The same can be said for Mail Pilot (; Mac App Store link), a $20 email client built loosely around the Getting Things Done approach to productivity. It looks terrific, but for all its good. Best Free And Top Email Clients for Windows 10 PC And Laptop June 27, 2016 July 8, 2016 techwibe Having a specialized email client that can handle you email is the ultimate way to stay organized and make your tasks done in lesser time. Meet the 7 Best Desktop Email Clients for Mac. These are our favorite desktop email clients for Mac, in no particular order. Inky ()Inky talks about itself as being an alternative to Outlook.
![Good Email Client For Mac Good Email Client For Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/5/126574633/530513193.png)
What email client can smoothly handle my 8GB / 400k emails? Why are Mac OS X and iOS updates so big compared to other OS's? Is there a good mail client for Android and iOS?
Why You Should Trust Us
My name is Adrian, and I write about tech topics on SoftwareHow and other sites. I started using email at university in the 80s, and it really became a key part of my personal and business life in the mid to late 90s when internet access became more common.
Before moving to the Mac, I used quite a number of Windows and Linux email clients, including Netscape Mail (which later turned into Mozilla Thunderbird), Outlook, Evolution and Opera Mail. When Gmail was launched I immediately became a fan and appreciated the huge amount of space they gave me, as well as the smart features of their web app.
After switching to Mac I continued to use Gmail, but as I was working from home I started experimenting with email clients again. First Apple Mail, and then Sparrow, which was smart, minimalistic, and worked perfectly with my Gmail account. After Google purchased and discontinued the app, I switched to Airmail.
I’ve really enjoyed exploring the competition while preparing for this review, though it has meant that I get about ten notifications for every email that comes in. There are some wonderful apps out there, and one will be perfect for you.
What You Need to Know Up-Front about Email
1. We receive more emails today than ever before
Email remains one of the favorite ways to communicate online. The average office worker receives 121 emails and sends 40 business emails a day. Multiply that by almost four billion active email users, and it really adds up.
The result? Many of us struggle with overflowing inboxes. A few years ago I noticed my wife had 31,000 unread messages in hers. We desperately need tools to manage it, to recognize important emails, and to reply efficiently.
2. Email has some security concerns
Email is not particularly private. Once you send an email, it may bounce between several servers before reaching its destination. Your email can be forwarded without your permission, and more email accounts are being hacked than ever before. Avoid sending sensitive information over email!
It is also the most abused form of communication in existence. Spam (junk mail) makes up about half of all email sent every day, and malware and phishing attacks are a risk and need to be identified. Security is an important issue that our email clients need to address.
3. Email is a client-server architecture
Your email client is an application that downloads (or synchronizes) your email with a server. A variety of protocols are used to achieve this, including POP, IMAP, and Exchange, as well as SMTP for sending emails. Not all apps support all protocols, though most support IMAP, which is currently very popular because it works well with multiple devices. Your email client doesn’t have to do all the work: some email features, like spam filtering, can be done on the server rather than in the client.
4. Most of us access multiple email addresses from multiple devices
Many of us have several email addresses, and most of us access our email from several devices, including our smartphones. In fact, we read 66% of our email on mobile devices. So it’s handy to have an app that works on a variety of operating systems, and may be essential to have one that can deal with multiple accounts.
5. Email may seem out-of-date
Email has been around for decades and can look out-of-date next to modern social networks and instant messaging apps. Email standards have evolved, but it’s still not a perfect solution. Nevertheless, it’s still one we all use, and as yet nothing has managed to replace it.
To address this, many of the new email clients are adding features, workflows, and interfaces to help us clear our inboxes faster and manage our emails more efficiently. Many of those features started out on mobile platforms, and have found their way onto the Mac. These include swipe gestures to get through your inbox more quickly, conversation views to show you the entire discussion and quick reply options.
Who Needs a Better Email Client?
Your Mac comes with an adequate email client — Apple Mail. It’s easy to set up, has a lot of features, and is well-integrated into macOS. It’s free and may offer all that you need.
So, why would you need a better email client? There are a lot of reasons, and the alternatives are quite different. What suits one person may not suit you. But if you relate to any of these comments, you may find that an alternative email client will make your life much easier:
- I receive so much email I find it hard to find the important ones. I’m often overwhelmed, and frozen into inaction.
- I have an overflowing inbox, and desperately need some tools to sort through it all and start to manage it better.
- Whenever I need to respond to an email I procrastinate. I’d like it to be easier. If only my app would suggest what I should say.
- I seem to spend half my day dealing with email. Is there a way to speed up the process?
- Apple’s Mail has so many features I feel lost. I want something easier.
- Apple’s Mail doesn’t have enough features. I want an app fit for a power user.
