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What macOS email clients do you recommend in 2025?

J

Joe's kitchen

macrumors newbie
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Apr 16, 2021
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I'm looking for an ideal macOS email client. Does anyone have some recommendations?

Here is the list of conditions for my ideal client.
It should be.....

- able to select plain text mode always, instead of html (for both sending and receiving emails)
- simple and light (no functions such as calendar, RSS reader, AI, browser, etc)
- not sending any transmissions (including telemetry stuff) to the developer or third party companies
- able to remote access (that means you can read and delete emails on server before you actually receive them in box)
- not cloud-based
- no subscription model (free or one-off payment)
 
I keep coming back to the built in macOS mail.

It is by NO MEANS perfect.

It has quirks. it has flaws, but the flaws are in my opinion far less severe than the flaws in outlook, spark, etc. I've learned to work around them. Its the best (for me) out of a whole slew of crap options (like, every mail client on the planet).

Mail can also be driven with Applescript/automator/shortcuts, etc. and the rules and smart mailboxes are pretty powerful.
 
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throAU said:
I keep coming back to the built in macOS mail.

It is by NO MEANS perfect.

It has quirks. it has flaws, but the flaws are in my opinion far less severe than the flaws in outlook, spark, etc. I've learned to work around them. Its the best (for me) out of a whole slew of crap options (like, every mail client on the planet).

Mail can also be driven with Applescript/automator/shortcuts, etc. and the rules and smart mailboxes are pretty powerful.
Click to expand...
Same

Even though you can make it smarter it's still not as well designed to manage multiple mailboxes as even the abandoned Mail app on Windows, and it's only recently they've gotten rid of some of the more dumb ways it used to work. But it works OK enough.
 
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The biggest flaw in mail for me is the fact that it needs to download your whole mailbox and can't work with say, the last 3 months locally and only hit the server if required, or give you the option to sync part of the mailbox. My work mailbox has like... 17 years of mail in it and every time I set up a new machine or need to rebuild the mailbox due to corruption (once in the past decade) its a pain in the butt to re-download it all.
 
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throAU said:
The biggest flaw in mail for me is the fact that it needs to download your whole mailbox and can't work with say, the last 3 months locally and only hit the server if required, or give you the option to sync part of the mailbox. My work mailbox has like... 17 years of mail in it and every time I set up a new machine or need to rebuild the mailbox due to corruption (once in the past decade) its a pain in the butt to re-download it all.
Click to expand...
I like spotlight to work across potentially everything so this is a pain I am (somewhat) willing to deal with.

But yeah, definitely a pain for overall response.
 
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Joe's kitchen said:
I'm looking for an ideal macOS email client. Does anyone have some recommendations?

Here is the list of conditions for my ideal client.
It should be.....

- able to select plain text mode always, instead of html (for both sending and receiving emails)
- simple and light (no functions such as calendar, RSS reader, AI, browser, etc)
- not sending any transmissions (including telemetry stuff) to the developer or third party companies
- able to remote access (that means you can read and delete emails on server before you actually receive them in box)
- not cloud-based
- no subscription model (free or one-off payment)
Click to expand...
Sounds like you'd probably do best with a late 90's version of Eudora.
 
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throAU said:
I keep coming back to the built in macOS mail.

It is by NO MEANS perfect.

It has quirks. it has flaws, but the flaws are in my opinion far less severe than the flaws in outlook, spark, etc. I've learned to work around them. Its the best (for me) out of a whole slew of crap options (like, every mail client on the planet).

Mail can also be driven with Applescript/automator/shortcuts, etc. and the rules and smart mailboxes are pretty powerful.
Click to expand...
Same, I use Outlook at work and used it on my personal Windows box, but hated it on Mac. Tried a few different programs, been using the built in app since.

Interested to see some other options.
 
jakey rolling said:
Sounds like you'd probably do best with a late 90's version of Eudora.
Click to expand...
I loved eudora back in the day. There is a seemingly active attempt to recreate it : https://sourceforge.net/projects/hermesmail/

Can't say to code quality, or usability. I found it while looking for another 'official' attempt to recreate Eudora as a thunderbird add-in, but I don't think that got off the ground? Some of the original devs were involved IIRC? That would have been in the 2000-2005 era, if I'm remembering that far back correctly.

