Mail is the native email client in Windows 10. Despite its seemingly simplistic design, it is a capable and versatile app. Despite its seemingly simplistic design, it is a capable and versatile app. It can support multiple-mailboxes (differentiated by color) including POP/IMAP. Choose IMAP*, POP, Exchange IMAP, or Exchange EWS1, as directed by your email provider. If you're using a Microsoft Exchange account, see the Exchange setup instructions for Mac or iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Mailspring supports every major mail provider—Gmail, iCloud, Office 365, Outlook.com, Yahoo!, and IMAP/SMTP—so you have a single, streamlined command center for all your messages. Translation Business happens in every language.
Why You Should Trust Me
Hi, my name is Thomas Boldt, and like many of you reading this I rely on email for the vast majority of my professional correspondence. As a freelancer and small business owner, I have to monitor a large number of different email accounts, and I know the struggle of trying to keep up with an inbox that relentlessly fills while still trying to do all my other work.
Over the course of my career, I’ve tried many different methods of streamlining my correspondence, from time-based restrictions to all those useless “5 Ways to Control Your Email Inbox” articles. In my experience, no matter how carefully you limit the time you spend on email each day, things will get away from you if you don’t have an efficient solution that prioritizes productivity. Hopefully, these reviews will help you save time in the search for a better method of handling your inbox!
Do You Have 10,000+ Unread Emails?
If you’ve ever struggled with managing your email, you’ve probably tried to find solutions. In the modern world, much of that searching happens online – but unfortunately, very few of the articles you’ll find actually provide any kind of useful advice. You’ll find all sorts of vague suggestions about ‘managing response expectations’ and ‘self-prioritization’ but rarely any concrete advice that can be actually applied to your situation. They mean well, of course, but that doesn’t necessarily make them useful.
A large part of the reason that these articles fail to help is that they are all focused on what you could call ‘soft changes’. They ask you to change your attitude, change your habits, and prioritize your work goals differently. While those aren’t inherently bad ideas, they overlook the fact that real change happens as part of a complete system – and at least half of that system is the way you actually interact with your email – in other words, your email client. You’ll never be able to get ahead of your inbox if you’re constantly fighting against a slow, outdated interface.
Of course, you can also follow my recommendation for the best email client for Windows 10 and still find yourself drowning in thousands of emails. The idea that a single new change will all the difference is seductive, but it’s also reductive. If you want to really master your inbox, you’ll need to combine all the best advice you can find and make it work for your individual situation.
Do You Really Need A New Email Client?
We all want to spend less time answering emails and more time getting things done, but not everyone will benefit from switching to a new email client.
If you work in a corporate environment, you may not even have a choice about how your email is handled, as some IT departments are very specific about how they run their email systems. While you might be able to send a request up through your supervisor to the IT department, the sheer complexity of deploying a new email client across a workplace often keeps people stuck using their old, inefficient systems.
Those of you who are self-employed or small business owners are more likely to see some real improvements, especially if you’re currently using a basic webmail interface like Gmail or Outlook.com. If you need to check your personal email as well as the info and support addresses for your business – all the while sorting and prioritizing everything across multiple browser windows – you’ll really start to save some time with a modern email client. If you’re stuck using something horrible like the webmail clients provided by most hosting companies, you could wind up saving whole days each year by switching to a better solution.
How We Evaluated Each Email Client
If you think that email clients are more or less created equal, you’d be quite wrong. Part of the reason some people struggle to keep up with their inbox is that many email services still operate on the same basic level they have for the last decade, and their users keep on struggling, unaware that there is a better way. When I was evaluating the email clients I tested, here are the criteria I used to make my decisions.
Can it handle multiple accounts?
In the early days of email, most people only had one email account. In today’s world of constantly-evolving services and domains, many people have multiple accounts. Even if you’re only using one address for personal email and another for work, it’s much more efficient to receive them all in the same place. If you’re a power user with many different email accounts, you’ll start to really save time by collecting them all together.
Does it have good organizational tools?
This is one of the most important aspects of a good email client. Bringing together all your email in one place isn’t going to do you any good if you’re still buried in thousands of unimportant messages. Even your important messages need to be prioritized, and a good set of filters, tagging tools and task management options will make your life much easier.
Does it offer any security precautions?
The ability to have anyone in the world send you a message can be an incredibly useful thing, but it also comes with certain risks. Spam is bad enough, but some emails are even worse – they contain malicious attachments, dangerous links, and ‘phishing’ campaigns designed to get you to give up personal details that can be stolen and used by identity thieves. Much of this now gets filtered out at the server level, but it’s always a good idea to have some protections built into your email client.
Is it easy to configure?
An email client that handles messages from multiple addresses in one central place is much more efficient, but you’ll need to configure your new email client to properly check each of your accounts. Email providers often use different methods to configure their services, and it can be time-consuming and frustrating to configure each one manually. A good email client will make configuring your various accounts easy with helpful step-by-step instructions.
Is it easy to use?
If the very thought of opening your email client starts to give you a headache, you’ll never master your inbox. A good email client is designed with user experience as one of its top priorities, and that level of attention to detail makes all the difference when you’re up to your eyebrows in unread messages.
