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News and Reviews => Official DonationCoder.com Reviews => Mini-Reviews by Members => Best E-mail Client => Topic started by: Josh on December 28, 2011, 10:28 AM
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I have to ask, but what are some decent email clients available right now? I have been using thunderbird for years but have always felt something was missing. The Bat is stuck in the 20th century and feels unfinished in many ways. What does everyone recommend? Perhaps a shoot-out of current email clients would make for a great follow-up to this email client round-up?
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I have to ask, but what are some decent email clients available right now? I have been using thunderbird for years but have always felt something was missing. The Bat is stuck in the 20th century and feels unfinished in many ways. What does everyone recommend? Perhaps a shoot-out of current email clients would make for a great follow-up to this email client round-up?
-Josh
Oh man...if you find anything, I would be totally interested. Several years ago, I moved from Pegasus to the Bat. The Bat is great for multiple accounts, so much better than anything else I've seen. It's very powerful, but all that power is almost useless because there is absolutely zero documentation for any of those powerful features. So it's powerful, but good luck figuring anything out. There are also a few quirks about that really rub me the wrong way, especially with the Microed editor.
Anyway, I'd be interested, I'll keep my eye out as well.
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Josh - I recommend InScribe (http://www.memecode.com/inscribe.php) or its free, but limited to one account, sister iScribe.
I've been using it for many years, it has rarely caused problems and fits all my needs. It's not perhaps the most sophisticated of clients and does have some rather quirky sides to it (the database for instance) - but I reckon it's great. My mail store is over 650 mbs but is accessible in seconds.
One of its major advantages is the Preview window (checking mail on the server) which is missing in many, even well known, email clients.
It goes without saying that I have tried and tested pretty well all the clients out there.
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I've used Becky (http://www.rimarts.co.jp) for nearly a decade now. I absolutely LOVE the way it handles multiple accounts.
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One of the longest-serving and free email clients is Pegasus (http://www.pmail.com/).
It can be as sophisticated as you want - very comprehensive settings and features.
My experience of using it over the years (since 1997 at least) has been that it is an ace email client, and it was always being kept updated (the technology) so as to keep it in the vanguard. I still have it, but have little need to use it nowadays.
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For business use I'm pretty much forced to use Outlook because so many of my clients are on Exchange and use Outlook specific features. What's that old saying about the mountain and Muhammid?
After trying just about everything out there (separately and sometimes in parallel) I'm reluctantly forced to say, from where I'm sitting, Thunderbird is about as good as it gets for a general purpose mail client. Which is not saying much since I'm not particularly crazy about any email client. As as result, I try to use webmail as much as possible these days.
Don't much care for webmail either. But at least I don't need to worry about it crashing as much or unexpectedly corrupting my message store.
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As as result, I try to use webmail as much as possible these days.
Don't much care for webmail either. But at least I don't need to worry about it crashing as much or unexpectedly corrupting my message store.
-40hz
+1
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I have used Mulberry for more than a decade, and I can't remember it ever crashing or corrupting my message store (perhaps in part because I use IMAP). I still feel that it handles IMAP better than any other email client I've tried (and I've tried quite a few), and it offers some features that I haven't found elsewhere. Still, it hasn't had any substantial development in five or six years, and its approach to graphics and unicode is frustratingly primitive. For those reasons, I can't really recommend it even though I love it, and I continue to look for an email client I'd like better.
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I wonder how big the market for desktop email clients really is at this point, or will be in years to come. On sites like DC I see relatively frequent requests for recommendations and just as frequent (or more) laments that the current crop of options is mediocre at best. There seem to be very few modern, up-to-date, and still supported options, commercial or otherwise, so it must just not be a lucrative market. I suppose Outlook is king of the heap and leaves only scraps for everyone else...
Unfortunately I have nothing to contribute here, I just use Gmail/Google Apps.
- Oshyan
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@All the software developers and authors @ DC:
Out of curiosity - just how complex and difficult an undertaking is it to write a decent e-mail client? I'm guessing fairly difficult considering how relatively few of them there are - and how...uninspired they seem to be?