- I deal with a lot of customers and would like to track all of the emails I’ve received from one person or company more efficiently.
- I need an email client that works better with Gmail or Microsoft Exchange.
- I’m used to instant messaging, and email seems boring. Can we make email more like chat?
- I have to use a Windows PC at work and would prefer to use the same email client on both platforms.
How We Tested and Picked
Comparing email clients isn’t easy. They can be very different, each with its own strengths and target audience. The right app for me may not be the right app for you.
We’re not so much trying to give these apps an absolute ranking, but to help you make the best decision about which one will suit you best in a business context. So we hand-tested each product, aiming to understand what they offer.
Here are the key criteria we looked at when evaluating:
1. How easy is it to install and set up the app?
How familiar are you with email protocols and settings? Most people don’t find them fun at all. The good news is that many of the newer apps make setup a breeze — some almost set up themselves. You simply supply your name and email address, and they do the rest, including your server settings. More powerful apps may not be so easy, but give you more configuration options.
Your email client will need to support your server’s mail protocol. Most support IMAP, but if you need Microsoft Exchange compatibility, make sure the email client offers it. Not all do.
2. Is the app easy to use?
Do you value ease of use, or power and a wider range of functionality? To some extent, you need to choose one or the other. Many of the newer email clients have worked hard on their interface to make it easy to use, and add as little friction as possible.
3. Does the app help you clear your inbox and reply quickly?
Many app developers recognize that the amount of email we receive, write and reply to is a challenge, and streamline the process of clearing our inbox, replying efficiently, and composing new emails.
Features that help clear our inbox include snoozing or postponing an email to deal with it later, and canned responses to make replying quick and friction-free. Features that help create new emails include templates, Markdown support, and signatures. Other useful features you may value include undo send, send later, read receipts.
4. How does the app assist you to manage your email?
If you don’t need it, delete it. But what do you do with all the email you can’t delete? How can you sort important emails from all the clutter? How can you find important emails down the track? Different clients give you different ways to manage it all.
Are you a hunter or a gatherer? Many email clients are great at search, helping you find the right email just when you need it. Others help you file your emails in the right folder for later retrieval. A few email clients offer intelligent features like smart folders, email categorization, rules and unified inboxes that can be of great assistance.
Finally, not all of the information you receive by email should stay in your email app. Some clients offer excellent integration with other apps and services, allowing you to move an email into your calendar, task app or notes program.
5. Is the app cross-platform, or have a mobile version?
We deal with a lot of email on the go. While it’s not essential to use the same app on your phone and computer, it can help. Does the email client offer a mobile app? And with so many of us using different operating systems at work and home, how cross-platform is the app? And does it matter to you?
6. How well does the app handle security issues?
With about half the email in the world being junk mail, an effective and accurate spam filter is essential. You can deal with spam on the server, with your email client, or both. What other security features does the app offer?
7. How much does the app cost?
Many email clients are free or very reasonably priced. There’s no need to spend a lot of money here. However, the most powerful email options are also the most expensive. It’s up to you to decide whether that price is justified.
Here are the costs of each app we mention in this review, sorted from cheapest to most expensive:
- Apple Mail – free (included in macOS)
- Spark – free (from the Mac App Store)
- Polymail – free (from the Mac App Store)
- Mailspring – free (from the developer’s website)
- Mozilla Thunderbird – free (from the developer’s website)
- Airmail 3 – $9.99 (from the Mac App Store)
- Canary Mail – $19.99 (from the Mac App Store)
- Unibox – $13.99 (from the Mac App Store)
- Postbox – $40 (from the developer’s website)
- MailMate – $49.99 (from the developer’s website)
- Microsoft Outlook 2016 for Mac – $129.99 (from the Microsoft Store), or included with Office 365 from $6.99/month
The Winners
Note: We’ve picked three winners and to make it easier for you to choose the one that fits you, we break them down into the best, the easiest to use, and the most powerful. Learn more below.
Best Email Client for Mac: Airmail 3
“Airmail 3 is a new mail client designed with performance and intuitive interaction in mind optimized for macOS High Sierra!”
Five years ago I knew it was time to move to a new email app. After a lot of research, I chose and purchased Airmail. I’ve been happily using it ever since on both Mac and iOS. The app is attractive, easy to use, and boasts a slew of modern and powerful email features at an affordable price.
I’ve had another good look at the competition over the last few weeks, and have concluded that for me, and most of you, Airmail remains the best value email app for the average user. Here’s why.
Airmail is smooth and modern. It’s attractive, affordable, easy to use, very fast, and doesn’t get in your way. Setting up a new email account is a cinch. I’m not the app’s only fan — It’s clean interface won it an Apple Design Award.
