For years, power users relied on SmallCubed’s MailSuite plugins (including the beloved MailTags and Mail Act-On) to transform Apple Mail. But then Apple killed third-party Mail plugins.

Actually, they didn’t kill it. The verb is more appropriately knee-capped. Apple did offer an alternative framework, called extensions, but extensions simply lacked the integration that MailSuite needed. (Also, in fairness, Apple did not do this out of spite but instead to eliminate security risks from Apple Mail.)

SmallCubed faced a choice: abandon their users or build their own email app. They chose the latter, and the result is MailMaven, a newly released email application that incorporates MailSuite plus more in an entirely new Mac email client.

If you used Mail with MailSuite, think of MailMaven as that combination plus a bit more. The app delivers extensive tagging (keywords, projects, review dates, notes, colors), keyboard-driven filing, automation rules, and proper Gmail label support, all wrapped in a familiar interface.

I’m happy to see SmallCubed back with this release. They bit off a lot when they decided to build an independent mail app, and yet, they pulled it off.