Ask HN: What email client do you prefer?
Mainly a question for developers, what kind of email client do you use/prefer? I myself mainly use Gmail/Spark but wondering if there's any good alternatives out there?
55 comments
My email productivity went through the roof when I switched to mu4e (Emacs interface to mu).
I can in a few keystroke isolate the handful of emails that actually need my attention in the hundreds I receive every couple of days.
Org mode integration allow me to reference those that I may need in the future, or that require later action in my to-do list.
My time handling email is now reduced to 20min-2h every two days, in one sitting, my mind feels liberated. I can't recommend this setup enough.
I can in a few keystroke isolate the handful of emails that actually need my attention in the hundreds I receive every couple of days.
Org mode integration allow me to reference those that I may need in the future, or that require later action in my to-do list.
My time handling email is now reduced to 20min-2h every two days, in one sitting, my mind feels liberated. I can't recommend this setup enough.
Being able to capture an email in mu4e into an org-mode entry really helps me keep track of what I'm supposed to be doing.
Thunderbird
https://www.thunderbird.net
https://www.thunderbird.net
It is usable for me only with expression search NG (https://github.com/opto/expression-search-NG). TB is my daily driver but with every update I fear that they will destroy sth again: expression search failed to work for over a year due to their breaking changes. Switched to another extension until that one stopped working. Now back on expression search as opto has ported it.
Oh my god, I have wanted this kind of search in TB for so long.
Been a solid Thunderbird user for well on 15 yrs. Should I cringe that I'm a POP user? I know IMAP is the way, but I cherish my offline email archives and I don't want my email taking up space on the host I use. Am I doing it wrong?
If it works for you, why would you be doing it wrong?
That my friend is a good question. I get the side-stare for saying I still use POP. I sync my mailboxes between machines and it seems to work for me. Yes, working on multiple machines sharing an inbox at the same time is problematic, but so for me would be the IMAP alternative. As long as POP doesn't go away I'm good.
beginning of this year i made tabula rasa and set up my personal server up from scratch. i use postfix and dovecot for mail and made a conscious decision against imap in favour of pop3. i know it doesn't matter a lot in the end but i like to try minimize network traffic and resource consumption server side.
I tried almost every email client on macOS/iOS. All if them has few or more disadvantages, like: eats more battery life, or slow or lack of support for AWS workmail, bad for multiple accounts, etc...
So, the best, for me is Apple Mail. Simple, fast, truly native, reliable and almost full featured.
So, the best, for me is Apple Mail. Simple, fast, truly native, reliable and almost full featured.
My favorite email client is gmail's webmail.
In terms of UX it's horrible, but importantly I don't want my email stored in my computer. I trust google to be safer than my computer.
Am I alone on this?
In terms of UX it's horrible, but importantly I don't want my email stored in my computer. I trust google to be safer than my computer.
Am I alone on this?
Fastmail is recommended so often on HN it's starting to feel like a bit of a meme, but if you want a solid, reliable cloud email provider with a better and faster UI than Gmail, check it out.
If it's helpful, I wrote a small guide on switching off of Gmail here: https://www.justus.ws/tech/how-to-ditch-gmail/
Edit: And as an aside, my guess would be that very few people are storing their email solely on their computer. Even people running their own mail servers are likely storing the mail on the server and syncing it to their clients with IMAP.
If it's helpful, I wrote a small guide on switching off of Gmail here: https://www.justus.ws/tech/how-to-ditch-gmail/
Edit: And as an aside, my guess would be that very few people are storing their email solely on their computer. Even people running their own mail servers are likely storing the mail on the server and syncing it to their clients with IMAP.
Agreed. Gmail is a rampant lagfest whenever I end up using it (I only go to update filters and labels anymore). The HTML site is a lot more responsive and usable IME (though the filter form's length limits need edited in a debugger to fit my queries). With the "plain" HTML frontend filter updates are fast because it's all done directly to the database. With the "fancy" frontend, it seems to be client-side driven and take minutes to "apply and update" any changes.
Same here, tried Apple, Thunderbird, Mutt and Canary. I come back to Gmail's webmail. I do not want emai lto be stored on my computer.
With firefox containers , I can have dedicated containers for different emails. With Karabiner and Hammerspoon it is easy to have good keyboard navigation. Gmail webmail itself has very good keybindings to get most of the work done.
So you are not alone :).
If not for webmail, maybe Canary mail is a good alternative.
