Ferdium, the community successor to Ferdi and Franz, lines your services up in a sidebar of tabs. Spanbox adds the part that was always missing: one unified inbox across every app, with a command bar to jump anywhere. Both are local and run the real web apps, so you are choosing on experience and support.
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sofia.buildsThis onboarding flow is so clean 👏26m
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SpanboxFerdium shows your services as tabs you switch between. Spanbox brings every unread into a single stream, so you see your whole day at a glance instead of checking each service.
Press ⌘K to jump to any chat or app instantly, instead of scanning a sidebar of icons.
Ferdium is a volunteer open-source project. Spanbox is actively built and supported, with email, work tools and AI assistants treated as first-class, not add-ons.
Spanbox is the calm home for every conversation you have online.
Jordan Lee · Q3 planningSent the deck, take a look2m#product-sync5 new replies since this morning11mreceipts@figma.comYour October invoice is ready1hSee every unread message from every app in one tidy list, with every unread from every app in one place. You reply to what counts first.
#product-sync Jordan Lee · Q3 planningPress ⌘K and jump to any chat or app in a heartbeat. It is the quickest way to move through a busy day.
You sign in to each app yourself, just like you would in a browser. Everything stays on your computer. Nothing ever touches our servers.
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WhatsApp, Slack, Gmail, Telegram, Discord, Teams, Instagram, ChatGPT and dozens more. Add any of them with a single click. Signal, Viber, LINE and KakaoTalk are on the roadmap.
Workjordan@company.comPersonaljordan@gmail.comAcme HQ2 workspacesTwo WhatsApps? Three Slacks? Work and personal Gmail? Keep them side by side, each one perfectly separate.
Jordan LeeSent the deck, take a lookOne clean desktop alert when something needs you, with a per-service mute switch. Click it to jump straight to the chat.
Mute everything with one switch, or set quiet hours so Spanbox goes silent every evening and weekend automatically.
Jordan Lee · Q3 planning#product-syncreceipts@figma.comPress ⌘⇧F to hide everything but the one conversation you're in. Deep work, no rabbit holes.
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Lives in your tray, launches at login, checks typing with spell-check, and tells you the moment a new version is out.
Ferdium groups your services as tabs in a sidebar. Spanbox adds a unified inbox across all of them, plus a ⌘K command bar, so you triage every app in one list instead of clicking through services.
Spanbox has a free tier too, for 3 apps with no account. You only pay for unlimited apps and the deeper inbox features. If open source is a must-have for you, Ferdium is the better fit, and that is an honest trade.
Ferdium is the maintained community fork that succeeded Ferdi, which itself forked Franz. Spanbox compares the same way to all three: it is the unified-inbox approach rather than a tabbed service list.
Yes. Both load the real web apps on your machine, with no cloud bridge in the middle.
Ferdium is highly customizable and open source. Spanbox focuses on a clean, consistent unified inbox out of the box rather than deep theming, with workspaces and Do Not Disturb to shape your day.
Yes. Because Spanbox loads the real web apps, logins, features and updates come straight from each service, with no bridge to break when a service changes.
Ferdium is a trademark of its respective owner. Spanbox is independent software and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Ferdium. Product names and logos shown on this page are used only to identify and compare the two apps.
WhatsApp, Slack, Gmail, Telegram and 60+ apps in a single local-first desktop inbox. No server in the middle, not even ours.