Best Email Apps For Mac 2020So what’s the best email app for Mac then? Depends on what you do. You might be a power user, comfortable with running macros to make the most out of your email experience, or you might just want something that works out of the box without having to fuss with settings.
I wouldn't vote for it as the best free email client for the same reason as the reviewer says: 'eM Client is certainly one of the better looking clients available for Windows however, the free version is held back by the account restriction to only two email addresses.' Recently spent a day moving my partner's emails from Mac to new PC.
Security could be your top priority if you work with sensitive materials, or you might just need to easily manage multiple accounts.Whatever the case, there are a few things to keep in mind when evaluating all email clients: How fast is the setup process? How easy is it to use? Is it secure? What are the sorting options for your inbox? Is it nice to look at?Let’s sift through some top email apps using this questioning framework. Apple Mail: Best email client for Mac by defaultWhat makes Apple products great is also what limits them: because Apple needs to make apps that are so easy to use that anyone can use them, much of what they produce is quite basic in functionality.
Which is fine — just make sure you know what you’re getting with the Apple Mail app.You definitely get clean, user-friendly design that’s in line with all the other Apple software. In addition, you get outstanding integration with macOS and iOS, including the use of the Notification Center and the ability to send emails via the Share function in other apps.Although adding multiple email providers, including iCloud and Gmail, is easy — there have been some bug reports around using Microsoft accounts, such as Hotmail or Live. Maybe the old Apple and Microsoft feud is not over yet?In step with the times, Apple Mail app makes it effortless to add emoji to your emails from the shortcut bar right in the composing email window.Honestly, for most people, the Apple Mail app will absolutely be enough. However, if you’re the kind of person who has a lot going on in their inbox, there are not too many ways to filter through all the messages quickly and pin down important conversations, or simply delete unwanted mail.What’s great:.Clean design.Easy-to-use Mac mail.Fantastic Mac and iOS integrationNot so great:.A history of bugs with Microsoft accounts.Lacking high-powered organizational toolsMozilla Thunderbird: Best free email client for Mac power usersPerhaps most widely known for their web browser, Firefox, Mozilla’s other major product is their email client, Thunderbird. Hailed as the best free email app on the market at various points throughout its long history, where does Thunderbird stand in 2020?Unfortunately, Thunderbird’s design shows its age. Blocky and utilitarian, it’s quite a bit uglier than most modern email clients.
But look below the surface and you’ll discover some very handy features.For one, you have the option of tagging emails as they come in. Just add tags like Personal, Work, and ToDo and suddenly conversations become much easier to find later on. Even better, create your own tags to make the classification system as specific as you need it to be.Thunderbird features an integrated calendar and chat client, both of which are indispensable for work, and boasts great privacy features — like not automatically displaying images (hence stopping pixel trackers) when you open emails (can be changed in Preferences).Overall, Thunderbird has some powerful value propositions, but is also a bit ugly and unintuitive. So, if the looks don’t bother you, give it a try. Otherwise, you’re better off using another option.What’s great:.Tagging is powerful and helps you organize your emails quickly.Precise searchNot so great:.Not the prettiest interface.Unintuitive user experience.
It takes time to figure out Thunderbird’s best features.Kiwi for Gmail: Best Gmail app for MacIf you don’t use Gmail, you can skip this one: Kiwi isn’t for you.But for all other Gmail for Mac users, Kiwi for Gmail is an excellent Mac mail option. A desktop app with the look and feel of your browser email inbox, Kiwi features the ability to combine multiple accounts and filter your inbox with Focus to organize correspondence by date, importance, attachments, and more.In many ways, Kiwi is Gmail’s missing ingredient, making the best free email provider online also the premier Gmail app for Mac. What’s even more exciting is that Kiwi lets you run G Suite apps like Google Docs and Sheets outside of your browser.