I've only ever worked at places with self hosted Exchange for e-mail and groupware. As a client, I use Outlook Web Access (OWA) most of the time and I think it's fine. It's simple, feels reasonably snappy to me and I like having the same interface on all the different machines I need to login from. Sometimes, I need to reach for the desktop version of Outlook in a Windows VM to access options or features not accessible in OWA (or in the sluggish abomination that is Outlook for Mac). However, in the end I don't care all that much about my e-mail client because I use a simple inbox-zero-ish approach to e-mail and only really need Inbox and Archive folders (as well as a delete function). This works with every client.
To have an offline archive, I also have Apple Mail connected to my Exchange accounts. I never use the app itself but frequently use Spotlight to search for and preview e-mails. However, if I'm already working in OWA, I use the search function in there. In my experience, it works well and doesn't feel significantly slower than searching locally in my offline archive.
[Sidenote: I find it annoying to have to use Spotlight for local e-mail search instead of Alfred.app (which has been my universal search app for many years). Alas, Apple only allows access to the e-mail folder on MacOS for their own apps for some annoying reason these days.]
Outside of work, I have the same setup with Apple Mail and Spotlight for archival and search. As clients, I use K-9 on Android and Apple Mail or runbox7 on the desktop. The latter is the webmail app of Runbox, my e-mail provider of choice (I think the app is pretty good - and open source on https://github.com/runbox/runbox7 ).
To have an offline archive, I also have Apple Mail connected to my Exchange accounts. I never use the app itself but frequently use Spotlight to search for and preview e-mails. However, if I'm already working in OWA, I use the search function in there. In my experience, it works well and doesn't feel significantly slower than searching locally in my offline archive.
[Sidenote: I find it annoying to have to use Spotlight for local e-mail search instead of Alfred.app (which has been my universal search app for many years). Alas, Apple only allows access to the e-mail folder on MacOS for their own apps for some annoying reason these days.]
Outside of work, I have the same setup with Apple Mail and Spotlight for archival and search. As clients, I use K-9 on Android and Apple Mail or runbox7 on the desktop. The latter is the webmail app of Runbox, my e-mail provider of choice (I think the app is pretty good - and open source on https://github.com/runbox/runbox7 ).
I am really enjoying Canary mail, on macOS/iOS. It's an indie app, but feels super platform native (near Apple experiences), while boasting some nice features like email templates and actually good integrated PGP support (complete with a ProtonMail-style send-secure-emails-as-webpages-to-non-users feature).
hyphen usage is on point
Protonmail in the last two months have really stepped up in fixing bugs, completing half baked features and polishing the UI(especially on the phone).
Now is the best time to try protonmail.
Now is the best time to try protonmail.
I love Proton. I use everything, Mail with 5 custom domains attached, VPN, the new Files component is turning out fantastic too, and the mobile apps are rock stable
I believe they’re on a fantastic path these days and as soon as the Drive/Files feature is out of beta and gets its own companion app they‘re going to start becoming a serious and most definitely superior competitor to Google etc
I believe they’re on a fantastic path these days and as soon as the Drive/Files feature is out of beta and gets its own companion app they‘re going to start becoming a serious and most definitely superior competitor to Google etc
After trying everything and always going back to the native Gmail experience I recently switched to https://mimestream.com/ and have been loving it.
Huh, this seems quite pleasant, just added both of my google accounts. Having touch controls to archive emails (which is most of what I do anyway) is great, and I find the noises enjoyable as well. Maybe I'll mute them eventually.
https://www.emclient.com/
is like an Outlook that works.
is like an Outlook that works.
Gmail/iCloud through Apple Mail (https://manuelmoreale.com/emails)
I have a few requirements for an email client. My primary email is through the same company I use for webhosting (Opalstack in my case). I'd prefer if other companies didn't read my email, so I don't use gmail/outlook/similar via IMAP/POP or forwarding or anything like that.
I also only send plaintext email. This sounds like it should be easier than sending HTML, but many mobile email clients only send HTML or "rich emails". This includes the gmail! (This used to be possible in earlier versions of google's phone email apps. Maybe it was Inbox? I don't remember now. But being unable to send plaintext email from gmail on mobile is what caused me to move away from gmail).
Now I use mutt on my own computer, K9 on mobile, and if absolutely necessary Roundcube webmail. (I do not particularly like Roundcube, but I almost never actually have to use it).
Mutt is wonderful, though I found it highly nontrivial to initially use. K9 is fine. One feature of K9 I like is that it has a surprisingly capable search capability given that I use it purely over IMAP --- it dispatches a search to my mail server and parses the results.
