Franz vs Spike
Franz
meetfranz.com
Spike
spikenow.comSide by side
| Figure | Franz | Spike |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $5/mo | $4/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 12 |
| Spec score · Email clients | 8.8 (#18) | 9.0 (#10) |
| Audience | Franz says it is built for consultants, recruiters, founders, and operators handling client chat, team chat, email, and privacy-sensitive conversations. | Spike says its Email App suits people upgrading an existing email experience or managing multiple accounts, while Teamspace is for creating a new address and collaborating with a team. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | Franz lists 75+ supported services, including WhatsApp, Slack, Gmail, Signal, Discord, and Telegram, and lets users add any website as a custom service. | Spike supports Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive for cloud attachments, and its calendar feature names Google Calendar, Outlook, and Apple Calendar. |
| Supported platforms | macOS,Windows,Linux | Spike lists iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and web browser as supported devices. |
| Privacy | Franz says messages and local insights stay on the device, credentials are encrypted in the OS keychain, and it does not sell user data. | Spike says it is ad-free and does not rent, sell, distribute, or monetize user data, while non-personal data may be used to improve its service. |
| Product | Franz combines messaging services, email, and Signal in one desktop workspace. | Spike describes itself as an AI-powered inbox that brings email, calls, notes, tasks, and to-dos into one hub and turns email threads into chat-like conversations. |
| Security | Franz says external-service credentials are not stored on its servers, native-service tokens and message caches are encrypted locally, and traffic to Google APIs and Franz services uses TLS 1.2 or higher. | Spike says message data is encrypted with AES-256 using a per-message private key and that it has periodic external security audits. |
| Paid from | 5 | 4 |
Plans
Franz
- Pro$60 a year
- Max$120 a year
- Franz Lifetime$239 a month
- StarterFree
- Pro$60 a year
- Max$120 a year
- Franz Lifetime$199, paid once
Spike
- StarterFree
- Team$4 a month
- Business$8 a month
- FreeFree
- Pro$6 a month
- Ultimate$12 a month
- Email App FreeFree
- Teamspace StarterFree
- Teamspace Team$4 a month
- Email App Pro$6 a month
In their own words
Spike
Spike combines email, calls, notes, tasks, and to-dos in a single hub, and presents email threads as chat-like conversations. It has a unified inbox, scheduled sending, and calendar tools, and runs on Android, iOS, macOS, web, and Windows. Spike AI can draft messages and replies, summarize conversations, and provide an assistant; free tiers list 10 queries for several AI features. Teamspace adds channels, shared inboxes, groups, collaborative documents and tasks, and audio and video meetings. Spike works with existing accounts such as Gmail, Office 365 or Outlook, Exchange, iCloud, Yahoo, and other IMAP accounts. Cloud attachments can use Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive, and calendars can connect with Google Calendar, Outlook, and Apple Calendar. Spike says it encrypts messages with AES-256 using a per-message private key, and undergoes periodic external security audits. The Email App Free plan includes one address, 60 days of search history, 1 GB storage, and 30 MB file uploads. Email App Pro is $6 a month billed annually; Ultimate is $12 a month billed annually.