Mac users have many choices of using different email clients. Apple Mail and Microsoft Outlook are the two widely used email clients on Mac systems. However, with the availability of different email clients, users do not have to depend completely on these two. Depending upon the need, a user can choose any email client.
It is a top free open source mail client which gets used by Windows and MAC clients mostly. It also supports the Linux system and equips users with multiple features. The user-friendly interface. Aug 27, 2021 Bluemail is an email client that is capable of managing an unlimited number of mail accounts. It is one of the best free email client for Mac that allows for smart push notifications and group emailing. This tool enables you to personalize multiple email accounts.
These email clients are supported by all versions of Mac OS X. Current statistics revels that version wise market share of OSX are as follows :
- Mac OS X 10.9 3.66%
- Mac OS X 10.10 1.18%
- Mac OS X 10.6 0.72%
- Mac OS X 10.8 0.57%
- Mac OS X 10.7 0.56%
- Mac OS X 10.1 0.19%
- Mac OS X 10.5 0.14%
- Mac OS X 10.4 0.03%
Note: Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks and Yosemite are popular naming convention for Mac OS X.
There are many email clients, which provide advanced features to cater the need of various users. With the availability of so many email clients, Apple Mail and Microsoft Outlook no longer remain stagnant email clients. Moreover, it is even harder to choose the best email client from so many different clients.
Some of the Mac Mail Clients available for Mac OS X are mentioned below.
PostBox 3
Postbox 3 is a smart and reliable email client for Mac OS X. Though it is not new, but, it has maintained a traditional look and feel of Mac. It provides a set of advanced features and makes you feel as if you are working with Apple Mail. Some of the
- Provides a safe and smooth way of handling email.
- Smooth way of setting of POP and IMAP accounts with the ability of analyzing and finding the right IMAP configuration.
- Easy loading of huge number of messages with a progress bar to track the progress
- Enhance the emailing experience by a set of new features and very interactive and easy to use interface.
- Easy handling of messages with marking facility at the beginning and end. You can quickly reply to the latest messages and easily follow any message thread. In addition, you can easily see the sender of the message with the help of the inspector pane next to each message and click them to see the sender’s contact details.
- Advanced searching mechanism based on the sender of the message. This option allows you to search for any messages, images, or attachments just by clicking the links within their address book info.
- Inbuilt ability to write a new mail in an easy way by choosing your response preferences from a pull down menu.
- Works easily with many tools like Evernote to keep track of the services you send to them.
- Can easily be used with the Dropbox. By simply dragging and dropping the files, allow the receiver of the message to download the file directly from the Dropbox account.
- Uses the Gravatar service to get images and acquaintances.
- Perform various operations on task like creating new tasks, checking finished off tasks, etc. by using the To-Do mode.
- Maintains your favorite feeds by integrating the RSS reader into it.
- Allows support for Gmail by allowing the use of Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts. Such a feature can be used at anytime, whenever required.
- Advanced Online help files to help you find and use all these features.
With all these features Postbox 3 is considered to be one of the best options for the majority of the Mac Mail clients’ user.
Inky
Inky is yet another Mac mail client, which has lots to offer. It combines the features of a highly professional email client meant for business as well as provides various other features required by many other users. Some of the key features of Inky are mentioned below.
- Provides great portability by storing the mails on a remote server and information about the POP and IMAP accounts on itself.
- Require only one account login credentials to get all the emails to any computer.
- Provides a very interactive and transparent interface, which allows you the view mail on the basis of individual accounts or clever Smart Views.
- Uses an advanced algorithm to categorize maps, package info, daily deals, subscription mailings, etc. automatically.
- You can set Inky to arrange your email on the basis of relevance by just clicking on the icons.
- It is free to use and incorporates new ideas that can be well executed to provide the best a user is looking for.
Mail Pilot
Mail Pilot also provides more or less the same features as offered by other email clients. Some of the noted features of Mail Pilot are mentioned below.
- Mail Pilot considers each message as a task. With this, you can perform any action to a message instantly or at a later time. In addition, you can set reminders for a later action. Moreover, such tasks can be performed by making use of the various keyboard shortcuts present at the bottom of the screen.
- It uses the IMAP protocol to set up an account.
- Provides various options to navigate message thread, sort them, and stack them.
- Many of the features like the ability to save a new message as a draft, is still under construction. However, the Mail Pilot client is worth a use.
Unibox
Unibox is a well structured and designed email client for Mac OS X. You can take advantage of the following features if you are using Unibox as an email client.
- Takes a quick and easy approach to set up IMAP accounts.