I also only send plaintext email. This sounds like it should be easier than sending HTML, but many mobile email clients only send HTML or "rich emails". This includes the gmail! (This used to be possible in earlier versions of google's phone email apps. Maybe it was Inbox? I don't remember now. But being unable to send plaintext email from gmail on mobile is what caused me to move away from gmail).
Now I use mutt on my own computer, K9 on mobile, and if absolutely necessary Roundcube webmail. (I do not particularly like Roundcube, but I almost never actually have to use it).
Mutt is wonderful, though I found it highly nontrivial to initially use. K9 is fine. One feature of K9 I like is that it has a surprisingly capable search capability given that I use it purely over IMAP --- it dispatches a search to my mail server and parses the results.
I use Outlook at work and Mail (Microsoft Store app) at home. I suppose the main reason is that they have basically foolproof compatibility and functioning with their respective O365 and Outlook.com (formerly/via Windows Live Custom Domains) server counterparts.
Functionally they have what I need. I turn off the Focused Inbox feature in both as I have no problem with a little tedium. The rules system in both is good, though that runs server-side technically. I turn off conversation view nowadays, but have used it extensively in the past with massive threads and found it quite good (Outlook). Outlook's list views can be customized quite extensively, and the dark theme is good. Search works fine in both clients.
I have taken Outlook to somewhere around 100GB and over 1,000,000 emails back in the year 2013 and that worked fine. IIRC the OST was always 30-40GB, and I would shuffle things off to yearly archive PSTs.
Functionally they have what I need. I turn off the Focused Inbox feature in both as I have no problem with a little tedium. The rules system in both is good, though that runs server-side technically. I turn off conversation view nowadays, but have used it extensively in the past with massive threads and found it quite good (Outlook). Outlook's list views can be customized quite extensively, and the dark theme is good. Search works fine in both clients.
I have taken Outlook to somewhere around 100GB and over 1,000,000 emails back in the year 2013 and that worked fine. IIRC the OST was always 30-40GB, and I would shuffle things off to yearly archive PSTs.
Thunderbird on Linux, K-9 Mail on Android.
My $WORKPLACE is using Outlook, so I use Thunderbird for Mail there too and always have a browser tab open with the OWA calendar [1]. Not the most elegant solution, but it's working fine for me.
[1] Tried several addons for Thunderbird with Outlook integration, decided I don't like any of them.
My $WORKPLACE is using Outlook, so I use Thunderbird for Mail there too and always have a browser tab open with the OWA calendar [1]. Not the most elegant solution, but it's working fine for me.
[1] Tried several addons for Thunderbird with Outlook integration, decided I don't like any of them.
I use evolution, as I've used it for almost decades now, and have it customized exactly how I like it.
I heavily use IMAP flags and evolution's virtual folders to nicely group/tag things, rather than IMAP folders. I also use imapfilter to automatically add IMAP flags to messages, and only add 'inbox' to important emails. This keeps my inbox small and tidy, and all my automated stuff goes to other virtual folders.
Unfortunately, I am not aware of any mobile email clients (at least on iOS) that support this workflow, so I do very little email, other than some passive reading on my mobile device.
As a heavy emacs user, mu4e has intrigued me, but I haven't experimented enough with it to move my workflow. For work, I unfortunately have to deal with a lot of html email, calendar invitations, and other non-sense, that evolution handles quite well.
I heavily use IMAP flags and evolution's virtual folders to nicely group/tag things, rather than IMAP folders. I also use imapfilter to automatically add IMAP flags to messages, and only add 'inbox' to important emails. This keeps my inbox small and tidy, and all my automated stuff goes to other virtual folders.
Unfortunately, I am not aware of any mobile email clients (at least on iOS) that support this workflow, so I do very little email, other than some passive reading on my mobile device.
As a heavy emacs user, mu4e has intrigued me, but I haven't experimented enough with it to move my workflow. For work, I unfortunately have to deal with a lot of html email, calendar invitations, and other non-sense, that evolution handles quite well.
On Linux I used Astroid for offline mail access (notmuch + lieer for gmail and mbsync, I think, for other mailboxes - it worked so good that I don’t remember exactly). For me it is the best offline email setup.
On macOS, unfortunately, I haven’t found anything better than Apple Mail, considering the integration with OS. There are downsides, though. Offline format is incompatible with everything else, it’s hard to do rsync backups of ~/Library/Mail, and I don’t think all mail is accessible offline. It is slow, and it mangled non-latin attachment names for Gmail letters. On positive side, there is a great support for drag&drop, Spotlight integration, multiple account handling.