Is it customizable?
Everyone has their own personal style of working, and your email client should be customizable to reflect yours. When you spend a fair portion of your day immersed in your email client, it’s quite helpful to be able to make it work for you instead of against you. A good email client will offer you customization options while still offering a well-designed default interface.
Does it have a mobile companion app?
This one is a bit of a double-edged sword. One of the best things about email is also the worst – it can reach you anywhere, as long as you’re connected. If you’re a freelancer, this can be helpful, but many of us tend to find that we’re working much longer and later than we should be. There is such a thing as being TOO connected!
Regardless, it can be very useful to have access to your email when you’re on the go without your laptop. A good mobile companion app will be available for both iOS and Android, and allow you to write and respond to email quickly and easily.
The Winner
Best Choice: Mailbird
Mailbird has been in development since 2012, and the developers have spent a lot of that time polishing the program until it shines. Every stage of installing, configuring and using Mailbird was incredibly easy, and everything just worked smoothly. It’s a refreshing experience not to have to struggle with an email client!
The free version does limit your access to some of Mailbird’s more impressive features, and it enforces a small signature at the end of each email that says ‘Sent with Mailbird’. It comes with a short Pro trial of just 3 days, but subscribing to it is so affordable that it’s hard to justify sticking with the free version. The Pro version is available for just $1.50 per month, or $59 for a lifetime subscription if you don’t want to pay monthly.
To give it a good test, I linked Mailbird with my Gmail account and my personal domain email account, which is hosted by GoDaddy. I simply entered my name and email address, and Mailbird detected the appropriate configuration settings and asked for my password. A few keystrokes later and both were set up instantly.
The last time I had to set up an email client, it was a frustrating set of addresses, ports and other mysterious details. Mailbird didn’t ask me for any of that information – it just knew what to do.
There was a bit of a delay while it synced my messages, but my Gmail account has almost a decade’s worth of messages in it, so it’s no surprise that it took a while to download everything. To really put it to the test, I also added an ancient Hotmail account and a Yahoo mail account, and both were instantly added without any issues. These took longer to sync, but again, that’s due to the sheer volume of messages, not any fault of Mailbird.
I’m always hesitant to link applications to Facebook, but it’s nice to see that Mailbird promises never to post anything.
In terms of security, most of the filtering will be handled by your email server, but Mailbird does disable the loading of external images by default. This keeps external tracking images from detecting whether or not you’ve read an email, and minimizes the risk of spammers and hackers from including malware payloads in certain image types. If you’ve determined that a specific sender is safe, you can either show images in a single message or whitelist the sender to always display images by default.
In this case, the Behance network is run by Adobe, so it should be safe to display the images permanently from that sender.
Mail Client For Mac Os X
One of Mailbird’s primary virtues is how simple it is. The interface is incredibly simple to use, as you would expect from a good email client, and there are handy tips that are easily accessible covering just about any task or question you might have.
Of course, the fact that Mailbird is simple to use on the surface doesn’t mean it is lacking in features. Most of the time, you’re presented with a clean and clear interface that lets you focus on the task at hand, namely taking control of your inbox. If you want to dig in deeper, however, there’s a great deal of customization that you can set up and never have to worry about again.
Colors and layout are just a few of the interface customization options, but if you dig deeper into the settings, you can choose how to use some of Mailbird’s more interesting features. One of my favorites is the ‘Snooze’ option, which lets you temporarily ignore an email until you’re ready to deal with it, allowing you a quick method of prioritizing your correspondence.
Another feature unique to Mailbird is the ability to integrate a number of other popular apps such as Google Docs, Google Calendar, Asana, Slack, Whatsapp, and more – the list is quite extensive.
The process for installing Mailbird companion apps was quick and easy, although I have to admit that being able to access Facebook while being in the middle of answering email isn’t exactly a productivity booster. It can be hidden in a single click, though, and hopefully will stop you from switching away from your inbox and getting distracted.
By comparison, Google Docs integration is a major help, and so is Evernote (although I’m in the process of transitioning to OneNote, a competing app from Microsoft which doesn’t seem to be available yet). Surprisingly, the app section is open source, so anyone with the right programming knowledge can visit the code repository on Github and create their own app integration.
The integrations listed in the Services tab don’t seem to offer much in the way of help as of yet, since most of the services are simply links to the provider websites. These run the gamut from web hosting to antivirus software, and it’s not immediately clear how (if at all) these would integrate with Mailbird, but this is the only part of the program that doesn’t feel perfectly polished. I assume that they’re going to be expanding this aspect soon as they connect with more service providers. Having a link to OneDrive and OneNote in here would be a real help, but Microsoft isn’t exactly known for playing nice with the competition.
While we’re on the brief subject of negative aspects, I noticed that the ‘New mail’ notification sound kept playing consistently during my testing. I’m not sure if this is because I simply still had unread messages from my ancient Hotmail account, or if there was some other bug, but I wound up having to disable audio notifications entirely to get it to stop.
