Email clients come in all shapes and sizes, but when it comes to the options available on the Mac, we feel that Airmail is the best email client for most people. It’s easy to use, supports a number of different email providers, has a solid search function, and more.
This mail client only recently arrived on OS X after finding success on iOS and Android Task-Oriented Email App Mail Pilot Arrives On Mac OS X Task-Oriented Email App Mail Pilot Arrives On Mac OS X Like the mobile version of the app, Mail Pilot for Mac is very useful for managing important email like a to-do list. 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). If you’re looking for something new, here are the best email apps for Android! 2018 was a rough year for email clients, as some of the best (such as Newton Mail, Inbox by Gmail, and Astro) went.
Airmail 3
Platform: macOS
Price: $9.99 Download Page Features
Where It Excels
Airmail’s biggest strength is the variety of ways you can customize it. Part of that comes from the fact that Airmail is updated pretty frequently, which means that not only does it regularly get new features, it’s also always up to date with the most modern iterations of macOS. Over the course of its life, those updates have added in features like snoozing, VIP mailbox, and plenty of other modern email features.
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The ways that you can customize Airmail are pretty in-depth. You can alter what’s on your sidebar, what emails you’re notified about, how emails are displayed, how long a “snooze” is, how gestures work, where you save files, and tons more. Airmail also integrates with a bunch of third-party services, so if you use one of the supported to-do apps or notes apps as part of your email workflow then it’s pretty easy to integrate that into Airmail.
Airmail is basically a power-user email app for people who don’t want to go “full power-user” with something like Outlook. It’s great for the niche of people who need an advanced email client on their Mac and who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty customizing it.
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Where It Falls Short
At $10, Airmail is a bit of an investment and while it’s well worth the cost if you use all is features, not everyone needs a ton of features to begin with. While Airmail is very customizable, it’s not great out of the box, which means you’ll want to spend a 10-15 minutes playing around with various settings, options, and other things to tweak it to suit your needs. If you use email a lot for work, this isn’t a huge deal, but if you’re a casual user who just want to send and receive some mail then Airmail is overkill.
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The Competition
Apple Mail is probably the most obvious competition here. The packed-in email client is.. fine. It works on a fundamental level, but since it’s only updated when Apple updates its entire operating system, it’s pretty devoid of modern features. If you just check and reply to emails, it does the job though.
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Spark(Free) is easily the best alternative to Airmail for people who don’t need as many of the advanced features that come packed into it. Spark has a lot of the modern razzle-dazzle of Airmail without the clutter. It has smart inbox sorting, iCloud syncing with the free mobile app, email snoozing, and quick replies. The free part might seem like its main strength, but it gives me pause because it’s unclear what the business model is, and therefore hard to tell what will happen to the app in the future. We’ve seen far too many abandoned email apps over the years to trust any free app moving forward, even if it is run by a company with a whole productivity suite. Still, it’s a great alternative to Airmail and free to check out if you’re curious.
Postbox ($40) is another great competitor. Like Airmail, Postbox excels in search options and additional powerful features you won’t find in most other mail clients. For example, you get message summary mode, sorting by type/subject of email (called the Focus Pane), add-ons, easy archiving of messages, and more. It’s a little clunky to actually use though, and Postbox doesn’t feel as at home in macOS as Airmail does. While you can check out a trial of Postbox for free, it’s a tough sell at $40 unless you really enjoy it.
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Lifehacker’s App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.
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Apple Mail is a free, native email application that ships with every Mac, making it a solid default choice for most Mac users, especially those using iCloud only. Despite steady developments from the Apple stable, its email client hasn’t had a major design upgrade in years; it’s the same old-school design.
Although it’s a good, full-featured and trouble-`
free app, it may lose out to third-party alternatives for Mac because it doesn’t do anything further to help you rethink email.
If you are looking to switch to a better email client, here are the best free and paid Apple Mail alternatives for Mac users.