- Displays the mailbox on the basis of the sender on a particular day.
- Easy switching between multiple sender’s message thread from the top of the screen.
- With the interface involving just one window, you can utilize maximum space.
- Various buttons to sort, junk, or delete a message as well as replying and forwarding options appears on the left and right side of the screen.
AirMail
It is another very economical Mac mail client to be used on Mac OS X. Some of its features are mentioned below.
- Interactive and nice interface
- Inexpensive client to be used with IMAP-based webmail.
However, unlike the Post box 3 as discussed before, the Dropbox option is not easy to set up.
Apple Mail
The Apple mail is the default Mac mail client for Mac OS X. With Mavericks, the latest OS X, the mail comes free of cost. Some of the features of this email client are mentioned below.
- Advanced search features based on the attachments and attachment types.
- Support for Microsoft Exchange accounts.
Sparrow 1.3.1
As the name says, Sparrow 1.3.1 is a very light and elegant email client for Mac OS X. With this you can configure your Gmail and Yahoo addresses and get them loaded into it within minutes. Some of the other features include the following.
- Maintains the same color coding and labels as used in Gmail or Yahoo folders.
- Allows you to create new labels in Sparrow in a color-coded fashion.
- Allows you to link the messages to any message sorting rule.
- Very interactive and beautiful interface.
Thunderbird 3
Though Apple Mail is considered to be the best email client for Mac OS X, however, with the latest Thunderbird 3, many feel that it is better than the Apple Mail. Some of the latest features incorporated in Thunderbird are mentioned below.
- Tabs for email are one of the latest features introduced in Thunderbird 3.
- Allows you to open more than one Web page in tabs.
- Allows you to open emails and search results in new tabs.
- Supports various add-ons to enhance the working experience with it.
Outlook for Mac 2011
Outlook for Mac 2011 is the same tool as we have MS Outlook for Windows. Until Outlook for Mac 2011, Entourage 2008 was used as an email client for MAC OS X. With the latest Outlook for Mac 20011, it has incorporated some features of the Entourage 2008 as well has added many of its new features. Some of the features of Outlook for Mac 2011 are mentioned below.
- You can keep intact your emails from PC and tasks together in a Mac inbox
- It allows you to unify your messages, contacts, calendars, etc. of your home and office
- Uses a single subject to condense long email threads
- You can view the schedule display while viewing the meeting invitation
- Easily migrate from Windows by just making use of the PST file and using the import tool
- Uses a single folder to consolidate all your work and home emails
- Keep all things integrated without any fear of losing any work
- Supported across various operating systems like Mac OS X or Windows 7
- Lightweight workflow
- Allows attachment preview and data backup using the Time Machine feature
With the availability of so many email clients for Mac OS X, there is always a need for a Mac mail converter. A person using Thunderbird often looks to migrate to Outlook for Mac 2011. Both Thunderbird and Outlook for Mac 2011 uses different file formats and are not compatible with each other. It is always recommended to have Stellar Mac mail converter to convert mails from one email client’s file format to another.
Every Mac comes with a free email application, appropriately named Mail. Using the native Mail application is fine for most people, especially for those who only use iCloud, but things get trickier when you’re dealing with multiple email accounts.
For Gmail users in particular, more thorough solutions are available, many which are free. Here’s a look at five Mail alternatives and why they might work for you.
AirMail ($10)
Marketed as being a “lighting-fast email client for Mac,” AirMail is also the most beautiful application on the list. Offering Split Screen support for OS X El Capitan, the application looks and feels like it’s an Apple creation. It also features some options not available on the native Mac application, which consistently makes AirMail one of the best overall apps for OS XThe Best Mac Apps to Install on Your MacBook or iMacThe Best Mac Apps to Install on Your MacBook or iMacLooking for the best apps for your MacBook or iMac? Here's our comprehensive list of the best apps for macOS.Read More.
Chief among this is the ability to compose in Markdown or HTML. As you type on the left, the result is shown on the right side of the screen. Being able to view the formats side-by-side means you can make sure to remove broken links or weird-looking text before sending.
In AirMail, received messages may be organized by task. You can mark each email as To Do, Memo, or Done. The first are for items that require some action or a follow-up. A Memo is for items you need to memorize or store for later, and you can mark completed emails as Done. You can also Snooze messages, allowing you to move them to the side for viewing at a later time or date.
Claws Mail is a free, GTK+-based, open source email and news client. It is very lightweight. Like Firefox, the wide variety of plug-ins for this email client makes it very flexible and secure. Best Apps for Mac Best alternatives to Newton Mail in 2018 If the stock Mail app on Mac doesn't work for you, there are plenty of alternatives.