Mailbird doesn’t have a mobile app as of the time of this writing, but the developers have announced that they are working on constantly with the hope of a Q1 2018 release for the Android platform. If it’s anything like their desktop client, it will make Mailbird your go-to email app no matter where you choose to answer your messages.
The Paid Competition
eM Client
eM Client is another very well designed email client which is far more effective than most modern webmail interfaces. It supports most major email services, including Gmail, Microsoft Exchange, and iCloud. It’s available for free if you’re just using it for personal email, although you’re limited to only checking a maximum of two email accounts. If you want to use em Client for your business or you want to check more than two accounts, you’ll need to buy the current Pro version for $49.95. If you want to buy a version with lifetime updates, the price jumps to $99.95.
The screenshot here is after I deleted my accounts after testing, as it’s not fair to my clients to publicize our conversation details
The setup process was quite smooth, quickly and easily connecting with all the email accounts I tested. It did take a bit longer than I expected to synchronize all my messages, but I was still able to start working immediately. There were the standard hidden image security precautions, and excellent organizational tools for tackling your mountain of unread messages.
eM Client does integrate a number of helpful productivity apps including contacts manager, calendar and chat services, and each of the services can sync with various internet-based services such as Facebook and Google. There are no third-party app extensions which might limit your productivity, but there is something to be said for staying on-task while you’re handling your correspondence.
Overall, eM Client is an excellent alternative to Mailbird if you’re only checking a couple of personal email accounts, although it is far more expensive if you want to purchase the lifetime updates package.
PostBox
PostBox is one of the more affordable paid options available for managing your email, priced at just $40, with volume discounts available for those who want to deploy it across an entire business. There is a 30 day free trial available if you’re interested in testing it out before committing to the purchase.
The Postbox setup process is smooth and simple, although it does require the extra step of enabling of the IMAP protocol to work with a Gmail account. Fortunately, it gives you explicit instructions on how to enable it, which is a nice touch. It supports as many email accounts as you care to add, and it manages to sync tens of thousands of emails quite rapidly.
This type of setup is what I’m used to when configuring email clients, but Postbox was able to fill in all the relevant details automatically
One of Postbox’s real strengths is its organizational tools, which allow you to quickly tag and sort emails without having to set up filter rules first. The search features offer a wide range of options for helping you quickly find the message you’re looking for, although it does work better once it has the chance to index all your emails. If you’re importing a large number to start with, this will take some time, but unless you’re receiving thousands of emails a day it should be able to handle it smoothly moving forwards.
Unlike many of the other email clients I looked at, Postbox displays email images by default, although it’s possible that it’s using some sort of built-in whitelist the way Gmail does in order to decide whether or not an email sender is trustworthy.
Postbox has some basic customization options, including the ability to reorganize the toolbar and some basic layout adjustments, but that’s the extent of the customization abilities. It also doesn’t include any kind of app extensions or integrations such as a calendar, although it does contain a ‘Reminders’ feature that can be used like an agenda. If you’re looking for an all-in-one organizational tool, Postbox may not be complete enough for you.
The Bat!
If you’re more interested in security than in efficiency, The Bat! might be just what you’re looking for – and yes, the exclamation point is officially part of the name! It’s primary claim to fame is the ability to integrate email encryption directly into the program, supporting PGP, GnuPG and S/MIME encryption options. This makes it perfect for those who are working on extremely sensitive data, but it’s definitely not as user-friendly as any of the other email clients I looked at.
It has a fairly basic interface, and the process for setting up my Gmail account didn’t work properly the first time. Typically, Google’s two-factor authentication works instantly, but despite approving the sign-in on my phone, The Bat! didn’t realize I had done it at first. It also doesn’t integrate with my Google Calendar, but there are a few basic scheduling tools that you can use – although I prefer something more comprehensive.
Rather than including a mobile app for your smartphone, The Bat! does offer a ‘portable’ version of the app, which can be run from a USB key or similar device without having to install anything. If you find yourself needing to use a computer at an internet cafe or other public places to send encrypted emails, this is definitely your best option.
The Bat! isn’t likely to be the best solution for anyone except the most security-conscious users, but for journalists, financial analysts or anyone else who regularly needs to use encrypted communication, it may be just what you need. The professional version is available for $59.99, while the home user version is available for $26.95.
A Few Free Options
Mozilla Thunderbird
Thunderbird is one of the older open source email clients still in active development, first released in 2004. Originally bundled with Mozilla’s Firefox web browser, the two development projects were eventually separated as more and more people moved towards web-based email services and the demand declined. However, the developers are still working hard, Thunderbird is still one of the better free email clients for Windows 10.
Thunderbird uses a browser-style tab system to keep different tasks separate, although the interface feels out-of-date and clunky compared to some of the other clients
I used to use Thunderbird as my email client, back when it was first released, but I gradually moved away from it in favor of Gmail’s web-based interface. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it has also joined the modern era, and configuring my email accounts was quick and easy. It was definitely slower to sync than some of the other competitors, but it has good filtering and organizational tools, as well as instant messaging, calendars and contact management built-in.
