Is Franz 5 still usable?

It installs and starts, but it has not been fixed since April 2025 and its engine is old. Web services behave less and less well inside it as time passes.

What is the practical difference between Franz 6 and Nexus?

Franz 6 is paid, closed, cross-platform and richer in features. Nexus is free, open source, Windows-only, and focused on isolated sessions and engine freshness.

Can I import my services from Franz?

No, there is no automatic import. Services are added by hand, and each session signs in once.

Will Nexus add a subscription?

The code is published under the MIT licence, which is irrevocable for releases already published. Whatever becomes of the project, what is out stays free.

Nexus as a Franz alternative

Franz was first in this category, and it inspired most of what followed: Nexus included. Today it exists in two versions worth keeping apart, because only one is free and it has stopped moving.

Two Franzes, two situations

	Franz 5 (open source)	Franz 6 (commercial)
Latest version	5.11.0, 9 April 2025	Actively developed
Price	Free	Subscription
Repository status	Legacy notice since June 2026	Closed source
Development	Stopped	Funded and continuous

Recorded on 8 August 2026. Many comparisons mix the two: they describe Franz 6’s features while pointing at the free Franz 5 download.

So if you are searching for “Franz free”, you are looking for Franz 5: an application whose last release dates from April 2025 and whose repository has carried a legacy notice since June 2026. It still runs, but its engine no longer moves, with the consequences described below.

Franz 6 is a good product, and it is paid

Worth saying plainly: Franz 6 is alive, funded, and goes further than Nexus in several respects. Cross-channel AI features, native Signal support, a very broad service catalogue, and full cross-platform coverage. If those matter to you and a subscription does not bother you, it is a defensible choice.

Franz 5 and Nexus, side by side

	Franz 5	Nexus
Latest version	5.11.0, April 2025	1.0.0
Price	Free	Free
Licence	Open source, frozen	Open source, MIT, active
Engine kept current	No	Yes, Chromium 150
Isolated sessions	Yes	Yes
Platforms	Windows, macOS, Linux	Windows 10 and 11

Why engine freshness keeps coming back

All of these applications embed Chromium. The engine only moves when the application publishes. An application that no longer publishes therefore keeps its engine indefinitely, while web services deprecate old versions on announced dates: Slack blocks Chromium 142 and earlier on 9 November 2026.

This is not a theoretical argument: it is the most common reason an aggregator that “worked perfectly well” stops showing a service, with nothing else on the machine having changed.

Service counts: the fight we do not pick

Franz advertises more than seventy-five built-in services; other products claim thousands. Nexus does not compete there: it offers a catalogue of the common services with their real logos, and accepts any URL as a service in its own right, with its own session. In practice most people use five to ten.

Common questions

Is Franz 5 still usable?: It installs and starts, but it has not been fixed since April 2025 and its engine is old. Web services behave less and less well inside it as time passes.
What is the practical difference between Franz 6 and Nexus?: Franz 6 is paid, closed, cross-platform and richer in features. Nexus is free, open source, Windows-only, and focused on isolated sessions and engine freshness.
Can I import my services from Franz?: No, there is no automatic import. Services are added by hand, and each session signs in once.
Will Nexus add a subscription?: The code is published under the MIT licence, which is irrevocable for releases already published. Whatever becomes of the project, what is out stays free.