The application offers support for Google, iCloud, Exchange, Yahoo, Outlook, AOL, IMAP, and POP. It also works with many third-party integrations, including Dropbox, Google Drive, OmniFocus, Things, and many more.
AirMail is available in the Mac App Store. You can also download a beta version for free from the developer’s website. An AirMail for iPhone app is coming soon.
Mail Pilot 2 ($20)
Like AirMail, Mail Pilot 2 turns mail into a to-do list, allowing you to focus on what’s most important. Unique to Mail Pilot 2 is a relatively new feature called Dash.
With Dash, your daily life is summarized on a dashboard to help you become more productive. It includes the number of messages that you have received in the past 24 hours, plus those that are completed, set aside, due, and late. Dash also summarizes the average time it takes for you to reply to emails and more. Another handy feature provides links to files that you’ve recently sent or received, which is very nice.
The application supports all standard IMAP accounts, including Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, AOL, Rackspace, Outlook.com, and Google Apps. Mail Pilot 2 is available in the Mac App Store. A $9.99 iOS version is available from the App Store.
Do you want to learn more about Mail Pilot? Be sure to take a look at our original reviewTask-Oriented Email App Mail Pilot Arrives On Mac OS XTask-Oriented Email App Mail Pilot Arrives On Mac OS XLike the mobile version of the app, Mail Pilot for Mac is very useful for managing important email like a to-do list.Read More.
Postbox ($10)
Best Mail Client For Mac
Postbox is one of the oldest email clientsPostbox: An Alternative Email Client For MacPostbox: An Alternative Email Client For MacPostbox is an email management application for Windows and Mac powered by the Mozilla platform.Read More on our list, but it’s also a very stable product. Postbox’s goal is to remove some of the chaos associated with mail, by offering robust tools to make the process more efficient.
One of Postbox’s nicest features is the ability to group messages by topic. This allows you to break work into smaller, more manageable chunks. Grouping by subject is particularly useful when you have more than one email account. Postbox also enables you to create Pre-Made Responses, which you can reuse as often as needed.
Postbox works with most email providers including Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, and iCloud. It also supports POP3, IMAP, and SMTP protocols. It is available from the Postbox website. A 30-day free trial is also available, so you can try before you buy.
CloudMagic (free)
This mail client only recently arrived on OS X after finding success on iOS and AndroidTask-Oriented Email App Mail Pilot Arrives On Mac OS XTask-Oriented Email App Mail Pilot Arrives On Mac OS XLike the mobile version of the app, Mail Pilot for Mac is very useful for managing important email like a to-do list.Read More. Dubbed “simple, beautiful & blazing fast” by its creators, the application features a transparent user interface, free of fancy buttons or slides.
This approach works well, especially if you have to go through a lot of emails each day or have multiple accounts. We especially like the application’s shortcut buttons, which allow you to move quickly to the next or previous email.
CloudMagic offers support for Gmail, Exchange, Google Apps, Yahoo, Outlook, iCloud, and all IMAP accounts. It’s available in the Mac App Store. CloudMagic for iOS and CloudMagic for Android are also available. Both are free.
Nylas N1 (free)
Two of most popular third-party mail clients in recent years were Sparrow and Mailbox. After each was purchased by Google and Dropbox respectively, both were eventually shutdown, leaving millions of users in the lurch. By contrast, Nylas N1 is open-source and published on GitHub, meaning it will never be bought and axed.
Nylas N1 is the closest thing you’ll see to a next-generation mail program. It features a clean user interface, supports Gmail keyboard shortcuts, and best of all, because it is open-source, has a community to back it up. However, because it’s so new, you may run into some problems, at least in the short-run. For example, N1 doesn’t currently offer a unified inbox and the formatting isn’t quite right.
Why is N1 on our list? Because it’s been designed for easy modification. Best of all, it can run on multiple platforms including OS X, Windows, and Linux. Better still — it’s free. N1 is compatible with many providers, including Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, Microsoft Exchange, and more. Currently, there is no N1 app for iOS.
You’ve Got Mail Options
If you’re happy with Apple’s default email client, keep it. For those looking for different ways to organize your mail or rather use something that plays nicer with Gmail, consider one of our alternatives. The most feature-rich solutions on the list are AirMail and Mail Pilot 2. The ones most likely to push mail into new areas in the next year are CloudMagic and Nylas N1. Looking for a reliable, stable solution? Consider Postmate.
