You can choose different effects for inbox zero (from nothing, to Gmail's illustration, to various backgrounds) in Simplify's settings. If your trial has expired and you'd like to extend it to try this, email me at hi@simpl.fyi.

Gmail's dark theme is NOT hidden behind a subscription. Simplify works for two weeks for free during the trial period and then it requires a paid plan ($2/month) as the extension requires on going work to keep it working (see this post for details: https://on.simpl.fyi/p/complexity-of-simplify).

But I do NOT hide any Gmail features during the trial or after.

UPDATE: Thanks for the added star. And understood about the paid plan. Please note that ALL of Simplify's functionality requires a paid plan after the free trial period is over. This is stated on the extension page and in the extension itself upon installation. So, I'm not sure what is shady here. Your statement that "Also hiding dark theme behind the subscription is super slim shady" makes it sound like I am hiding Gmail's dark theme.

[ Update: I wrote a long post trying to explain some of what it takes to keep Simplify running and why a one-time payment wouldn't keep the lights on: https://on.simpl.fyi/p/complexity-of-simplify ]

That was actually my original plan. But the price range was between $2 and $5 as below $2, with my current user base, I started to worry I would not cover my costs. This is because:

a) There is a fair bit of research showing that the difference between $0 and $0.01 is larger than the difference between $0.01 and $X. This is to say getting people to pay anything is really hard. Several people with experience converting free products into paid told me that anything above 5% conversion was really really good.

b) Realize that there are sizable fees on every transaction -- I do not get the full $2.

While some were happy to pay $5 / month (feeling they got that much value out of it), I got a lot of pushback on the pick your own price plan with people saying it was confusing (which I agreed with). So I decided to bet on a lot of people converting and just made it $2 for everyone.

I'm sorry it isn't worth the price to you. I've priced it to cover my costs as I've spent thousands of hours over 2 years getting to this point and continue to spend many hours every week keeping up with Gmail's changes. If more people sign up than I expect, I'd be happy to lower the price.