On macOS, unfortunately, I haven’t found anything better than Apple Mail, considering the integration with OS. There are downsides, though. Offline format is incompatible with everything else, it’s hard to do rsync backups of ~/Library/Mail, and I don’t think all mail is accessible offline. It is slow, and it mangled non-latin attachment names for Gmail letters. On positive side, there is a great support for drag&drop, Spotlight integration, multiple account handling.
I recommend emclient and nine on Android. The former has some issues with exchange that davmail & evolution seem to get around so don't use it for the purpose anymore but it an overall good email and calendar suite.
Mailmate (https://freron.com/)
Have always been surprised it doesn't get more attention on this forum. It's a paid app, and it shows in the quality. Very smart and dedicated single developer (this is feasible for an email client since the protocol is stable and doesn't change very much), an active mailing list and user community. Clean with few bugs in my use. Definitely aimed at developers and people who want to peer into the internals of email.
Have always been surprised it doesn't get more attention on this forum. It's a paid app, and it shows in the quality. Very smart and dedicated single developer (this is feasible for an email client since the protocol is stable and doesn't change very much), an active mailing list and user community. Clean with few bugs in my use. Definitely aimed at developers and people who want to peer into the internals of email.
I use whatever mail client that can save my emails in Maildir directory structure where each email represent a single file.
and it allows me to create many different folders of which rules can relocate toward its designated folder(s).
Works perfectly with IMAP4 protocol.
Minimal chance of corruption and maximum portability to other mail clients.
https://www.interserver.net/tips/kb/difference-between-maild...
and it allows me to create many different folders of which rules can relocate toward its designated folder(s).
Works perfectly with IMAP4 protocol.
Minimal chance of corruption and maximum portability to other mail clients.
https://www.interserver.net/tips/kb/difference-between-maild...
mutt, mainly because it's terminal-based and it's battle-tested. And it's not Pine.
FairEmail[0] for Android
My favorite feature is that the app tries to remove tracking pixels. The ability to override the user in the from address is super nice too.
You can download the releases right from GitHub, too.
On top of all of that, the dev (Marcel) goes above and beyond to help solve issues you run into. Even if you haven't bought a license!
[0]: https://email.faircode.eu/
My favorite feature is that the app tries to remove tracking pixels. The ability to override the user in the from address is super nice too.
You can download the releases right from GitHub, too.
On top of all of that, the dev (Marcel) goes above and beyond to help solve issues you run into. Even if you haven't bought a license!
[0]: https://email.faircode.eu/
Sort of tangential to this discussion: is anyone aware of an email client which will save copies of messages locally and let me view them after I delete them from the server? I'm trying to implement limited message retention, but if I delete it from the server, IMAP clients delete the local copy also.
Is using POP3 intead of IMAP not an option?
I use Linux, and on Linux I use Claws Mail.
It is simple and fast, but it has all the features that I need.
https://www.claws-mail.org/
It is one of the e-mail clients which stores the e-mail messages as separate files.
I prefer this over storing the messages in some database.
It is simple and fast, but it has all the features that I need.
https://www.claws-mail.org/
It is one of the e-mail clients which stores the e-mail messages as separate files.
I prefer this over storing the messages in some database.
I went from pine (which was more than fine) and thunderbird to web uis like gmail, corporate outlook and proton. Never looked back.
I wouldn't use an offline email client unless emails are really essential to the job (kinda had to use proper outlook when I was a consultant).
I wouldn't use an offline email client unless emails are really essential to the job (kinda had to use proper outlook when I was a consultant).
For Gmail on Mac, I think Mimestream is the best. It’s basically Apple Mail but tailored to the Gmail API.
https://mimestream.com/
https://mimestream.com/
I use Evolution on my PC and FairEmail app on my mobile. Both connect via IMAP and support GPG encryption.
mutt. Both on desktop and on mobile (ssh / connectbot). Unparalleled performance and functionality.
Just switched my gmail accounts to Gnome's Geary app. Enjoying the simple, snappy UI so far
On mobile I use Gmail app, on desktop I use Thunderbird.
No love for Outlook?
I don't think I've seen a worse email provider since the 00s
Inbox by Gmail
):
):
Evolution/K-9 Mail
I go with Thunderbird
Really, no mutt?
RIP Google Inbox
mu4e, so mu with emacs
Pragati_08(1)