The app supports multiple email addresses, and can quickly set up just about every email system out there: iCloud, MS Exchange, Gmail, Google Apps, IMAP, POP3, Yahoo!, AOL, Outlook.com, and Live.com. Like a lot of email clients today, Airmail makes your life easy by giving you a unified inbox — incoming mail from all of your accounts are shown in one place. Each sender is identified by a large avatar.
Working through your inbox is quick. Airmail supports multiple configurable swipe actions, as well as drag and drop. An email can be snoozed until a later time and date if you’re not ready to deal with it now, and quick reply lets you reply to an email as quick as if you were chatting, with options to send or send and archive.
Emails can be composed of rich text, Markdown or HTML. Emails can be sent at a later time and date, which is great if you’re working on an email in the middle of the night but want it to be sent in business hours. And there’s a handy undo send feature too when you realize you’re made an embarrassing mistake just after you hit Send. For that to work, you need to configure your email to be sent after a configurable delay. Once the email is actually sent, there’s nothing more you can do.
Besides the usual folders and stars, Airmail gives you an additional way to organize your emails: you can mark messages as To Do, Memo and Done. I find that a handy way to keep track of the bills I need to pay. Behind the scenes, Airmail is actually using some custom folders to achieve this, but the interface is much neater than normal folders.
Finally, Airmail has excellent support for third-party apps and services. You can send your email to a to-do list app like Omnifocus, Apple Reminder, Things, 2Do, Wunderlist or Todoist, a calendar app like Apple Calendar, Fantastical or BusyCal, or a notes app like Evernote. Read our full Airmail review here.
Easiest Email Client for Mac: Spark
“Email has taken too much time from people. Spark gives time back to all those who live by their inbox. Quickly see what’s important and clean up the rest.”
Spark is another modern, attractive app, but this one is designed to help you get through your emails fast. Boasting fewer features than Airmail, Spark gives you a streamlined interface designed to help you see the emails that are most important, and be able to deal with them quickly. And because it’s free, it’s lightweight on your wallet too.
Spark has intrigued me for some time now, and having just spent two weeks using it, I like it. In fact, I’m going to keep it on my computer for a while and continue to evaluate it. It makes dealing with email quick work, and if that’s important to you, this might be your perfect app.
Spark doesn’t just have a unified inbox like Airmail, it also has a smart inbox. It separates the emails you’ve never seen from the ones you already looked out, and puts the important ones you’ve starred (or in Spark-speak, “pinned”) altogether. It also separates less important emails, like newsletters. Important emails are less likely to be lost in the crowd. Notifications are also smart — you’re only notified when an important email hits your inbox.
You can work through your inbox very quickly using Spark. You can use multiple, configurable swipe gestures to archive, delete or file your messages. Reply to emails instantly using an emoticon, which does everything you need (including sending the email) with a single click. Or, like Airmail, schedule your email to be sent at a later time.
Also like Airmail, Spark allows you to postpone an email so you can deal with it later and works together with other apps, though not as many as Airmail.
Breaking news: I’ve just come across a new fast and simple email client for Mac that is now in Beta. Dejalu, from the developer of Sparrow, looks very promising. I’ll be keeping my eye on it.
Most Powerful Email Client for Mac: MailMate
“MailMate is not the most widespread, the cheapest, or the greatest looking email client, but I also have no aspiration to MailMate ever being any of these. Instead, MailMate aspires to be the most powerful, the most flexible, the most efficient, the most standards compliant, and the most secure email client.”
Most of the more modern apps seem to focus on smoothing the workflow of managing email overload rather than the needs of power users. To gain that power, we need to look at the apps with a longer pedigree, and a bigger price tag. MailMate is the most powerful email client available for macOS. It costs $49.99 from the developer’s website (one-time fee).
Rather than focussing on ease of use, MailMate is a keyboard-centric, text-based email client designed for power users. Like the previous two apps, it boasts a universal inbox and integration with other apps. It works well with multiple IMAP accounts but doesn’t support Microsoft Exchange. MailMate aims to be standards compliant, rather than cater for every proprietary system out there.
But what it lacks in good looks, it has in features and lots of them. For example, MailMate’s smart mailboxes are very smart indeed. You can build up a complex set of rules that filter your mail to display the required emails. A judicious use of smart mailboxes will allow you to automatically organize your email in all sorts of ways.
Here’s an example of a smart mailbox from the developer’s website that displays important emails from one person:
Standards compliance means that MailMate is text only. So the only way to apply formatting is to use Markdown syntax. If you’re not familiar with Markdown, it’s a popular way of adding formatting to text using normal characters, like asterisks and hash symbols. It was created by John Gruber, and you can learn more on his Daring Fireball site.