The interface is a little out of date, even compared to Mozilla’s new direction for Firefox, but the tabbed interface makes it simpler to manage multiple tasks than some of the other email clients that I liked more. If you’re a person who loves to multitask while you work, be sure to check out Thunderbird. Of course, multitasking isn’t always the best way to conquer that unread message count!
Zimbra Desktop
Zimbra is part of an impressively large suite of applications designed for large enterprise deployments, which makes it a bit surprising that the program is free. During the installation process, though, I ran into a snag. Zimbra Desktop requires the latest version of the Java Runtime Environment, and I’ve been ignoring the update process for a while, so the installer was forced to quit. Eventually, I got things updated, but I ran into another problem almost immediately when it was time to connect my Gmail account.
Compared to the other email clients I tested, configuring my Gmail account to work with Zimbra required adjusting some settings that many users may not understand
Despite the instructions they provided, my Gmail account already had IMAP access enabled, but it still wasn’t able to connect. The error details were a long string of unintelligible error data, and nothing I could do would make it connect. When I tried adding one of my old Yahoo mail accounts, it worked smoothly, so I assume this is more likely to be a problem with Gmail’s two-factor authentication.
Zimbra’s interface is definitely out of date, and it doesn’t really give you much in the way of customization options. I found it generally slow to load, although it does include a decent array of tools above and beyond your basic email inbox, including calendars and scheduling options. Compared to some of the more modern options available, it doesn’t really stand out, and most users will be better off with something a bit more user-friendly.
Mail for Windows
If you have Windows 10, you’ve probably already got Mail for Windows installed. Setting up accounts is simple and easy, and it integrated with my Gmail and Google Calendar accounts without any issues at all. It provides quick access to calendaring and contacts, although it’s really just linking you quickly to the Calendar and Contacts apps that are built into Windows.
If you’re willing to embrace the default Microsoft apps for all of these features, then Mail might be a good choice for you – and you certainly can’t argue with the price. You can also be sure that it’s optimized for Windows 10, since it comes bundled with it by default.
On the downside, you’re also limited in terms of any additional features. There are no extensions to work with additional apps, but you could argue that its charm is in its simplicity. You won’t be getting distracted by anything, which hopefully will allow you to focus on getting through your daily messages!
A Final Word
Adjusting to a new email client takes time, so you may not become instantly more productive as soon as you switch. If you can’t find the right balance between managing correspondence and the rest of your work, the best email client in the world won’t be enough to stop your unread message count from climbing. But if you take the time to choose a client that’s best suited to your needs, you’ll find that you are able to take back control of your inbox while still meeting your other goals. Experiment with the different options that we’ve explored here, and you’ll be sure to find one that matches your particular working style!
Some people say you should stop using desktop email clients. I get where they’re coming from. Web-based email services have come a long way over the past decade, and many of them are feature-rich enough to be on par with desktop-based alternatives.
But there are several valid reasons to keep using desktop email software, and I believe desktop email clients will never be obsolete.
Postbox and Microsoft Outlook are the two main options, but they’re pricey. If you only need an email client to handle one or two personal accounts, then a free email client will likely serve you just fine. Here are the best free desktop email clients we’ve found.
1. Thunderbird
Available for Windows, Mac, Linux.
Although Thunderbird development was “discontinued” back in 2012, it still receives maintenance updates so don’t write it off as dead. In fact, as of this writing, the latest release (version 60.2.1) came out in October 2018. Sure, Thunderbird may not be getting new features going forward, but it’s absolutely still viable for everyday personal use.
And, as sad as it is to say, Thunderbird is the only free and open-source desktop email client that’s actually worth using. Other open-source clients exist, but they’re riddled with issues like clunky interfaces, glitchy performance, and a lack of advanced features.
If you’re adamant about never spending a penny and never switching to a web-based email client, then Thunderbird is your best option. It can do pretty much anything you need, including setting up message filters, autoresponding to emails, and several other nifty Thunderbird tips and tweaks.
Download:Thunderbird (Free)
2. Mailspring
Available for Windows, Mac, Linux.
Back in 2016, Nylas Mail hit the scene and looked as if it’d be the desktop email client to put all other desktop email clients to shame. But then in August 2017, the team announced that they’d no longer be working on Nylas Mail and opened up the source to the public.
One of the original authors then forked the project and relaunched Nylas Mail as Mailspring. He optimized and improved many of the internal components, resulting in quicker syncing, less RAM usage, faster launch times, and more.
Thunderbird may be the client of choice for those who want reliability and time-tested staying power, but Mailspring is the client to use if you want something fresh, new, exciting, and full of future potential. It’s free to use indefinitely with some advanced features locked behind a subscription.
Notable Free Version Features
- Syncs with Gmail, Office 365, Yahoo, iCloud, FastMail, and IMAP.
- Unlimited email accounts and unified inbox.
- Undo sent emails within a given period of time.
- Support for pre-built themes, layouts, and emojis.
Notable Pro Version Features
- Powerful template support for productivity.
- Track whether emails are opened and links are clicked.
- Schedule emails to be sent at a future time.
- Snooze emails and create follow-up reminders.
- Share email threads with others using a web link.
Download:Mailspring (Free, Pro for $8/mo)
3. Sylpheed
Available for Windows, Mac, Linux.