EDIT: I must be misremembering the time frame, I was likely 2005-2010? Here's a whole run down on the history, and apparently the source code is available: https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-eudora-email-client-source-code/
 
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cawsllyffant said:
I loved eudora back in the day. There is a seemingly active attempt to recreate it : https://sourceforge.net/projects/hermesmail/

Can't say to code quality, or usability. I found it while looking for another 'official' attempt to recreate Eudora as a thunderbird add-in, but I don't think that got off the ground? Some of the original devs were involved IIRC? That would have been in the 2000-2005 era, if I'm remembering that far back correctly.

EDIT: I must be misremembering the time frame, I was likely 2005-2010? Here's a whole run down on the history, and apparently the source code is available: https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-eudora-email-client-source-code/
Click to expand...
I loved Eudora as well and used it as my daily driver until Qualcomm started changing the licensing of it and stopped many any real effort to improve it. I was using it after 2000 and it was still in active development at that time, so your second time frame seems more accurate.

As good as it was, I think modern e-mail clients are a lot better nowadays, so I don't really see a lot of point in reviving it for more than just nostalgic use.
 
I also keep coming back to Mail.app. It does everything I need without being overcomplicated. And I like its unified inbox model better than the ones in other email clients. Plus they seem to have finally restored most of the functionality that was neutered out of it in that infuriating rewrite 5-6 years ago. Still not quite as good as it was from a power user perspective, but I guess we can’t have everything.
 
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If you are running MacOS 15 I would give Apple mail a shot... I went back to it after a long time and am pleasantly surprised so far... It finally works just like iOS Mail which is what I wanted the whole time.
 
bigjnyc said:
It finally works just like iOS Mail which is what I wanted the whole time.
Click to expand...

Heh. That’s exactly what I don’t want, and what I hated about the overhaul. And yet we both seem to like the app. (I was really ticked off for a while, but they gradually added back in the things I need.)

I think that speaks to one thing Apple was especially effective at in the early stages of OS X: providing power user features that you don’t have to dig too deep for while keeping the essential functionality simple for those who don’t need them.
 
While I have tried a few other mail apps. I always go back to Apple's Mail.app. One of the must haves you mentioned was the plain text format. You can select this for your email by going to Mail>Settings>Composing> the first section is composing and select from the drop down menu Pain Text or Rich text. I am surprised you haven't looked into that feature. Unless, it's not exactly what you are looking for. hope this was helpful.
 

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Based on your requirements, the default Apple Mail app will probably check the most boxes.

It's not perfect and it has its issues but for as "bare bones" as what you are looking for, it will probably do the job better than anything else out there.
 
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Joe's kitchen said:
I'm looking for an ideal macOS email client. Does anyone have some recommendations?

Here is the list of conditions for my ideal client.
It should be.....

- able to select plain text mode always, instead of html (for both sending and receiving emails)
- simple and light (no functions such as calendar, RSS reader, AI, browser, etc)
- not sending any transmissions (including telemetry stuff) to the developer or third party companies
- able to remote access (that means you can read and delete emails on server before you actually receive them in box)
- not cloud-based
- no subscription model (free or one-off payment)
Click to expand...

If you use Gmail, this is what you want, https://mimestream.com/

otherwise Spark or Canary Mail on either free tier, but they got stuff you don't want on that list;

or stick with Apple Mail, it should finally get the smarter update on mac with 15.4
 
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Sound like you really want a "real" client and didn't mention what platform your mails are on so maybe my answer is irrelevant. I have been running Gmail as a Chrome WebApp for 6 months now and I'm very happy with this solution.
 
this is a great ?
Since jumping off that  cloud last September for good,
tuta_mail fulfills my every need!
also duckduck-go has a hidden email feature that is excellent!
Since I never use Microsoft anything besides W10 on my other non  laptop.
therefore outlook might be good, might be bad?
 
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