Email headers in MailMate are clickable. This is surprisingly useful. If you click on a name or email address, you’ll be shown a list of emails to or from that person, if you click on a date, you’ll be shown all emails from that date, and if you click on the subject, you’ll see all emails with that subject. You get the idea. Better still, clicking on several items in the header will filter by all of them. So, for example, you can easily find all emails by a certain person on a certain day.
MailMate contains many more powerful features and is extremely configurable. While I’ve only just scratched the surface, if I’ve managed to whet your appetite, this may be the app for you.
Postbox is another powerful app. While not quite as powerful as MailMate, Postbox has some unique features, has been around for a while, and has a slightly more modern interface. At $40 it is only slightly less expensive. You might want to check it out.
The Competition
Choose Canary Mail if Security Is Your Priority
If you’re really concerned about keeping your email private and secure, have a look at Canary Mail. It places a special focus on security, and these features are turned on by default. Your email is encrypted, so no one except the recipient will be able to read it. Encryption can be configured and turned off.
“Some of your most important info is shared via email, which is why we built end-to-end encryption into our app. This ensures only you and the person you’re communicating with can read what is sent, and nobody in between, not even your provider.”
A slew of other features are included, such as highlighting important emails, natural language search, smart filters, read receipts, snooze, and templates.
$19.99 from the Mac App Store. Also available for iOS. A free trial is not offered, so I haven’t tested this app personally. But the app is highly rated, receiving an average of 4.1 out of 5 on the Mac App Store.
Choose Outlook if You Work in a Microsoft Environment and Need the Best Exchange Support
![Good Good](/uploads/1/2/6/5/126574633/254338485.png)
If you work in a Microsoft environment, then you already have Microsoft Outlook. In fact, it’s probably already installed and set up for you. Your company may require you to use it.
“Outlook 2016 for Mac lets you focus on what’s important with a clear view of email, calendars, and contacts.”
Outlook is well integrated into Microsoft’s Office suite. For example, you’ll be able to email a document directly from Word or Excel’s file menu. And you’ll be able to access your contacts, calendars, and tasks directly from Outlook.
You may be using Microsoft Exchange as the backbone of your email, and Outlook arguably has the best Exchange support out there. After all, Microsoft invented it.
$129.99 (from the Microsoft Store), but most people who use it will already have subscribed to Office 365 (from $6.99/month). Also available for Windows and iOS.
Choose Unibox if You Want Your Email to Work Like Instant Messaging
Unibox is quite different to the other email clients listed here. Rather than listing your email messages, it lists the people who sent them, along with a helpful avatar. When you click on a person, you see your current conversation formatted like a chat app. By clicking a button at the bottom of the screen, you see every email sent from or to them.
“Unibox is a people-centric email client that organizes your messages by sender. The contact list on the left is sorted by the date of the last email and each person is displayed only once.”
If you love the idea of making email more like a chat app or social network, have a look at Unibox. It’s also one of the best apps if you need to keep track of a lot of attachments. I keep coming back to Unibox, but so far it hasn’t stuck for me. Maybe it will for you.
$13.99 from the Mac App Store, or comes included with a Setapp subscription ($9.99/month, see our Setapp review). Also available for iOS.
Choose Polymail if You Are Focussed on Sales or Contacts
If your job is all about keeping track of sales contacts, then Polymail was designed for you. The app is free, but Pro, Team and Enterprise plans unlock additional advanced marketing features. But the free version has plenty of features and is worth considering on its own.
“Polymail is the all-in-one platform that helps sales teams reach, engage, and track prospects more effectively.”
You’ll notice a lot just looking at this screenshot. Each contact has a clear avatar, and besides seeing the email you selected, you see some information about the contact, including social links, job description, and your past interaction with them. Emails and attachments are listed separately on the same list.
The app contains a lot of useful features, including read later and send later. You can unsubscribe from newsletters with a single click, and swipe messages away. But the real strength of this app is when you are dealing with your contacts in a sales context.
When sending emails, you can get a jump start by using templates. If you don’t hear back from the contact, the app can remind you to follow up after a configurable amount of time. You do this when composing the message by clicking on Follow Up and selecting the required number of days. If the person hasn’t responded by then, you’ll get a reminder.
Another highlight of the program is tracking and analytics. The basic features are there in the free version, but you get a lot of extra detail when you upgrade. An activity feed allows you to view all of your tracking in one place. For more power, the app can integrate with Salesforce.
Free from the Mac App Store. Also available for iOS. Pro ($10/month), Team ($16/month) and Enterprise ($49/month) add additional email marketing features and support. Learn more here.
Your Free Email Options
Still not sure if you need to spend money on an email client? You don’t have to. We’ve already mentioned Spark and Polymail, and here are a few more free options and alternatives.