Sylpheed is a desktop email client that’s been around since 2001. While it does feel dated compared to modern email clients, it’s not bad by any stretch. In fact, its old-school interface and approach to email management may actually prove helpful if your email habits are causing undue stress6 Simple Tricks to Reduce Email Stress6 Simple Tricks to Reduce Email StressDealing with email is the best part of my day. Said no one ever. You need all the tips you can get to manage your email inbox? We can help you out!Read More.
The best thing about Sylpheed is that it knows what it is: an email client. It doesn’t concern itself with tons of extraneous features that bloat the installation and clutter the interface. Sylpheed is simple, lightweight, and full-featured.
Notable features include fast launch and overall performance, advanced email search and filters, effective junk mail control, encryption, and extensibility through plugins.
Download:Sylpheed (Free)
4. Mailbird
Available for Windows.
Mailbird is an attempt to optimize the desktop email client experience.
If you’ve never used desktop email before, then you’ll probably love Mailbird. If you’re migrating from another client, it will be hit or miss—some parts will feel familiar, other bits will impress you, but you’ll undoubtedly find aspects that you hate as well.
All we can recommend is giving it a try. It’s definitely slick and modern, and there’s a lot to like about it. Note that it’s a freemium app so the free version is restricted in some ways.
Notable Free Version Features
- Beautifully sleek and minimal interface.
- Syncs with any IMAP or POP email service.
- Lightning fast search and indexing.
- Integration with Dropbox, Evernote, Google Docs, and more.
- Supports up to 3 email accounts.
Notable Pro Version Features
- Unlimited email accounts and unified inbox.
- Snooze emails and set up reminders.
- Speed reader for emails.
- Quick preview for email attachments.
Download:Mailbird (Free, Pro for $18/year or $59 one-time purchase)
5. eM Client
Available for Windows.
eM Client aims to be an all-in-one solution for dealing with office tasks and communications. It’s primarily designed for email, but also has nifty calendar integration, task management, contacts organization, and even chat support—and the free version only has one (albeit major) limitation, as you can see below.
Notable Free Version Features
- Slick Modern UI interface that fits well with Microsoft apps.
- Syncs with Gmail, Exchange, iCloud, Office 365, and Outlook.com.
- Conversational view for email threads.
- Integration with all common chat services, including Jabber.
- Supports up to 2 email accounts.
Notable Pro Version Features
- Supports an unlimited number of email accounts.
- Can be used for commercial purposes (e.g. business office use).
- VIP support and troubleshooting.
Download:eM Client (Free, $50 one-time purchase)
Windows and Mac Have Built-In Email Apps
All of these free desktop email clients are fantastic so don’t fret too much. They can all get the job done, so give each one a try and stick to the one you like best. As for me? I’ve been using the free version of Mailspring for months and I’m quite happy with it.
If the above apps seem too complex for your email needs, then you can always resort to the Mail app that comes pre-installed on Windows 10. Some consider it bloatware while others think Windows 10 Mail is worth using. In any case, Mail is the simpler of the two Microsoft email apps. And if you have an Android phone, get one of the best email appsThe 10 Best Email Apps for Android, ComparedThe 10 Best Email Apps for Android, ComparedEmail on a smartphone? Use one of these excellent email apps for Android to make the experience more productive and enjoyable.Read More to complement your Windows client.
And for a better computer experience, have you considered building a DIY desk7 DIY Computer Desk Projects That'll Save You Money7 DIY Computer Desk Projects That'll Save You MoneyNeed a computer desk on a budget? Here are some excellent DIY computer desk projects you can build yourself.Read More?
Free Email Client For Mac
Explore more about: Desktop Email Client, Email Tips, Mozilla Thunderbird.
Email Client For Mac
Mailbird no longer has a free version
I've been looking for a client that lets you download all the attachments at the same time, to a folder, like selecting several mails, clicking on 'save as' and that's it, so I don't have to manually download 50 pdf files from 50 different emails. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. I've read thunderbird had a third party plugin that did it but now it doesn't work anymore. I think even netscape communicator 4 on win9x back in 98 o 99 could do it. why can't modern clients do it?.
I think the best feature about Thunderbird, which is absent in all other clients, is the ability to delete only the Attachment in the Email. I retain the actual Email with only the Attachment name, and not the actual attachment file. For example, when we send an Email to clients, we attach relevant Datasheets / Brochures of the products, our company profile, etc., which makes the Email 2-3 MB large. But later, I simply delete the Attachments from the Sent items, making the Email shrink to 30-40 KB. This is a very useful feature which I think all Email Clients should have.
Hi
Like everybody in the world I receive dozens of attachments (doc, excel, pdf....) everyday.
So I use the ONLY email client in the world which is able to PREVIEW attachments (WITHOUT opening dedicated software like word or excel or acrobat) with only ONE click INSIDE the email window.
And I save time everyday
Best regardsI use Thunderbird for backing up my Hotmail & Gmail, but I find it slow to use as a regular Client so I still access my Hotmail via Outlook Live online. I get up to 50 emails a day and immediately toss half - it's mainly for Social Media.
