Comparison

Nextbox vs Lumen Mail

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β€” with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Nextbox

Features
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Nextbox makes makes it quick and easy to maintain inbox zero. You don't have to be a superhuman to rock your email any more. Just scroll through your feed and emails are marked read as you see them. Pin the ones you want to follow up on later and the rest will drop below them when your feed refreshes.

About

Lumen Mail

Features
Read full description

Lumen is a mail app that does mail, and nothing else. No account to create, no ads, and no servers of ours in between. Your mail travels directly from this device to your mail provider; your password lives only in the system Keychain. What it does: - Receive, read, reply, archive. That's the whole feature list. - Reader mode turns cluttered newsletters into clean, readable text. - Long message? Tap Summary. Generated on your device; nothing leaves it. - Opens instantly from a local cache; the latest messages are fetched ahead of time so they're ready when you tap. - New mail arrives in real time while the app is open, with no polling. - One app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. What it doesn't do: No calendar, no to-dos, no team features, no "smart" feeds, no cloud AI of ours, no AI-written replies, no tracking pixels of our own, no analytics SDKs. This isn't a promiseβ€”it's how the app is built. Currently supports iCloud Mail and NetEase Mail (163, 126, yeah.net, and 188). iCloud uses an app-specific password; NetEase uses an authorization code. The app walks you through getting either one.

Screenshots

Nextbox3 screens
Lumen Mail2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Lumen Mail at none against Nextbox's shown. Nextbox's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 17.0). On price, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Nextbox ships an update every 9 days, Lumen Mail every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences Β· 3 level
Nextbox versus Lumen Mail: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNextboxLumen Mail
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 9 days β€” betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsYesNo β€” better
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS14.0 β€” better17.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size22 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNext Level Coder, LLCθ…Ύ ιͺ†

In-app purchases

None

Nextbox

No in-app purchases

None

Lumen Mail

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Nextbox free?
Nextbox is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Lumen Mail free?
Lumen Mail is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Nextbox or Lumen Mail have ads?
Nextbox shows ads; Lumen Mail does not.
Which is updated more often, Nextbox or Lumen Mail?
Nextbox ships an update every 9 days, and Lumen Mail every 3 weeks. Most recently, Nextbox was updated on October 25, 2026 and Lumen Mail on October 31, 2026.

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