I got my first email account in the mid–90s (When it was still $2.95 per hour for AOL). I stuck with AOL until I got an @comcast.net account when my parent’s first got high-speed internet. I switched to around 2002 (it was eventually acquired by AOL). I switched to Gmail in 2004 when it first launched, and then I finally switched to.Mac in 2005 when I got my first Mac (. I stuck with it during, and finally arrived at.One of the things about my use of email that is most surprising is that I’ve gone in the reverse with how technology has moved. In the early days of e-mail usage, I preferred using web-based mail, but as time went on, I preferred app based email. Part of that is that I am bringing in multiple accounts into one app (personal iCloud and multiple G-Suite accounts), but another aspect is that I prefer native apps.
I think a lot of it has to do with iOS where native apps are the default. On the desktop, we’re moving everything to the web.As much as I love iOS, If you told me that I had to pick between macOS and iOS, I’d choose macOS. When it comes to my “heavy lifting” type work, I can get it done much faster than on my Mac. Like I said earlier, I am pulling in multiple email accounts into one app, so using webmail isn’t something I want to do. I want one app to use instead of four web apps. So if you are reading this article, and are screaming about how much better Gmail’s web interface is – know that I am not looking at web-based solutions at all. So I want to answer the question, what’s the best email app for the Mac?
Apple MailApple is always going to be at a disadvantage in some ways when building apps because they have to develop for the masses. They are developing apps for the power user while also the computer novice.
In a lot of ways, Apple Mail doesn’t seem to be a lot different than it did when I first used it under.From 40,000 feet, Apple Mail does precisely what you’d ask of it. You add your mailboxes, and it builds a traditional looking mail app (with a universal inbox), it supports all the primary services (iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Exchange, etc.), and generally works well.My biggest issue with Apple Mail is that it doesn’t do anything to drive the concept of email forward. It primarily works the same as it did a few years ago.
It’s only added a few new features like (a feature where you can send large attachments using iCloud), and.On the flip side, if you want the traditional Apple experience, you’ll love this app. I use it day-to-day, but I know it’s mostly lagged behind a lot of the other apps concerning new features. If you do want to extend Apple Mail further, be sure to check out plugins like. The downside is that these run locally, so if your Mac is offline – nothing will happen to your email that requires these plugins.Overall, it’s a fine app, but I am hopeful Apple begins to add new features to help people re-think email. OutlookWhen I did my review of, I praised Outlook.If you want to find an app that feels like Apple Mail+, Outlook is it. It includes a smart inbox (sort between important emails and non-important ones). It contains customizable swipes (delete, archive, etc.).
You can also schedule messages to show back up in your inbox. This feature is useful if you want to make an email disappear until you are back at work, etc.Unfortunately, Outlook on the Mac hasn’t been given the same treatment.
It feels like a completely different app. Microsoft has they are overhauling it to make it more like the iOS apps, but we’ve not seen that yet.
It still feels like a Mac version of Outlook for Windows. If you are a business user using Exchange 365, you’ll probably love it.
Everyone else should look elsewhere.It’s not that there is anything fundamentally wrong with Outlook, it’s just that, like Apple Mail, it feels stagnant. It’s the same tried and true app that they had years ago with a prettier design. If it can act more like the iOS version, I could definitely consider it a strong contender for the best email app for the Mac. Spikeis one of the most unique takes I’ve seen on email in many years.
It takes a cue from an app like iMessage or Facebook Messenger, and it brings that same look to email. So many of my emails are short messages (think Slack style), and Spike builds a design that helps make you more efficient.
It strips away things like headers, signatures, etc and help you focus on just the content. It also includes a priority inbox to help keep your inbox with just the important stuff, so you can get right to work.Another unique feature is the Groups feature that Spike offers its users. You can create groups for work departments, sport teams, etc. There is no need to download another app for messaging.Share Groups with companies and businesses you regularly work with and create online workplaces designed for easy collaboration—get one for each department, project, office, yoga buddies, whatever you need, it’s open to everyone. All they need is email.Groups is a collaborative tool for businesses that keeps people together and everyone on the same page. Simply choose the type of group you want to create, give it a great name and invite everyone who needs to be a part of the conversation.
