6. Full-fledged internal chat

Missive offers a complete internal chatting solution for your team. You can discuss ideas in a company-wide room, specific teams, or a one-on-one space.

Similar to other channels in Missive, in the chat, you can add tasks, include conversation links, attach media, etc.

You can also create a private space for to-do lists, notes or to keep links and docs handy.

Private conversation in Missive

At the moment in Spark Mail you can only add comments around emails.

BONUS

Out of office

Email doesn't stop because you're taking some time off. People expect replies, but you also deserve a break.

Missive's Out of office status lets you set yourself or a coworker as unavailable for a determined period of time. Replies received in conversations assigned to you will automatically move the conversations to the Team Inbox so that your coworkers can handle these while you're away.

Calendar

Working with email isn't strictly about communication, it's also about planning. Spark 3, the latest version of Spark Mail, removed the calendar from the desktop app. While not an essential feature, having a calendar directly in your email app is certainly beneficial when planning out events, meetings, and more.

Missive comes with a calendar built-in. It can be used to schedule meetings or video calls, get reminders about upcoming activities, and more. Even better, the calendar can be used to share events and reminders with all your team members.

In the end, you decide which app fits best with your workflow. We hope this comparison will help you make up your mind with more ease.

In case you need more convincing, read what they have to say:

We are one of the pioneers in the collaborative team email space.


NoteIf Spark gets an update and this article becomes outdated, email us and we will update it.

Check out how Missive compares to Front, Missive compares to Outpost, Missive compares to Shortwave or Missive compares to Slack.