Seriously. I'm very curious about that. :)
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I have a rather bad taste for webmail interfaces. I often get told to just use gmail. Personally, and no this has nothing to do with Google as a company, I do not like gmail or the way it handles things. The way folders are handled, as tags, really bothers me and their imap implementation is sub-standard.
Mulberry would be nice if it were still in development. Pegasus is one I am trying out now. As much as I hate to say it, thunderbird is probably my best option at this point. I would like to find something else to migrate from that feels more complete and does not feel as "clunky" as t-bird. I still cannot download an attachment from thunderbird without it being corrupted (downloaded attachments are fine from webmail).
I will try each recommendation from this thread. I am very actively seeking something to move me away from t-bird and the mozilla cludge that I have suffered with for so long.
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Am I the only one who actually likes Outlook, even though I'm not using Exchange? Is there a reason I shouldn't that I'm clueless about? (that's certainly a possibility)
Or is the problem with Outlook because of the cost?
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I actually enjoy outlook but it has one thing missing that is a must for me. Folder layouts, when using imap, should remain expanded between software restarts. Right now, I have to expand every folder I usually have open every time I start outlook. If it weren't for that, I would gladly move to it because, let's face it, nothing beats Outlook in terms of speed and functionality.
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Outlook (2010) is a reasonable client...until you hook it up to Exchange.
If you use Outlook for automatizing email with encryption while connected to Exchange...welcome to a world of hurt! Completely unnecessary, overly complicated and poorly (read: contradicting) documented hurt...
Speed? Never impressed me much (with or without Exchange "life line").
Functionality? Sure, now Microsoft has to follow some KISS-principles and it might be better than reasonable (without Exchange).
My Exchange 2010 setup is an i7 with SATAII discs and 8GByte RAM...and it matches the speed of my old Exchange 2000 server on a Pentium 2 350MHz, 256MByte RAM, IDE disc. Both use default settings, but the overhead has increased dramatically for functionality that is better implemented in other 3rd party software.
The only reason that I use Outlook is because it is the only client that supports extended MAPI (and therefore CAPI).
Lets just say that I will never be or become an Outllook fan, especially after all these years and incarnations that archaic PST/OST structure (including its artificial limits) is still in use today.
[/end rant]
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Lets just say that I will never be or become an Outllook fan, especially after all these years and incarnations that archaic PST/OST structure (including its artificial limits) is still in use today.
[/end rant]
-Shades
+666 for the PST hatred...
I've heard that "enhanced interrogation techniques" involve forcing victims people to use Outlook and solve PST issues... But those are just rumors. I'm certain nobody is that evil to do anything like that...
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Allen did a favourable DC mini-review of GeminiSoft Pimmy (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2411.msg16421#msg16421), but you might find it too lightweight.
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If Pegasus would not crash so often, I already would have dropped Thunderbird. But it does, so I don't. Really, Pegasus has a weird UI but works like a charm. Most of the time.
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I like solutions where I don't waste too much time managing/filing email (dragging into tons of folders just starts taking too long)
I liked Opera M2 for its "one box, virtual folders for on the fly classification" approach, but it would get slow after a certain size (i have years of email) and didn't support tags the way I would like. I need to revisit it though as there are many new versions since I last used it.
I liked Outlook used in a "big mailbox then using virtual folders based on categories and filters" scenario, but Outlook just cannot handle the amount of email I have/had in certain jobs, and I don't like its storage. I used xobni to add some magic as well. But there's a limit to how much it can handle on imap without slowdown
So I currently use postbox which is a shareware cleaned up version of Thunderbird for both mac and windows - neat features around search and threading, very nice for daily use, some clever web integrations. Compatible with a subset of Thunderbird add-ons especially gpg (which is actually how I found it). I especially love the summarized and conversations views, very handy on long work discussions. http://postbox-inc.com/features
what’s new in Postbox 3
Awesome Gmail Integration
Native Gmail Label support
Dedicated view for “Important” labels
Send and Archive functions
Support for Gmail keyboard shortcuts
Convert detected dates to Google Calendar events
More Socially Connected
Profile photos from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Gravatar and the Address Book
Automatically displays job titles and company names from LinkedIn
Quick and easy access to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profile pages
Update status directly to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
Works with Dropbox, Evernote, and more!