1. Apple Mail Is Good, and Comes Free with macOS
You already have Apple Mail on your Mac, iPhone and iPad. It’s a capable app, and the most common way Apple users access their email. It’s probably good enough for you too.
Apple Mail is easy to set up, and easy to use. It supports swipe gestures, lets you sketch with your mouse, and even add your signature. The VIP feature lets you separate emails from important people so they’re more easily found. And power users can use smart mailboxes and mailbox rules to organize and automate your email. There’s a lot here to like.
2. Web Clients are Free, Powerful and Convenient
But you don’t actually have to install an app to access your email. Webmail has been out for decades, and ever since Gmail hit the scene in 2004, it’s quite powerful.
Google (Gmail), Microsoft (Hotmail, then Live, now Outlook.com) and Yahoo (Yahoo Mail) offer the most popular web apps. Google offers a second, quite different app, Google Inbox, which attempts to keep your email organized and easier to process.
If you like these web interfaces, but prefer the experience of an app, you can, but not all options are free. Mailplane ($24.99) and Kiwi for Gmail (free for a limited time) offer the Gmail interface in an app, and Boxy ($5.99) and Mail Inbox (free) are unofficial Google Inbox clients. There’s the unofficial Inbox for Outlook ($7.99) on the Mac App Store, and Wavebox (free, or $19.95/year for the Pro version) integrates your email and other online services into a single powerful app. It’s like a browser for your productivity.
And finally, there are web services that provide additional features to your email system, whether you use webmail or an email client. Two popular options are SaneBox and EmailPet. They’re not free, but I think they’re worth mentioning here anyway. They filter out unimportant email, collect newsletters and lists into one folder, let you permanently banish annoying senders, and remind you to follow up important emails if you haven’t had a reply.
3. Some Free Email Clients Are Very Good
Mozilla Thunderbird comes to you from the people who create Firefox. It’s been around for fifteen years, is highly polished, and is virtually bug-free. It’s also cross-platform, and works on Mac, Linux, and Windows, though not on mobile. I’ve used it on and off over the years, but not as my main email client for at least a decade.
Thunderbird is easy to set up and customize, and it does more than just email. It’s also a chat, contacts and calendar app, and its tabbed interface lets you jump between these functions quickly and easily. If you’re looking for a free, traditional email client, it’s worth checking out.
Another free option is Mailspring, which was formerly known as Nylas Mail. It comes with some nice-looking themes, including a dark mode, and it, too, works on Mac, Linux, and Windows.
Mailspring is a more modern and professional app than Thunderbird and includes features such as conversation view, email scheduling and reminders, a unified inbox, touch and gesture support, and lightning-fast search. It can also do mail merge, read receipts and link tracking, so it’s pretty powerful too.
If you want even more power, there’s Mailspring Pro, which will cost you $8/month. Pro features include templates, contact profiles and company overviews, follow-up reminders, message snoozing and actionable mailbox insights. That sounds a lot like Polymail, so this is one versatile program.
Email is an old technology that is very similar to how it started out. And yet recently we’ve seen some big changes that have really shaken up the way many people use email and deal with email. Recently, this matter has been agitated further by a popular email client (Mailbox) that was a acquired by a big company declaring that it shut down. So we thought it would be good to update this email post for the New Year and see how the state of email has changed.
Personally, I too have undergone a “conversation” over my use of email and email client leading to me using a different combination of applications across the board.
Like the last time, this review will not tell you the best email app for everyone, but instead, will have a selection of email apps that should work well for how different people deal with email. Of course, If you use a different email client than is listed below, you are welcome to leave a comment and tell us why you use it.
Overview of Apps
Many mail applications run on multiple platforms and with that in mind I’ve tried to create a layout that is as logical as possible without repeating myself.
If I miss an application then please leave a comment and I’d love to know why you have chosen your app. We all have different reasons and that can be useful for others to read.
Gmail (Web, Mobile)
Gmail has become a very popular email service and for a few good reasons, the use of the tag system, the good mobile apps, and the widespread free accounts make it a very popular choice for many people. Gmail also supports extensions to add extra functions that users have added on to the service over the years.
Inbox
Inbox takes standard Gmail and adds some extra features that you either love or hate. These include snoozing email, smart mailboxes grouping of themes like purchases, newsletters, promos etc and adding tasks from within mail. There are mobile apps as well as a web client that you can use.
Boxy (Mac)
Boxy is a way to run multiple email accounts within an inbox with the native Mac interface. If you like Inbox, but want a native Mac desktop client with keyboard shortcuts and multiple accounts, Boxy could be for you.
Outlook (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android)
Microsoft recently went on a spree of mobile application acquiring. Two of these apps were Accompli (a great third party email client) and Sunrise (a fantastic third party calendar application). Shortly afterwards Accompli became Outlook, bringing the great features of Accompli (swipe gestures, email snoozing, built in calendar), but now under official Microsoft branding.
