Threadly vs Zirbe
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Threadly
Read full descriptionHide full description
Threadly is a user-friendly email client designed to help you manage your Gmail account with clarity and efficiency. It brings essential email functionality into a streamlined interface built for productivity. Core Features • Read and organize your Gmail inbox • Compose and send emails • Reply and manage conversations • Save drafts and edit messages • Apply and manage labels Threadly is built for users who want a clean, distraction-free way to handle their email without unnecessary complexity. Privacy First Threadly only accesses Gmail data required to provide core email functionality. Your data is not used for advertising, profiling, or marketing purposes. Access can be revoked at any time through your Google Account settings. Designed for simplicity. Built for focus.
Zirbe
This email client reimagines your inbox as a familiar chat interface, organizing threads by subject and messages as bubbles. It offers full email functionality, including attachments, drafts, and organization, while prioritizing privacy and offline access. The app connects directly to your IMAP/SMTP servers without any Zirbe servers.
- Chat-style email interface
- Organized threads by subject
- Offline access and instant inbox
- Attachment support (photos, files, voice)
- Full email client functionality
- Privacy-focused, no Zirbe servers
- Open-source code
Read full descriptionHide full description
Zirbe is an email app that looks and feels like a texting app while keeping real email underneath. A conversation in Zirbe is a mail thread, not a person: the subject is the title, the people on it are the members, and every message is a bubble in time order. The same person writing you about five different things becomes five conversations, which is how email actually works. Starting a new conversation means naming it, and that name is the subject. Underneath the chat is a full email client. Read and reply with bubbles, attach photos, files, or a recorded voice message, and open what you receive in a full preview to save or share it. Reach every folder, not just the inbox: archive, move, and organize, save and resume drafts, and send blind copies that stay blind. React to a message with a tapback that rides your own mail as a real reply, so another Zirbe user sees the badge and every other mail app sees a readable line. Search within a conversation, pin the threads that matter to the top, and block a sender to sweep their mail to Junk and keep it there. New mail arrives with a local notification and a badge, and a reply that fails to send waits as a tap-to-retry bubble instead of vanishing. Sender photos come from your own contacts, and typing a recipient suggests people from your address book. Zirbe is private by construction, not by promise. It connects only to your own IMAP and SMTP servers over an encrypted connection. There is no Zirbe server, no account to create with us, no analytics, no telemetry, and no third-party SDK. Your mail is cached on your device so the inbox opens instantly and works offline; your password lives in the device Keychain and is never synced off the device. Remote images in HTML mail are blocked until you choose to load them, so opening a message never phones home. Because the whole app is open source, every one of these claims is something you can check for yourself. Zirbe works with any email provider that supports standard IMAP and SMTP with an app-specific password. Sign in with your address and an app password, and if your provider is a common one the server settings fill in for you. Zirbe is free and MIT-licensed. It is an independent app and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple. iMessage and Messages are trademarks of Apple Inc.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Threadly at 13.0 against Zirbe's 26.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Threadly | Zirbe |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 17 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Isaac Muliro | Excelano LLC |
In-app purchases
Threadly
No in-app purchases
Zirbe
No in-app purchases