Related: 7 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do with Your Email Inbox
1. Spark
Spark is a free and impressive desktop email client for Mac that not only allows you to organize inboxes automatically, but also postpone emails and send one-click replies to your contacts.
Its Smart Inbox sorting feature uses buckets like Personal, Newsletters, and Notifications to bubble important messages at the top.
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You can also schedule your emails like you would in Gmail at select times such as later today, in the evening, tomorrow, and more. Similarly, if you sent an email and didn’t receive a response for it, Spark nudges you with follow-up reminders just so you don’t forget.
The built-in Calendar tool comes in handy to help you organize your life.
For organizations, Spark for Teams is available as a collaborative email platform with unique features like collaborative composing and private commenting in small chat boxes. You can also invite teammates to collaborate and proofread your emails like in Google Sheets or Docs.
It also supports Yahoo, Google, iCloud, Outlook, Exchange, and IMAP accounts.
Why we like it
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What we don’t like
2. Mozilla Thunderbird
Thunderbird is a full-featured, open-source email client substitute for Apple Mail.
Besides letting you handle mail efficiently and filtering away spam or junk mail, Thunderbird is secure and functional, though it seems to be getting old. The application does get security updates, but other than that, it’s no longer in active development.
However, its email management service is secure, being a Mozilla project, but you may not get fancy features like those in other email client apps on this list. Either way, its still a simple, non-cluttered way of managing your email.
If all you want is a free email client to use with your Mac, Thunderbird is a good alternative. You may miss out on some cool features, but will still save on cost.
Thunderbird is highly extensible and has the feel of the classic Outlook with useful features like sending large attachments through cloud storage, tabbed email, and the ability to change its look and feel.
Why we like it
What we don’t like
3. CloudMagic (Newton)
CloudMagic is a free app you can use with Mac, though it came on the platform after a successful go on Android and iOS platforms.
It’s simple, fast, and has a transparent, clutter-free interface, which is actually good if you have a consistent stream of emails from multiple accounts every day.
It supports Yahoo, Google Apps, iCloud, Gmail, Exchange and IMAP accounts, and you can get it from the Mac App Store.
Why we like it
What we don’t like
Related: Eight Alternatives to Mailbox Email App on iOS
4. AirMail
AirMail is a paid app that isn’t just pretty to look at but is also “lightning-fast” and doesn’t bog you down with lots of features.
Unlike Apple Mail, this app has Split Screen support for OS X El Capitan and the ability to compose in HTML or Markdown.
You can also organize your tasks into To-Do, which require action or follow-up, Memo, which are for a later date, or Done, which are marked as completed. Like Gmail, you can also Snooze your emails and view them later.
AirMail is available for about $10 in Mac App Store and supports iCloud, Yahoo, Google, Outlook, IMAP, AOL, POP, and Exchange. It also integrates with third-party apps like Google Drive, Dropbox, Things, OmniFocus and more.
Why we like it
What we don’t like
5. Postbox
Postbox offers robust tools for more efficient email management and looks a lot better than Apple Mail.
Postbox lets you group your emails by topic, which is great with multiple email accounts. You can also divide your tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks for better organization.
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Features like the pre-made responses make for easier and faster communication, though it lacks essential features like Send Later and Snooze.
The most unique feature is the Account Groups, which lets you combine your accounts into a unified box and separates or blends your work in an organized manner. There’s also a Focus Pane from which you can filter emails quickly to find what you want.
A nifty time tracker, which shows the length of time you took composing emails, and word count is included. And when you’re ready to hit send, domain fencing checks that you send emails to the appropriate recipients.
Postbox has a 30-day free trial and supports most popular email service providers and protocols like SMTP, POP3 and IMAP.
Why we like it
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What we don’t like
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Wrapping UpBest Email Client For Mac
If you’re content and satisfied with Apple Mail, you can continue using it. However, if you want more from an email client, something more reliable, stable, and modern, then consider one of these five alternatives.
Best Email Client For Mac And Android
Do you use a third-party email client for Mac? Tell us about it in a comment below.
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December 2020
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