I'm not OP but I've been using Thunderbird for a bit (long-time Firefox user) and wow, Betterbird really seems to be what Thunderbird could/should be if Mozilla dedicated more resources to it. Thanks for sharing this!
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What macOS email clients do you recommend in 2025?
- Thread starter Joe's kitchen
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I use Mac Mail app. Tried different options but came back to Mail.
I know data retention can be a touchy subject, and I mean no offense. Have you considered deleting a bulk of these messages? Or archiving them if you must keep them? I've used Nodemailer to archive some emails, although I don't recall how I did it off hand. Suppose you have files from 2010 for legal reasons, I'd personally prefer keeping them as an archive on a hard drive, compartmentalized.
They are archived into stub messages by our enterprise backup software.
Mail on iOS only downloads recent emails. You’re saying Mail on macOS doesn’t work the same way? I don’t use it so I’m asking in earnest).
Wow, I haven’t had to think about email programs in yeaaaarrs!
Kinda glad to see Thunderbird still is viable, loved using it on my windows machine in the 2000’s.
I remember some paid apps during the initial boom of iOS app, but it’s tough paying for an email app, but if one has specific needs….gotta do what you gotta do!
Kinda glad to see Thunderbird still is viable, loved using it on my windows machine in the 2000’s.
I remember some paid apps during the initial boom of iOS app, but it’s tough paying for an email app, but if one has specific needs….gotta do what you gotta do!
I think MailMate for Mac does everything you ask for (except maybe remote access).
I used to enjoy using Postbox. Keyboard shortcuts in reading mode were the killer feature for me. I only stopped using it because my employer at the time changed the Outlook/Exchange config so Postbox could no longer read mail.
It seems Postbox were recently acquired by eM Client, which is an integrated email/calendar/etc client I had never heard of. It looks potentially good, especially for a power user. Has anyone tried it?
What checks off most of your boxes, but not all of them is MailMate. It is a plain text email client that uses markdown for formatting. Benny, the developer, has recently switched to a Patreon-like subscription model, but there’s also a free mode (check out the licensing terms). Very solid.
And, has been said before, Thunderbird might be the way to go. The way you don’t show the calendars is simply don’t link to a calendar when they ask you to. you can’t get rid of “events and tasks” in the menu bar, though; I’ve looked. But you can certainly hide the today pane and it’ll never show up again. You can also pick how much email you want to download.
Personally I like downloading all of my email so that if I ever get locked out of an account, I can always move my email to a different account. Like a back up.
And, has been said before, Thunderbird might be the way to go. The way you don’t show the calendars is simply don’t link to a calendar when they ask you to. you can’t get rid of “events and tasks” in the menu bar, though; I’ve looked. But you can certainly hide the today pane and it’ll never show up again. You can also pick how much email you want to download.
Personally I like downloading all of my email so that if I ever get locked out of an account, I can always move my email to a different account. Like a back up.
Personally I find Thunderbird too clunky and I feel like MailMate is far superior. Just my US 2¢
I tried Thunderbird again for about a day, and I think I would agree that for my usage MailMate is a lot better. The Correspondence view is the real reason why; it enables you to see every email you’ve either sent or received from any single email address in a collapsed threaded view.
Thunderbird user here and really like it except that the most recent version broke customizations, so I reverted back.
This is why I chose Thunderbird years ago. Eudora was defunct and I wanted something similar.. It has the look and feel of Eudora and was being actively developed. (Yes, that boomeranged when they recently updated it and broke certain add-ons and diminished customizing!)
The reason I chose it over Mail is because you can set up rules for sorting incoming email automatically into different folders you've set up.
Makes processing e-mail far more efficient. You can attend to the messages in the crucial action folders — e.g., Banks, Family, etc. — and ignore for the while those in less pressing folders — e.g., newsgroups.
What's great is that you can set it up so that it also automatically sorts your replies, too. That way, they’re archived automatically in the right folder.
I just use the Proton Mail website. I just keep it pinned in my web browser.
I prefer to pay for the service and know that my privacy is respected.
I prefer to pay for the service and know that my privacy is respected.
I like the standard Apple Mail app. However, I moved over to Fastmail and now I just use their progressive web app.
Man I remember buying Mimestream long long ago with the hopes that there’d be a mobile app in my lifetime. I’m on my deathbed now and my hopes have be——— 💀
haha, a mobile mimestream app would be nice for sure; supposedly its still on their roadmap. I just use the default apple one for mobile
yeah I really can't handle having different clients
like mimestream on mac is not *so blindingly good* that i'll be okay with the dissonance of a different mobile experience. call it a pet peeve