Are you looking for more ways to customize your email experience on a Mac? Check out these hidden El Capitan features you probably don’t know about11 Hidden OS X El Capitan Features You Might Not Know About11 Hidden OS X El Capitan Features You Might Not Know AboutThink you've found all the new features in El Capitan? Think again! There is a bounty of handy features that haven't gotten a lot of press.Read More, or take your email writing to the next level with these tools5 Tools That Can Help You Write Better Emails5 Tools That Can Help You Write Better EmailsEveryone is still trying to solve the email problem. So, let's also talk about the most basic habit of all – the art of writing better emails. With the help of some cool tools.Read More.
Which email client for Mac do you use? Let us know in the comments below.
Explore more about: Apple Mail, Desktop Email Client, OS X El Capitan.
Hi! The article's great, although I think you should have put free email clients first.
I would also like to suggest Hiri (www.hiri.com), an email client that helps you master the art of email. It's an innovation like no other client, and as a standalone app for Windows, OS X, and Linux, Hiri works perfectly!
It's also free for personal use!
Nylas N1 is not free anymore despite marketing shit they spread
CloudMagic costs $19.99 to download. What do you people think 'free' means?
The answer is not 'approximately twenty dollars,' despite what you may have heard.
I really like Spark but for the love of god I wish they would go ahead and release a mac version already!!! Their iPhone and iPad version is good but I'm struggling to find an email client for the mac until further notice..
Jessica, I hope you may have found out that there is now a Mac version for Spark. It only supports IMAP though. I'm using Spark for iCloud since Apple Mail has become a complete hot mess on the computer (still works on iOS) and Apple Mail for my POP email accounts.
I might be wrong about this but CloudMagic keeps your user credentials in the cloud on their servers.
Can anyone confirm this either way please?
Airmail is a disaster as of March 2016. Unstable and unfit for purpose.
I agree. It seems to be more and more unstable. I had really high hopes for AirMail, but I'm out!
Airmail works perfectly fine. Still the best OSX email client. I wonder what issues you had with it.
The search is awful.. and doesn´t have an undo send option.
I second this, it is quite good..
Thunderbird ain't bad but its getting old. Anyone know which other client supports multiple identities (besides Postbox that is)?
For those using gmail with one of these native apps, what are you finding that missing compared to the gmail website client? I've tried various real clients over the years but gmails's search is awesome as is and haven't really found something lacking from the web client.
Have you tried http://mailplaneapp.com? Its a wrapper but pretty good if you're running OSX.
Came to say the same thing as Peter, above. Cloudmagic is twenty dollars!
What about Mozilla Thunderbird. It's also free and good.
+1
Airmail is absolutely the best OS X mail client out there. I am also beta testing Airmail's iOS app and that is going to beat the pants off everything else.
By Marty Edwards
Sunday, January 17, 2016, 04:09 pm PT (07:09 pm ET)
Google's Gmail is one of the most popular email products around, and with generous storage allotments, reliable service and easy web or client integration, it's not difficult to see why. There is one negative, however, in that push email support for iOS and Mac is lacking. If you depend on Gmail and need instant access to your messages, you'll want to look beyond Apple's first-party offerings.
In evaluating the following Mac applications, each was loaded one-by-one and tested by sending emails from a second Gmail account running in a Web browser on another computer.
MailPlane
MailPlane offers the best OS X experience of any third party mail application. It's easy to configure, handles multiple accounts and was by far the quickest to push Gmail to the Mac. Testing from one account to another, MailPlane never once failed on a push operation.
The interface is nearly identical to the Gmail Web interface, with the addition of some larger icons at the top for quick email composition, message management, access your contacts and more. Just above an integrated Google search bar are tabs for adding multiple Gmail accounts, as well as Gmail Calendar and Contacts.
If you don't like Gmail's Web interface, you probably won't like MailPlane as it's basically an OS X-coded wrapper. However, that same interface makes MailPlane a familiar work environment, while feature additions make it much more functional and easy to use compared to the regular Web client.
For example, I really liked the menu bar icon —a black M in the Mac menu bar that turns red when you have new mail. You can click on this M to get new mail, compose mail, or set do not disturb. When you select do not disturb, the M turns upside to look like a W.
MailPlane, according to the website has been around for 8.8 years and has had 156 updates. The app is available for a single user for $24.95 but can be installed on any Mac you personally use. There is a family license for up to five people in the same household for $39.95. MailPlane is not available on the Mac App Store but can be downloaded from the developer's website. There is a 15-day trial if you want to check it out first.