Send Dropbox links instead of the files
Send message content to Evernote on the Mac
Use Date Detection to quickly create events in iCal, Google Calendar, or the Lightning Calendar Add-on
Support for the newest version of Growl (1.3)
Canned Responses
Create a set of pre-built templates specifically tailored for message replies
Super useful for replying to common inquiries
New OS Integration Features
Support for Mac OS X Full Screen Mode and Trackpad / Mighty Mouse Gestures
Windows 7 Jump Lists and improved interoperability with the popular Minimize to Tray Add-on.
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So I currently use postbox which is a shareware cleaned up version of Thunderbird for both mac and windows - neat features
-iphigenie
Hope it's an independently developed and code-clean TBird lookalike rather than a "cleaned up" version. Because if it's just a reworked and recompiled copy of TBird with some proprietary code mixed in (something I've long suspected) they'll have to make their source code available. Otherwise it's a pretty serious GPL violation.
:huh:
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Why? Thunderbird is not licensed under the GPL.
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Why? Thunderbird is not licensed under the GPL.
-Tuxman
It's officially released under MPL along with GPL and LGPL since sections of the incorporated code base had already been released under those licenses. Which Mozilla honors BTW. GPL requires source code be made available if any GPLed code is used in a subsequent piece of software. GPL doesn't go away just because you wrote a new license (or some code) around it. "In for a penny - in for a pound" as the saying goes.
FWIW Mozilla's main concern is protecting the use of it's name and trademarks. They're not overly concerned about their code because they already view it as open and make it available.
:)
:)
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According to Postbox's information around, it is based on Mozilla code directly. But maybe they removed the GPL components.
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They solved it another way, they make the code that might be affected available http://www.postbox-inc.com/coveredcode
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They solved it another way, they make the code that might be affected available http://www.postbox-inc.com/coveredcode
-iphigenie
I don't think doing that necessarily complies with the conditions of the GPL (which has some words about not being allowed to "cherry pick" which licenses apply to what if you use GPL code in a larger work) but I may be wrong - and I've strayed far enough off topic that we'll leave that for another day and another discussion. Better yet, let's leave that to Mozilla since Thunderbird is their child.
Apologies to all for going OT. :-[
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I liked Opera M2 for its "one box, virtual folders for on the fly classification" approach, but it would get slow after a certain size (i have years of email) and didn't support tags the way I would like. I need to revisit it though as there are many new versions since I last used it.-iphigenie
You should definitely revisit it. In the latest versions of Opera, the mail client is operating much faster with a large mailbase. The email database loads independently -after- Opera has started, so browser startup itself is a lot better with a lot of mail.
I also really like Postbox, especially as gmail is my primary email provider. Postbox's gmail support integration is by far the best I've seen.
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I'm liking Spicebird (http://www.spicebird.com/) (it's been mentioned on DC a few times).
Based on Mozilla code, but there's a certain je ne sais quoi about it that I like very much, where I disliked Thunderbird for the same (read: nebulous) reasons.
Handles multiple accounts pretty well, and setup is 5-year-old-level easy.
That said, there are a few nits about it, like not being able to use T-bird extensions, that would probably not please some people.
YMMV, $0.02, etc...
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To me, probably the most critical feature of an offline email client is the quality of the stored content. That's what makes the Bat awesome: it's not likely to screw up the files holding all the emails. The program is quirky, but you can be fairly sure those emails are going to stay with you for a long time. I have emails in there stored since 1996, no problem. Crashes, blues screens, all sorts of migrations, etc...everything still stays perfectly intact.
That, plus great multiple account interface makes it in a class of its own. That's why I stick to it despite all my constant bitching about the quirks. i won't even sniff another client without that kind of rock-solid backend or multiple account features.
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I'm liking Spicebird (http://www.spicebird.com/) (it's been mentioned on DC a few times).
Based on Mozilla code, but there's a certain je ne sais quoi about it that I like very much, where I disliked Thunderbird for the same (read: nebulous) reasons.