I still prefer to use OperaMail as my Client for Gmail (it's a separate program now) because I find Gmail online to be a non-intuitive PITA and with OperaMail I can have it in the same layout as forever. It's a bit buggy once in a while, but way more effective for me. I get a couple 100 emails a day - personal and hobbies - and I also access my RSS Feeds from it (which alone is worth having it). Tagging is easy.Another component in favor of Thunderbird: because of its addon ecosystem, it's possible to integrate seemingly unrelated messaging tools like Google Hangouts or Voice. This can be helpful if you find yourself keeping many browser tabs open just for communication; at least you can centralize everything in one place!
I was a home user of Outlook Express email until they went to Microsoft Live and continued to use it until it just didn't work. It was perfectly functional for all that I needed on my home computer (Outlook Client for work email). A few years back as Windows moved on, I tried Thunderbird, and it just didn't have enough features of what I used to keep me happy. I switched to eM Client (about 3 years ago) and have never turned back. I've had no problems and it does everything I need it to do.
I started using Thunberbird a few months ago when my Windows Live started gliching when trying to receive e-mails. Kept showing a message saying it could not connect to the server - and I had a TON of folders with saved stuff on there too.
Downloaded Thunderbird and for the most part, it is great. I do HATE that you can only enter one e-mail address on a line at at time. Ridiculous! I am also having HUGE issues with it flagging e-mail as junk from people I work with who send e-mails ALL the time. I have 'trained' it and flagged these e-mails as not junk and even went into settings and made sure the address books are checked so it SHOULD ignore those e-mail address. Nope, still flagging them as junk. Would love to have this fixed but am about to try a different program! GRRR!!
I'm using Thunderbird. However, last week, Quickbooks stopped communicating with Thunderbird, and wouldn't send invoices... on only ONE of my computers. The other one is still working fine. So, my question is - which of these programs have you used with Quickbooks?
all my efforts to make the W10 email app behave better have failed. I got into a very expensive act of buying 2 plane tickets because the W10 email consistently faile sin searching for emails with any key word. In addition, there is no quick way to configure it the way you want. It is quite possible, power users will claim 'I do not know how to use it'...well, this statement itself is the proof of my claim! In my iPhone, safari shows I have 16000 emails correctly. & I found the earlier eticket sent to me but not in the W10(is it 'outlook'?) while for not apparent reason, W10 email chose to show only 3659 of them! ...So I am done using it!
I have been using Thunderbird.
I really like that the inbox uses columns for Date, Subject, From, To, and more that I can sort on after selecting a message.
I really don't like that when creating an email the To, CC, BCC only accept one address per line, so you can only see a small portion of the recipients in a long list.
This increases the chance of sending something to the wrong person. It's also really hard to enter long mailing lists.Can someone recommend an alternative that does both well?
Which do you use?
General concerns about the email clients? I could do this myself (perhaps) but thought maybe by me posting a comment others might benefit. Since Windows 10 Pro is more accommodating on then the Home edition I would like to know the following:
First issue: Which of these programs are accepted by Windows 10 Pro and will survive a Microsoft 'Update' ?
Secound issue: I'm concerned about migrating my 32bit versions of Windows OUTLOOK EXPRESS
ron
Please add Hexamail Flow too!
Tried Hexamail Flow. It won't allow me to add a single account. It cries that 'All accounts must have a unique name', but this is the first account. Nothing will satisfy the program as a name. I've even tried naming it something like 'liedrfkhugjklsdghjf' and it doesn't work.
Mailbird allows only one account unless you buy it. They should make this clear when they advertise 'Have ALL your accounts in one client. FREE DOWNLOAD'. Very unscrupulous advertising.
I've purchased email clients before, but I don't think I should have to keep buying the program every year, but they conveniently break the programs and require you to buy them again for support. I just want one good program.
Does anyone know of any email client that will allow one assign a color category to an inbox email AND sort on it? I can't believe Outlook 2016 will not do this UNLESS it's a POP account. Thank you.
Hexamail Flow allows labels to be coloured and sort on labels.
Thank you so much!
Thank you for introducing me Nylas Mail. I was exactly looking for this. From my day beginning, I've started to search for best email client like Thunderbird. I'm running two different companies so I want to use two different email client software. You made my day author... Thank you!
Having used email clients (Pinemail_ before there was a web-based Internet and once the WWW appeared, I tried web-based mail programs.
The major difference is SECURITY. Webmail is just that, the etch-a-sketch version of real email and like any browser going to any web site (webmail is web-page based), are easily hacked. Webmail, using the forced browser upgrades tied in with the latest HTML5 layers, Stalkers like canvas fingerprinting can now monitor your email, follow your email, and invade your privacy much easier than a real email client.
Your Privacy, and Security are only available buy using a real email account on a real email client. Using a web browser to read/send/ webmail is like writing notes in a diary with a World Wide Web camera over your shoulder.
if you ever want a super-secure web mail client, including an on line keyboard so keystrokes can't be recorded, check out safe-mail dot com (or dot org I don't recall which).
there are only 1-2 glitches I've encountered (I don't use it regularly now, but did in the past when I needed 100% security that cost $0).
one major glitch is that the FBI blocked access somehow until the server agreed to let them have access on demand. It's not a USA based company. This went on for a few months but apparently they gave in.