CloudMagic
CouldMagic has fielded apps for iOS and Android for some time, and this month the company launched a version for OS X. CouldMagic is much more than a simple email app. It combines all your emails accounts into one app and synchronizes them across all devices on which you have the app installed whether iOS, Android or OS X.
Setup with Gmail was quick and easy. After Gmail asked for the standard permissions, all my folders and gmail synced up automatically. You can also add Exchange, Yahoo, Outlook, iCloud and other IMAP email accounts. Google Apps are also supported.
One feature I really enjoyed with the CloudMagic iPhone app is that you can select the options to show when you swipe from the lock screen. With Gmail's native app, I'm limited to read or archive (I prefer delete or archive, as many emails don't need to be saved). The iPhone app also lets you assign different tone alerts to each account helping you know which account received an email before you even look. You can set many preferences for each account such as signature and color, all of which syncs across devices.
On the Mac —and iPhone —pushing of Gmails was practically instant most of the time. Any delays we experienced were a few seconds at most.
You do not need to set up a CloudMagic account, but if you do, you obtain additional benefits. You can log into multiple devices and all your email account credentials will sync. Your preferences like signatures and account colors also sync and CloudMagic gives you the ability to remotely wipe data if you lose your phone or tablet.
CloudMagic is a very powerful tool in simplifying email and making it 'one' across all devices, whether it be Mac, iPhone or even Android hardware. If you primarily use just one email account such as Gmail, CloudMagic might be more than you need, but the extras —syncing signatures, look-up, remote data wiping —make the program well worth the price. I set up an Outlook account on my iPhone and in moments it was synchronized to my Mac desktop via 'cloud magic.' If you have many email accounts with many devices, CloudMagic is certainly worth a look.
CloudMagic is not completely without issue, however. Because I run OS X in a slightly reduced resolution to better accommodate my eyes, the right side of the app always fell off the screen. Resizing the window was a no go, and enlarging it simply amplified the problem. I also use Windows machines quite often and CloudMagic is not yet available on Microsoft's platform.
Some might be concerned having another cloud service accessing their email. If that is a concern, you can use the app(s) without creating a CloudMagic account. The company says this makes notifications less reliable and you are not able to sync preferences.
Free Email Client For Mac
CloudMagic is available on the Mac App Store for $19.99.
Unibox
Unibox is the cleanest looking of all the applications tested and certainly looked the most 'Apple-like' in appearance, but not so in function. Setup of a 2-step verification Gmail account was very quick and easy, but an interface so clean and minimalist did add somewhat to the learning curve. Unibox approaches viewing your email quite differently.
Even though the general look of Unibox was familiar, the way the application deals with email is quite different. On the left pane you have a list of contacts in the order you last communicated with them. The latest contact is always at the top and when you click on that contact, all their messages are on the right. It is a very interesting and fresh approach to viewing email, but after literally decades of viewing emails the 'traditional' way I found the Unibox approach somewhat cumbersome at first.
After a few hours, however, it became second nature to look for email by person and not by timeline. But, if you are switching from computer to computer or a device with a traditional email layout, coming back to Unibox will possibly be more confusing than helpful.
A nice feature was that Unibox placed the logo of each company (when available) or Google portrait in the left column, which made finding email threads visually easy and fast.
Unibox provides a view that shows all attachments exchanged with a particular contact. That was extremely useful for looking for an attachment from a client.
Replies were simple without the formatting options of the other applications. The pushing of new gmail was quick but not nearly and instant as some of the other applications, but should be fast enough for day to day usage.
Unibox is available on the Mac App store for $9.99, but you can download a 15-day trial from the the Unibox website.
Postbox
Postbox looks very much like the native OS X mail client. If you are used to Apple Mail on OS X, then Postbox will feel very familiar. Postbox offers many options such as vertical or horizontal layout with or without inline images.
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Postbox offers cloud file sharing where you can simply drop a file from Dropbox, OneDrive, or other cloud services into the body of a message and a link to that file is created automatically.
You can streamline your replies by creating a set of pre-written responses such as for customer service or sales. The responses can include text, HTML, images, etc., which make it perfect to quickly respond with inquires for more information on products. When you reply you can choose from a drop menu and select the pre-written response you want or compose a new one at that time. This option, along with easy inclusion of cloud based files, make Postbox a very strong email client for businesses.
One interesting option is that at the top bar there is a pushpin which is used to set reminders that stay at the top of your list of emails. One thing missing from Postbox is a menu bar notification icon but the taskbar icon does have a red badge indicating the number of unread mails in your inbox.