Now the Sunrise team are also part of Outlook, meaning one of the best calendars (with task integration and a special keyboard to organize events) is going to become better integrated. There are also the classic desktop clients from Microsoft on both Windows and Mac.
However, it is worth noting that features like email snoozing do not yet sync from your mobile to desktop (unlike a tool like the now gone Mailbox). The desktop client will support exchange fantastically, has integrated tasks and calendar as well and comes along with Office 365 (so you have your other Microsoft products to).
Inky (ALL THE THINGS)
Inky supports Exchange, Google apps and IMAP severs (covering most basses). Inky also works on the major desktop and mobile clients with Windows, Mac, Android and iOS support. Inky uses it’s own severs to interface with your mail and allow you to do some pretty clever stuff across your devices. These include smart filtering (like Google inbox, but you can customize them more), high powered search and organizing by importance. However, to run these features, there is a $5 a month subscription. It makes sense, they are running their own servers to provide these features and they need some method to cover those running cost.
Airmail 2.5 (Mac, iOS)
Airmail is a Mac app with a new iPhone app [review coming soon]. It has a great look and design with some powerful features underneath. These include markdown editing, adding to your favorite task management tool, keyboard shortcuts and more. However, the aspect about airmail that really makes it stand out is the “task” approach the app takes to email. Each email lets you mark it as:
- to do
- memo
- done
With folders relevant to each one. This lets you either save an email to complete later (to do), save the information in an email for reference (memo), or say that you have taken action to an email (done). Very nice.
Mail.app (iOS and Mac)
Mail.app is the default email client built into Mac and iOS devices. On iOS it is the default and unlike android devices which let you switch defaults, iOS doesn’t currently do this (and may well never offer this).
As such, if you click on an email address, it will open in Mail.app (in my mind that’s a good enough reason to consider mail.app as you’ll have to use it sometime!) Mail.app is probably “good enough” for many people, it offers gestures for quick archiving, deleting and moving emails. It also ties in with other iOS features such as VIP contacts for notifications and with the new “Siri” functions can do some smart actions like saving flight details or adding calendar events and making emails searchable via spotlight search.
However, Mail.app can be very temperamental with Gmail (especially on the Mac). I’ve seen Mail.app work fine with my Gmail account while others vented their anger and, more recently, I’ve seen Mail.app start to act very strangely with not syncing deletions, not downloading emails for long periods of time, and so on. Use with caution on the Mac.
MyMail (iOS, Android)
MyMail is a mobile email client that features some nice touches to improve your experience on your device. These include.
- specifying when to push email (limit it to certain times)
- filtering into different topics (with different notification settings)
- privacy settings on notifications (remove the sender name or subject)
- adding avatars of each email sender
- swipe based gestures
MyMail also supports a range of email protocols so yours will almost certainly be supported.
Spark (iPhone, iPad app in development)
Spark came out soon after we published last years roundup of email clients and it quickly caught my eye. Although it is currently only for the iPhone, it has so very nice features that make it really pleasant to use. Furthermore, unlike many previously mentioned apps, this app doesn’t require any special servers and so doesn’t peak at your private data. Spark mail’s features include:
- priority inbox (organised by topic and priority) or classic view (I love switching between the two)
- smart notification (only get distracted by important and urgent matters)
- support for a variety of storage providers (save or add an attachment to Dropbox, Google drive etc)
- quickly take action on emails (add a task, calendar appointment, save to read later, save to Evernote and more)
- smart, natural language search
- gestures which you can customize
- snoozing emails (with customizable snooze times!)
Personally, Spark is the best email client I have used, it has all the integration I want, handles the tasks on my device and can be customized as I like. It also doesn’t bother me when any old newsletter comes in, but always lets me know about emails I really need to read. It’s only downfall is it is only on the iPhone at the moment. There are plans for an iPad and Mac version, but that’s still in the future, furthermore, Windows and Android will never be supported as the developers only make Mac and iOS apps.
Cloud Magic (iOS, Android, Mac)
Cloud Magic is another server based email client that has a variety of app integrations that let you do some useful things with your email. These include todo applications, read it later services, Evernote and one note. The use of a serve helps you to sync data across devices and receive push notifications on your different devices. CloudMagic has most recently added a Mac app to their selection which lets you sync your actions across desktop and mobile…as long as you use a Mac.
Dispatch (iOS)
Dispatch has been one of my favourite iOS apps for a while now. It was originally iPhone only, but with iOS 9, the developer made the app universal and added slide over support on the iPad. Thief makes it a great option to use while in another app, perhaps using that app for reference material when writing a message or if you get an idea and suddenly want to send a message off about it, just slide across, write and send.