Handles multiple accounts pretty well, and setup is 5-year-old-level easy.
-Edvard
Je ne sais quoi indeed!
Just downloaded it to give it a try. I do like it better than TBird, and am also having a problem saying exactly why. Maybe it's because it feels lighter and smoother in some indefinable way compared to "the bird"?
Handles IMAP very nicely. And to your point, setup is a breeze. Gave it a Gmail account and password and it handled all the server settings for me. Nice! A few seconds later it synced a good number of folders and messages and still felt light and snappy afterwards
Hmm...gonna have to feed it for a week or two and then decide if it's allowed to stay.
Thx for the suggestion. :Thmbsup:
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Just had a look at eM Client. What is that thing supposed to be? Where are the major advantages?
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One thing that keeps me using Mulberry is its "Cabinets" feature. I use sieve filters to filter my mail on my two university accounts into a variety of mailboxes, depending on various criteria. I have a Mulberry cabinet that shows me just the mailboxes that are able to receive new mail, so I can see at a glance which mailboxes have new mail. Mail in some mailboxes I know I want to look at right away, whereas others can wait. When I use Thunderbird, I have to scroll through my MANY mailboxes to find which ones have new mail, and I find that rather inconvenient. I also have a cabinet that holds just those mailboxes that I want to synchronize with mailboxes on my computer. With IMAP, I don't have to download messages, but I have 18 mailboxes whose contents I want to save on my hard drive. Mulberry's Auto-Synchronize cabinet makes it very easy to do this. Yet another cabinet I use is Copy Messages To. It simply lists all the mailboxes in which I might want to move a message after reading it. I haven't found this "cabinet" functionality in other email clients. It's not the only reason I stay with Mulberry, but it's one that I really don't want to give up. If there are more modern email clients that do have a similar feature, I'd like to know about them.
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Late to the thread, but I have to throw my hat into The Bat!'s ring for one simple reason: 33,000 emails. If you can find any other email client that can handle that many emails without slowing to a crawl or even down-right imploding I'm listening. Seriously.
Diva, I don't know if The Bat! mimics the Cabinet functionality well enough for you to take a look at it or not. There's a tab view that will only show you unread messages in your email accounts. There are configurable Virtual Folders that allow you to use powerful filters to show only the messages in the accounts/folders that match your criteria. Finally, there's a powerful filtering technology that allows you to manipulate/copy/move/delete any email anywhere by matching (or not matching) countless criteria. This powerful mail filtering technology is also harnessed for use in the creation of your virtual folders as well.
I've never used Cabinets, but Virtual Folders sounds similar to what you are asking for.
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Late to the thread, but I have to throw my hat into The Bat!'s ring for one simple reason: 33,000 emails. If you can find any other email client that can handle that many emails without slowing to a crawl or even down-right imploding I'm listening. Seriously.-Innuendo
Becky! from Rimarts (http://www.rimarts.co.jp/becky.htm) can handle that easily. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that The Bat! has, but it's been my sole email client for over a decade. My install currently handles 22 accounts with a mix of IMAP, POP3 and NNTP along with several hundreds of thousands of messages across them. One of my most favourite apps ever.
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It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that The Bat! has, but it's been my sole email client for over a decade. -skwire
Never cared for Becky! and the fact that it doesn't have all the bells & whistles of The Bat! while costing twice as much as I paid for The Bat! doesn't help its case in my eyes, either.
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Another vote for M2. For me, how fast I can compose an email from anywhere is key. I have a single-key shortcut in opera that does that. E-mail integrated in the browser is pure win, was never able to do this with gmail.
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I liked Opera M2 for its "one box, virtual folders for on the fly classification" approach, but it would get slow after a certain size (i have years of email) and didn't support tags the way I would like. I need to revisit it though as there are many new versions since I last used it.-iphigenie
You should definitely revisit it. In the latest versions of Opera, the mail client is operating much faster with a large mailbase. The email database loads independently -after- Opera has started, so browser startup itself is a lot better with a lot of mail.
I also really like Postbox, especially as gmail is my primary email provider. Postbox's gmail support integration is by far the best I've seen.