You don’t need separate instant messenger apps for quick communications, and you don’t need complicated collaboration platforms to share files.Spike is an app/service that I am really interested to watch in the future. It’s for personal usage, and there is a premium tier for business customers. SparkSpark is one of the newcomers to the third-party email app market, but it has had constant enhancements since it was released. Their tagline is “Love your email again,” and it certainly does a great job of helping you take control of your inbox. It supports all the usual accounts like iCloud, Google, Yahoo, Exchange, Outlook, and IMAP.The great thing about Spark for Mac is that it brings over a lot of great features from the iOS version. The app includes a smart inbox to help organize your email into buckets like newsletters, pinned, new, seen, etc.
It also includes the ability to snooze emails, send later, email follow-up reminders, smart notifications, and tons of integrations with third-party apps (Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive, etc.).The send later feature is one I’d love to see come to Apple Mail. I want to be able to process my inbox on the weekends, but not clutter other people’s inboxes up while they aren’t at work. It also includes a built-in calendar that supports iCloud, Gmail, etc.Spark also has team plans that answers that question for me. By signing your organization up, you can collaborate on emails together, talk about replies privately (without having to forward things back and forth), and create permanent links to email messages (helpful for linking in a CRM, etc.).A basic version of Spark for Teams is free, but they have paid versions (monthly per-user fee) with extra file storage, enhanced link sharing, and team roles and control. This add-on turns Spark into a platform as much as it does an email app.
When Spark initially launched, I questioned how it could remain in operation with no business model, but I now clearly understand how it plans to grow. If you’re interested in a teams plan, but Spark doesn’t work for you, is a similar product.Spark is on the Mac App Store. AirMailAirmail has been around for many years, and it’s one of the most common third-party mail apps that I see mentioned on the Internet.
Airmail supports all the major email accounts like iCloud, Exchange, Outlook, Google, Yahoo, IMAP, etc.Airmail features an extensive list of apps you can integrate. The list includes Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, Trello, Asana, Omnifocus, Google Tasks, Evernote, Todoist, Drafts, Deliveries, Things, and many more. Airmail supports snoozing an email to another date/time as Spark does. You can create a PDF from an email, mute/block senders, or create a to-do (Airmail offers a lightweight to-do list built in).
The action list of items you can take on a message is too long to list. With Airmail, almost everything is customizable.
If you want an email app with a lot of knobs to tinker with, Airmail is going to fit in with your workflows.One feature that Airmail offers that I’ve not seen any other macOS email app offer is a Google Apps/G-Suite Directory look up. This feature allows you to look up email addresses in your global G-Suite directory that you don’t have in your contacts list.My main complaint with AirMail is that lacks the polish of Apple Mail and Spark. It’s a great app, but it’s never been able to win me over for day-to-day usage. It’s definitely near the top, but it’s not the best email app for the Mac.AirMail is on the Mac App Store.
Post BoxPost Box is one of the apps I hadn’t heard of before I started doing my research on this topic. At first glance, it is nice looking, and it looks a lot like a prettier Apple Mail. It claims to be an email app for power users, but I fail to see what it’s doing that Spark or AirMail aren’t doing. It does have many third-party integrations, but so do many of the other apps.It also lacks essential features like Snooze and Send Later. It’s most unique feature is.
This feature allows you to combine multiple accounts (example: all of your personal accounts) into one unified inbox that keeps your work separate.You can buy Post Box for, and there is a 30-day free trial available. MailMateMailMate is most known for its extensive keyboard control, Markdown email composition, and advanced search conditions. It’s not the prettiest app, and it doesn’t have the most overall features. It really could be called the. I find it hard to recommend for novice users or for someone who wants features that Spark and AirMail are known for, but if MailMate interests you, it’s probably the only app that will satisfy you.
It has a unique set of features that aren’t for everyone, but it will interest a specific user group. I wouldn’t be able to say it’s the best email app for the Mac, though.MailMate is, and there is a free trial available. What’s the best email app for the Mac?Before I get to the reason you read this article, I do want to mention one other app.
If you have a few Gmail accounts, and you are happy with the Gmail interface, check out. It’s a native macOS app for Gmail (supports G-Suite as well).If you want the best email app for macOS, and you want more features than Apple Mail, I would have to recommend. It has a great design, a broad feature set, and a clear business model. If you hate your email, Spark claims you’ll “Love your email again” with their apps. If you already love the Mac version, be sure to check out the.