The moment I tried Sync for Lemmy I have this feeling of closure, like I finally can make peace with the fact that I'm leaving Reddit behind for good after using it for 13 years (8 years of those on Sync). The only thing that top this is the first time I saw federation in action where people from various lemmy, kbin and mastodon instances talk to each other in the same thread and deciding to jump ship on the spot.

Sync is extremely polished. The rest have had their issues for a while.

Still want LIF in my life.

I am using Sync, and I paid for a year of it. A year from now, I'll evaluate and maybe pick something else. Do I care if it costs a tiny bit of $ for a solid app experience that performs better than the rest, because it has dedicated development resources? Nope. Having read the details on what data is collected, do I have privacy concerns? Nope. Do I think folks have gone a little over the top about certain things? Yes. Bad enough having to leave reddit without making it even more complicated.

I was using Jerboa for the first month. It's good, functional. However, with all due respect to the penguin people, it felt like working on Linux. Just a bit too utilitarian and function focused.

Yesterday I installed Sync and it was like switching to Windows/OSX. So much more polish, much more pleasant experience.

On Reddit I was using BaconReader - and had no idea Sync looked (and felt) this good. Great UX, though still has some ways to go. The comment font size when typing is super tiny!

I've tried Connect, Liftoff, Thunder, Voyager, and Infinity. It's just bugs galore. The back button will take you to the wrong activity, comments won't post (due to the app not the instance), some instances or accounts won't load, and a laundry list of UI or functionality bugs. Liftoff gave me the fewest issues of all of them, apart from using Lemmy in the browser.

But Sync really is polished, and the experience is night and day. I'm a big FOSS proponent, but I don't think it's wrong for a developer to want to make money when their income source suddenly disappears and they need to pay bills (and region-specific pricing is coming soon). The level of customizability, spit and polish in the other apps doesn't even come close. I'm sure they'll get there eventually, but I think it's a mistake to drive away passionate developers who want to help Lemmy succeed.

I've given pretty much every app or browser front-end a fair shake at this point, and I'm gladly choosing Sync for now.

Sync has always been a superior UI/UX to anything else.

And I'm happy to pay $20 for the developers work. Ads would barely pay him anything anyway.

I feel like all you lemmings are getting way too hung up on the whole ads = spyware thing. It's not the app that's the issue, it's the ad platforms - and those platforms are how he makes money. Don't like it? Pay $20 for a lifetime without ads.

Sync is good because it's a full time job for the Dev. That means the guy needs money to survive. I'm more than happy to help towards that, so I can have a better experience.

I used sync for Reddit for a loooong time, $20 is nothing compared to the value I've gotten out of it.

I found all of the prior Lemmy apps to either be missing something, clunky, or buggy. The one I liked most was Voyager/Wefwef, but even then it was missing stuff.

Now Sync is in beta and has bugs, but thanks to past development from Reddit it's already so much more polished than all the others, my Lemmy usage has gone up considerably, I've barely touched Reddit today. It does have ads, but they aren't visible when using DNS Adblocking.

I prefer Connect.

Sync is far superior to the other apps so far, even with some features missing in the beta. I was using Liftoff, which is good, but not even close to the polish of sync.

Sync is the only reason i am on lemmy.

Tried sync but honestly given that it's an advertisement supported app, I couldn't find a single justification to keep using it, short of the generic "spez bad sync good" base.

I switched to Jerboa, I don't like the idea of accessing a free community via a paid/tracking app. It doesn't make any sense to use an app that actively works against my interests, just because they did a good job making the app fast.

Jerboa seems good so far, I'm only ~9 hours into it though. It's definitely more stable than lemmy beta was.

Also honestly I'm already tired of every fan boy (you're out there don't act coy) yelling about how amazing it is. My all page has waaaaay too many posts about sync, doesn't feel organic. Was instantly not an issue when I switched to Jerboa however.

Reminds me a lot of how I had to block the "enough musk spam" because ironically they were filling my all page with TOO MUCH MUSK SPAM. Wtf

Been using sync for years now and it's just a great app.

It runs so smooth, very clean looking, easy to read, highly customizable, tablet mode, dev is always updating and adding in requested features from the users.