-allen
I did, and you're right! It is much faster, it now also has more flexibility around tags, and it also allows to look at the imap mailboxes with folders, the traditional way, should you want to move things at the server level (incidentally that fixes another annoyance I had with M2, that when you moved an email on the server you ended up with duplicate copies in M2)
I also really like Postbox, especially as gmail is my primary email provider. Postbox's gmail support integration is by far the best I've seen.-allen
Postbox has some nice touches that make it very efficient for every day email. It's only weakness is weakness on the contact front. I can easily live with a todo list or calendar that is not linked to my email, but contact information is something one needs when dealing with email. I'm looking into using memotoo/funambol synchronisation for thunderbird with postbox, will see how it goes
(a warning on things like funambol, memotoo, gist, nimble, plaxo sync etc.: add things one at a time, prepare for a lot of manual sync/clean duplicates and data/sync/clean duplicates and data cycles - less each time. Also, be very very careful sync'ing contact with gmail 1)if you have ever imported in the past a list into gmail, you'll get duplicates and b)it now adds all your G+ circles as contacts, and they get sync'd too. my phone is full of one-word contacts, grrr!)
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For a great free email program try em client. It can access multiple email services. It will handle large databases.
BOB
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eM Client is not free.
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eM Client is not free.
-Tuxman
It's free for home use, right?
Pricing Options (http://www.emclient.com/purchase?lang=en)
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With max. 2 accounts? That's not "free" for a typical "power user", I guess. But hey, some *ix clients can only handle one...
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With max. 2 accounts? That's not "free" for a typical "power user", I guess. But hey, some *ix clients can only handle one...
-Tuxman
It's free in terms of you can use it for minimal uses for no cost.
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@Tuxman:
And a "power user" also knows how to auto forward messages for one account to another account, making a mess with rules and whatnot, I'll admit, but it would be possible. :)
Ok, more serious now. What about FoxMail (http://www.foxmail.com/win/en/)? I have used that in the past with several mail accounts and it worked quite well. In some areas actually better than Thunderbird some years back. It is still around and remained free as well.
If you can get over its Chinese roots (which is noticeable in the English translations on the website), it is a decent email client.
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I've been happily using TheBat for over a decade (there is a discount on the forum for those interested).
I have about 800,000 emails stored in it.
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I've been happily using TheBat for over a decade (there is a discount on the forum for those interested).
I have about 800,000 emails stored in it.
-mouser
dayam! power user!
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I've been happily using TheBat for over a decade (there is a discount on the forum for those interested).
I have about 800,000 emails stored in it.
-mouser
dayam! power user!
-superboyac
Seriously! :tellme:
If each email averaged 10 seconds to read, that's about 92.5 days worth of non-stop reading... :huh:
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About 300,000 of those are donationcoder forum alert emails -- i have written before about how i use emails as a low-tech backup system (in addition to the other redundant backup systems in place on DC) -- anytime a post is made, the post is emailed to me.
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About 300,000 of those are donationcoder forum alert emails -- i have written before about how i use emails as a low-tech backup system (in addition to the other redundant backup systems in place on DC) -- anytime a post is made, the post is emailed to me.
-mouser
that would be the most epic restore job in the universe
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About 300,000 of those are donationcoder forum alert emails -- i have written before about how i use emails as a low-tech backup system (in addition to the other redundant backup systems in place on DC) -- anytime a post is made, the post is emailed to me.
-mouser
Bloody bugger, Mouser! :huh:
Speaking as a 'systems' person, that's insane doing that! ;D ;D ;D
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About 300,000 of those are donationcoder forum alert emails -- i have written before about how i use emails as a low-tech backup system (in addition to the other redundant backup systems in place on DC) -- anytime a post is made, the post is emailed to me.
-mouser
Bloody bugger, Mouser! :huh:
Speaking as a 'systems' person, that's insane doing that! ;D ;D ;D
-40hz
Zoiks Scooby ... that's a literally more granular version of a brick level restore.
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Zoiks Scooby ... that's a literally more granular version of a brick level restore.
-Stoic Joker
That's an even better way to describe it. Yesiree! ;D
( Mouser should put in for a patent on it. :P )