Dispatch also features tools to help you get your email out of your inbox and elsewhere easily. These include the option to add to a variety of task management tools, add to a calendar, save to a read it later service or storage service and more. Dispatch is also very clever in letting you choose different defaults for data in emails. So normally clicking a link would open it in Safari, but with dispatch you could choose Chrome. Dispatch doesn’t get push notifications, so you need to have the app always running in the background and regularly check in. I love that, but other people hate it.
Android OEM apps (Android)
Every Android phone comes with a built in email client. Usually these are the email client from the Android open source project or they have been edited slightly (perhaps with a new color of paint). These apps have basic functionality that you need and support a selection of email formats; however, they often lack power features and don’t have the greatest design. They also vary a lot from each other, so it is hard to draw general conclusions. Their key advantage is that they are built in.
Best Email Client For Mac
Boxer (iOS and Android, Built into Cyanogen 12 onwards)
Boxer has been around for a while but its biggest claim to fame recently has been a deal with Cyanogen Inc to make it the default email client on Cyanogen devices. That’s interesting when you consider the iOS version cost $4.99. Boxer like many other applications has quick actions built in including archiving, adding a todo item and sending to Evernote. It also features gestures for quick archiving, deleting or highlighting an item and these can be customized. The design is good and it features Android wear support for notifications and quick actions.
Mailplane (Mac)
If you like Gmail’s web interface, but want a native app on your desktop, then check out Mailplane. Mailplane looks just like the web interface as it is a form of web wrapper for the Mac. However, Mailplane brings in standard Mac keyboard shortcuts, ties in to notification centr, as well as boasting integrations with some third party solutions like Evernote and Omnifocus.
Unibox (Mac)
Unibox takes a different approach to email. Instead of the traditional send, subject line, and extract of each email appearing chronologically, Unibox shows you just the sender much in the same way you have with most modern sms and messaging clients. Some of you are probably disgusted by that idea while others probably instantly love it. I doubt one group will change to the other.
Unibox supports the key email service providers (Gmail, Outlook Exchange, iCloud, Yahoo and iMap) as well as having a beautiful unified writing and reading Environment with a separate panel to view attachments on.
Honestly, I feel this would suit the regular individual better than the power productivity business person, but I’m certainly not saying you shouldn’t try it if you like the idea. There is a 15-day trial on their site, so you can give it a go and see if you like it. Putty for mac ssh client.
Mailmate (Mac)
Mailmate is an ugly power mail app for iMap application. It has markdown support, keyboard shortcuts, advance search queries and smart mailboxes. It doesn’t look shiny and polished like other mail clients and it has a more retro aesthetic, but it gets the job done. If you want a power tool and don’t care about how it looks, then Mailmate could be for you.
Inbox Zero
Inbox Zero is a term coined by Merlin Mann and a philosophy and approach to email (and really the Internet as a whole) to help people deal better with their email. Many people take the name to simply mean keeping your inbox empty and either archive or take action on each email. While this is part of the approach, it misses the heart of Inbox Zero. https://powerupsj187.weebly.com/microsoft-remote-desktop-connection-client-for-mac-free-download.html. If I had to summarize it in a few words
Inbox Zero is about your output prioritizing the inflow of information. It is about not being controlled by the demands of others and avoiding Fear of Missing Out
To do this, there are a few core principles:
- Check your email in batches, don’t always be on call.
- If it is a small quick task (2 mins or less), take action now.
- If it is a resource, file it away for later (archive, send to Evernote, etc…)
- If it is something you can’t take action on now (due to lack of information, needing more resources, etc…) then add it to your todo list and move it to a folder for “later.”
- Schedule when you will go through your “later” pile. Don’t let it pile up!
- Reduce the rubbish that comes in.
With that in mind, here are a few tools that can help you get to Inbox Zero (and stay there). One last tip I’d add is to use third party services to get those emails out of your inbox.
- Use a “read it later” service for articles you don’t have time to read now.
- Use Evernote, Dropbox or download reference materials.
- Use a task management tool to save tasks you need to do.
By doing this, you keep your inbox clean, and even if you get behind on your reading, at least you can easily see the tasks you need and it is easier to find reference material.
Triage
Best Email Client For Mac Os X
Triage is an iPhone app which helps you work through your email and cut out the rubbish. It isn’t a traditional email app in that you don’t have an inbox, nor will you get push notifications. Instead, you are present with a simple interface where you are shown a single email and given a few simple options.
You are shown an email as though it was a card and you have a couple of options. Flick and email up to archive it (or you can change this to delete/mark as read), flick it down to keep it unread for later, or tap to send a quick reply.
This helps you to take quick action and work through a whole stack of email clearing out your inbox, but keeping the ones you need for later.