Small features that make the app stand out like sharing a setting from the settings menu that will take you straight to it:

Settings shortcut: Comment options > Display navigation bar

Used connect and liftoff before and on Reddit RiF but for me sync is just the best.

I used Connect until Sync dropped.

Connect was cool, but had a few clunky spots.

I used Sync for years so it was like putting on a favorite pair of jeans

Sync user here. It's the reason that I found reddit usable. The effort that has gone into creating and refining the app is evident. I like it better than the the other apps, because it feels like home to me. I also enjoy the concept of u/spez unintentionally spotlighting lemmy, and literally tossing over the very best that reddit had to offer. Sync is just one of several excellent options already here, or on their way.

The free apps are anywhere from very good to very work in progress. I like Connect the best from what I've used. I expect that they will all improve over time, and have noticed improvements over a short length of time.

I actually enjoy the controversy/buzz over pricing, pricing models, privacy, and so on. This is mostly because I'm petty,and believe that all of this is hastening reddit's demise.

I'm a Sync guy, it has the best scrolling performance on my shitty low end phone. I've tried other apps but all of them still have stutters during scroll but Sync still manages to keep smooth.

I love me some sync... the app is so high quality, and it's the first release, in reddit it was constantly updated and fresh. ljd is a legend

Infinity, because it's the best FOSS option in my opinion

Voyager.

Sync, I know there's some people complaining about the prices. But I rooted my phone and use a system adblocker.

Using Jerboa, feels a lot like RIF.

Jerboa is open source and has been working perfectly fine for me.

I'm using Sync, while waiting for Boost.

I'm using Jerboba until things shake out more.

Infinity is AWESOME although I'm not quite sure how to get automatic updates for it yet.

Voyager, clone of Apollo which is fantastic

Infinity because it is free and open-source

Connect or Liftoff

Sync. It was the exclusive way I browsed Reddit. Having foldable support day 1 was a big push. I have no issues with supporting the developer for an app I've been using for well more than a half decade now.

I will stick with infinity for 99% but im going to check our voyager when it finally comes as a native app

I'm using Infinity :D

Infinity, the king is reclaiming its thrown, and huge thanks to the fevelopper who forked it.

Infinity by a long way. It's very early though, not really a fair comparison.

My favourite client is Curl.

#archbtw

I use Sync because it's just what I'm used to. I've been using it for more than 3 years, but I've also used Jerboa, Thunder, Liftoff, Lemotiff, Connect and Voyager.

Here's what I think about those:

Jerboa is good, maybe a bit laggy and things take a bit to load, but overall good. Nothing that stands out.

Thunder is very good, but I've been unable to reply DMs and comments from my notifications, I'd have to go to the browser or use another app to reply. I'm almost sure it'll get fixed in the future.

Connect is very, very good, but, and it's a huge BUT for me, every time I'm commenting and I want to change part of my comment, I click on the part I want to add or erase more text but instead of doing that it selects the text from where I was to where I clicked, and it happens with every comment and DM, to fix it I have to copy the whole thing, go back to the post, paste the comment again and keep on writing. I stopped using it.

Liftoff is very good, but I don't like that when I collapse a comment it says "comment collapsed, tap to expand" (that's it, it's just nit picking, everything else is good), I still sometimes use the app.

Lemotiff I can't log in but the idea/design is good.

Voyager is one of the best but sometimes it jumps to random parts of the timeline, I also prefer having an app not a PAW (or was it PWA? I don't remember the correct term)

Lemmur says my instance doesn't exist so I can't even try it.

Haven't used infinity or Boost yet, just downloaded Sync and it just works perfectly.

Gunna wait for Boost to come out, and when it does, whoever wins out of Sync, Infinity, and Boost, I'm getting ad free for (probably Boost)

I'm surprised by how much of a big deal apps are for the users. I would have kept Jerboa if it was more stable. I got Connect for no specific reason and don't really see a reason to try anything else... I was still using old reddit and an app called Slide, so I guess I'm some removed user or something. Happy that those apps brings more users tho.

I bounce between all the ad free apps, but please don't forget to donate to your instance admins if they have a link set up. Especially if you paid to remove ads. Y'all got them deep pockets, show some love.