Second glitch I encountered a couple years ago, it may be resolved now, is that late night access was extremely slow.
I know very little about networking etc so can only guess why...performance was fine during the day.Interface is minimalist, no ads, free access has limited storage space, only supports maybe3-4 languages--English Hebrew Japanese and I think Mandarin?
Paid version comes in tiers depending on needs. Has quite a few features like Google--calendar, a few other things. Encrypted enough to send medical or financial data. Also probably things like child porn—but that's the price of freedom I suppose.
Hiri is a paid client. It is not free.
i believe Nylas mail are pretty much dead now.
I am looking for a replacement to EM Client version 7. Version 6 was good but the way they handle multiple replies on version 7 has serious problems
Nothing but problems with Em Client. This week recent emails started flashing in my Inbox making it impossible to click on them. That was the last straw....finding another tool now!
NONE of these email apps are FREE!
Hiri is only free for 14 days!
The rest give a limited number of free trial days, and only 2-3 email accounts!
WHY DO YOU LIE?Yes, you are right. Reviews are not reflecting the truth.
I don't know what's the point except that the site is gonna lose customer base.
I'm definitively stopping my visits.Thunderbird is free.
WHEN I GOT A NEW USED PROCESSOR A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, IT DID NOT HAVE INCLUDED OUTLOOK EXPRESS THAT MY PREVIOUS COMPUTER HAD.
THUNDERBIRD IS A ROYAL PAIN IN THE REAR END.
I CLICK ON AN EMAIL & IT POPS UP, I CLICK IT OFF AND WHAT I JUST CLICKED ON IN THE PANE, IS NOW MOVED BACK TWO PACES TO A DIFFERENT EMAIL.
WHEN I TRY TO DELETE A FEW EMAILS AT A TIME...UP POPS A SERIES OF EMAILS, SO I HAVE TO STOP & CLICK THEM ALL OFF, IN ORDER TO GET BACK TO WHAT I WAS DOING...I AM SO OVER WITH THUNDERBIRD.
BUT, I HAVE NUMEROUS FOLDERS NOW & DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO OR WHAT FREE INBOX IS OUT THERE & WHETHER I CAN EXPORT ALL MY EMAILS & FOLDERS TO A NEW FREE INBOX.
OUTLOOK IS OVER 80 BUCKS HERE IN VANCOUVER...TO BUY THE PROGRAM...I DON'T KNOW IF I WANT TO SPEND THAT KIND OF MONEY ON AN EMAIL PROGRAM...SEEMS LIKE A LUXURY I CANNOT AFFORD.
WHAT SUGGESTIONS MIGHT ANYONE HAVE & ANY SOLUTIONS OR FIXES FOR THUNDERBIRD, IF THERE ARE ANY, IF THERE IS NO PROGRAM THAT I CAN IMPORT EVERYTHING TO THAT'S FREE.
THANKYOU,
LAYNA.I am running away from Thunderbird as fast as possible. Here are the problems I found.
It began to lose folders. I save all my email locally in a long list of folders. I've done it for decades. For no reason I can figure out, in 2018, version 52.52, folders began to disappear from the folder pane. Funny thing is, they still exist if I search for them, and I could search so as to get all the emails and then copy them to a new folder. Then that folder disappeared too, so I did it again with a new folder in a different place in the hierarchy. Today my TRASH folder disappeared.
Suddenly T-bird stopped downloading my emails. It just began to say 'No new messages' when there are hundreds. Even stranger - it finds one or two messages that it can download, but all the rest are invisible. The ones it downloads have nothing in common I can see. A google search shows none of these problems are unique.
Mozilla provides no real help. The 'fixes' are all high tech programming changes that leave me in the dust. You can't interact with the forum without registering which is a constant nightmare. The password is always deleting with time and you can't put in a new one without being told 'that email address is already in use' (yes, because it's mine, fool). Then you have to sift through hundreds of postings to find what - usually nothing! Mozilla doesn't want to hear from you about your little problems.
Constant problem - you can find a particular email, and it will tell you what folder it's in - but good luck finding that folder if you have extensive folders and subfolders. There is no help at all. No way to figure out where you stashed that folder. I've spent hours searching for a single folder.
Last problem - If you go to File Explorer to see where your data is stored - good luck. T-bird's scheme for storing its data in mixed up msf and sbd files is from some other planet. Some T-bird folder names have corresponding files but others don't and their contents have some of the saved emails but not others. It's all a complete mystery. If you want to save a good folder for later possible use, you have no idea of what to save, or how to restore anything by pasting it back again. If I could find an identifiable file with emails, that would be great, but I can't.
So sayonara T-bird. You are mysterious and unworkable unless you are just working perfectly without problems. And that is just a memory now.
This is because these people never really test any of these 'Top' application lists. They just gather names from a search engine and post them in some random order.
Try Hexamail Flow - it is COMPLETELY FREE to use for multiple accounts.
We only request you purchase if if you really like it to allow us to continue to invest in its development!