The key difference between this and a traditional email app is you have to make a decision, you can’t postpone as a default, as that is actually something you are consciously deciding to do. This makes Triage great for when you are in a queue or have a few quick minutes.
Spark / Dispatch / Cloud Magic
One of the things I love about Spark, Dispatch, and Cloud Magic is their ability to let you take actions from your inbox which aren’t simply emailing a reply.
If you need to save an email for later, then you can send it to Evernote. If there is an article you’d like to read at a better moment, then send it to Pocket or Instapaper, if there is something that requires you to take action you can add it to your todo list and not use your email inbox as a task management tool.
These features are becoming more common, but still aren’t ever present.
Recommended Apps
As with task management apps, it is difficult to recommend a single app for people because people’s preferences and workflows for handling email vary wildly (not to mention that not every option will support your email client of choice). As such, consider this list some broad ideas and not definitive. I will explain my reasons why I recommend each choice but if that won’t work for you, then choose a different option (and preferable tell us why in the comments to help others who are in your situation).
iOS
Basic (Mail.app)
Mail.app get’s a lot right and if you don’t care about all the fancy features and just need a regular client, go for the built in option. It allows you to make the most of hand-off, have a unified application on the Mac and iDevice as well, and you get a familiar app appearing when you click on an email address anywhere on your device. However, it can be a pain in the neck with Gmail (especially if you use two-factor authentication), so you might want to choose a different option there.
Advance (Mailbox, Cloud Magic, Outlook)
If you like the delaying email feature and have a Gmail or iCloud account then check out Spark, Cloud Magic or Outlook. Cloud Magic will sync between your desktop and mobile device today, while Spark say they are developing a desktop and iPad client and Outlook has a desktop service, but it doesn’t sync with the delayed emails.
All three services offer nice extra functionality as well as the delayed email features and so might be worth considering as a more advance email client.
Android (Cloud Magic, Outlook)
Many of the biggest email apps are now on Android (even if apps like Mailbox took a while to get there). Most of them go for a fairly similar approach offering some form of gesture swiping for quick actions as well as the increasing presence of delaying emails for later.
If you drink the Google kool-aid, then you’ll probably love either Gmail or Inbox, but seeing as inbox from Gmail doesn’t support a wide range of email service,s I have to recommend either Cloud Magic or Outlook. The services are very similar with the main difference being the inbuilt calendar in Outlook and the extra actions in Cloud Magic.
Windows (Outlook, Inky)
If you are happy using a web interface tool and don’t feel the need for a native client, then by all means, carry on using the web interface for Gmail, Yahoo! or other client. However, if you are looking for a few extra features or a better interface for your domains iMap account, then there are really only a couple of good options to check out.
Outlook is a classic email client and well respect for good reason. It supports a good selection of email services, includes a calendar (to help you organize tasks and events as soon as you receive an email).
Inky is an open source email client on the desktop which supports a range of email clients, offers some advance sorting with smart views and good search function built in.
[More Windows reviews coming soon!]
Mac (Mail.app, Airmail)
The Mac is a tricky beast and people use it in very different ways. For some people, they may as well have a chromebook and use a web app to access their Gmail or Yahoo! mail. If you don’t like fiddling or spending too much money then check out Mail.app (but be ready for some potential issues with gmail, especially if you have two factor authentication). If you don’t mind splashing some cash and want a few extra functions (with a more modern interface) then check out Airmail.
Delay Later (Inbox or Sanebox)
If you really want delayed later across desktop and mobile and can set up a new email account, then head over to Gmail and use Inbox. It has some great extras with smart grouping of emails, saving all your travel details together (which you can share with someone else) and it can delay emails too.
If you have a Windows PC or want the smart filters that come with Inbox by Gmail. If you want delayed email for iMap or another email service which isn’t Gmail, then you will have to check out services like Sanebox which you redirect your emails via its own servers and operates in between your email client and desktop client. Of course you have to pay for this service, but you also get extra features like the “sane later” folder (which hides less important emails) and the ability to CC yourself to get a follow up reminder (but only if there is no response from the other side).
My Personal Choice
I run a Mac, iPad and iPhone most of the time (though I do have an Android device too) and most of the time I’m lazy and use the standard offering of Mail.app.
Having used Dispatch on iOS for a long time, I recently switched to using Mail.app on my iPad and Spark on my iPhone. I hope Spark will come to the iPad and Mac soon, but until then, I’m happy with my choices.
Rounding Up
We’re sending more and more emails and need better systems to help tackle the deluge. Some of these new features and approaches to email may really help you out or they may just not stick. That makes managing your email incredibly personal. It’s hard to pick a universal solution for everyone and I’m sure I’ve missed some really great options.