Yes, I tried your program. It just doesn't work.
Can't add ANY email accounts. It pops up with an error:
'All account names must be unique'
Only one account and no text at all will satisfy this requirement.
I've been searching for years for the best email client with these added requirements: a calendar/scheduler, tasks, events, contacts, highly configurable, securable, 'open source' (No Freemium) and fully portable at portableapps.com. I tried Operamail which I found to be a very good email and contacts client, but no calendar, etc., although I have no idea if anything has changed since being bought by Chinese owners.
Then I tried Thunderbird was too 'clunky' and slow for me. I liked Seamonkey more and I've been using for the last four years. It has email, a calendar, tasks, events, contacts, a browser and more; most of which need add-ons to make them more usable to each users needs.
It works quite well, still gets updated once a year or so (which is just fine for me), has a small dedicated team and an online extensions configurator to modify many T-bird & FFox extensions to work with it. I recommend users install exts's in small batches for troubleshooting any incompatibility issues that may arise. I'm still fussing with the address book fields and tasks/events to work with specific calendars though, but I've truly not found any better email client and if T-bird is no longer being developed I guess I'll stick with Seamonkey.
I would strongly urge you to not use MailBird. They 'phone home' all your emails and have even publicly stated that it is not illegal to do so and are continuing. In their newer versions they added an 'opt out' feature but it still phones home. You can use any packet sniffer to see for yourself.
Thanks for the tip. I downloaded it and removed it straight away because it is NOT free. Only the trial period is.
The free version of EssentialPIM is also a possibility.
A little fact checking would be nice.
First, its funny that you suggest the non-free Postbox as one of the two 'main' options, then make false claims (see below) about Thunderbird, apparently unaware that Postbox is a Thunderbird derivative, and is currently based on a very OLD version of Thunderbird.
What false claims? Well, Thunderbird development is far from dead. It has received more new features and bug fixes since Mozilla pulled its developers off of the main project (Mozilla still provides considerable infrastructure support) than it did in the previous 5 years under Mozilla's umbrella.
They also recently started receiving donations, and as of the last Treasury Report I saw, from November 2016, they were averaging about $70,000 per MONTH, most of these from small, one person donations.
Current Thunderbird leadership (an elected Council) is considering the options for a new home - the SFC (Software Freedom Conservancy and The Document Foundations being the two main contenders I believe.
So, the user base is definitely supportive of Thunderbird, and as far as I'm concerned, the future's so bright, you have to wear shades.
Yeah. I've got Thunderbird release 45.7.1 that came out on...FEBRUARY 7, 2017.
MUO should strive to be better than SCROTUS (So-Called Ruler Of The United States).
FU asshole
Thanks Charles! I'll definitely try Thunderbird again, I still have it and I surmise it gets updated through my portableapps.com menu which I love. I view Mozilla as a similar open source version of google in that they both work on a lot of projects which come, change often and go and sometimes come again. But Mozilla gets my support. Please let me know your thoughts on Seamonkey.
I agree with you also that 'A little fact checking would be nice.', especially when you're a professional article writer and reviewer. I almost feel duped!
I would really like Thunderbird except that it requires you to use a new line for each address entered in the To, CC, BCC fields. This is so silly, because with one address per line, you can only see a small portion of a long list at a time.
It also makes it really hard to add a lot of recipients. I can't understand why they do this in an otherwise really good product.
I am still using Eudora, which is the best email client ever.
A year or so ago it started choking on Google certificates. I looked around for another email client and could not find even one that was as good as Eudora. Fortunately some enterprising techie found a way to force Eudora to accept those certificates that Google has been cranking out at least once a week since then, so I'm happy.
You should wake up honestly...
Oh lord, Eudora .. not heard of that since the late 90s... that is a relic for sure. I worked for an internet provider and we used to provide it with our DIALUP accounts pre-configured. It was junk, we eventually stopped supporting it all together.
I didn't think that junk still existed..
And I would still be using Eudora if my university had not shut down the POP-server. I never got Eudora to work satisfactorily with IMAP. Unfortunately. I fully agree that it is the best mail client I've ever used, and I'm desperately looking for an email client even half as good. Since having to let Eudora go, I suddenly understand all my colleague's email woes. I am definitely much less productive with managing my emails now...
I started using Eudora back in the nineties. I used it for many years and would be using it yet if some geeky jerks hadn't killed it. I don't know why anyone would want better standalone email than Eudora.
I don't know how much longer we're gonna have email, anyway. Things I'm hearing lately give me to think email is gonna be bound and gagged ere too much longer: THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! EEEEEEEEEKK! HIDE THE MONEY! GIVE THEM THE CHILDREN INSTEAD!omg too funny... thx for the morning pmu :))
Yes of course, I agree with you 100%: Eudora (v. 6.3 for me) is still the best email client that was ever made available to an immense piblic, and that kept working so well for so long (more than 18 years for me).
I'm also starting to have problems with 'bad certificates' and would be very interested to know how your Eudora was forced to accept them (or rather, convince the POP server to agree to establish a valid communication with my PC-based, Win7, Eudora...)
Thanks if you can help!