There are several instances when you need a desktop-friendly email client app. One, you may have a self-hosted email account but couldn’t afford to get the Google Business Suite. Or, you may be fed up with the traditional interface offered by Gmail and Outlook. Or, probably you would want to manage your emails; get real-time notifications, and enjoy other details on your computer.
Finding an email client for your Mac is not a trivial task. There are numerous free email apps for Mac that are released every few months and many simply shut down or disappear just as easily. Thankfully, we’ve made it easy for you by picking some of the best email apps out there and highlighting everything you should know about them. The Best Free Email Clients to Use in 2020 1. Gmail – Free Email Client. Supported Platforms: Android, iOS, Web, macOS, Windows, Linux; If you are looking for the best email client, Gmail sits at the top of the list for many. Gmail is compatible with a variety of platforms and has many useful features for both personal and business use.
Previously, we have covered the best email clients for Android. This time, however, is for Mac. Fortunately, there is a big number of Mac email clients out there. Every day, we see the rise of something innovative. In this article, we have compiled some of the best and versatile email clients for Mac. Regardless of who you are and the work you do, you’ll find a suitable app here. Shall we begin?
Read: Best Email Apps for Android (2018)
Best Email Client for Mac
#1 Mail (Apple Mail App)
Unlike Windows, macOS ships with an inbuilt email client — named Mail. It’s probably one of the best email clients you can have for Mac too. The best part about Mail is that it keeps you active on the Apple ecosystem. That is, you can use the same app on your iPhone or iPad, syncing every bit of information you have. There are also features like Handoff for those who are in Apple ecosystem.
Handoff basically lets you start working on an email on your iPhone and complete it later on the Mac. It’s one of the exclusive features you’ll find in Mail. Keep that aside, and Mail app is the typical email client you can find. Mail does not offer much scope for customization or experimentation. There are a few add-on stuff, but they are not great.
Being an Apple product, the Mail app integrates well with macOS system. For instance, you can click on an email address and start composing the email in a split-screen window. You also get on-time notifications on the panel. Alongside all these, all your information is synced via iCloud. One thing we noted is that the Mail app may not be that seamless when you connect self-hosted email accounts.
Pros
- Free to use and built into macOS
- Continuity features like Handoff
Cons
- A non-intuitive, rudimentary design
- Lacks customization
- Navigation could be better
If you are looking for a simple email client for Mac, Mail is the best option. If you are in the Apple ecosystem, you can benefit from features like Handoff. Otherwise, you have different options too. It must also be noted that you don’t have to pay anything to use Mail.
About Mail by Apple (free)
#2 Canary Mail — Secure Email Client for Mac
Canary Mail is one of the most feature-friendly email clients for Mac. Even when offering a modern UI, it has not made any compromises in terms of security. It’s also one of the very few email clients that offer PGP Encryption. As oxymoronic as it sounds, Canary Mail is a fun & secure email client for Mac. It works with your own email accounts as well as services like Gmail.
There are a few features that we loved in Canary Mail. For instance, it offers two types of inboxes — normal and Focused. Thanks to Natural Language Search and Filters, you can quickly find emails that you are looking for. Email Templates, Snooze Features and Read-Receipt Notifications etc. are also included in the email app by default.
Canary Mail also offers one of the best User Interface designs we’ve seen. You can enjoy the Dark theme on both your Mac and iOS devices. if you ask us, though, we’d say the best thing about Canary Mail is the on-demand nature. You can keep all the super features aside and Canary Mail will still be an awesome way to manage your emails.
Pros
- A modern, intuitive UI
- On-demand Encryption, Read Receipt, and Focused Inbox features
- Seamless integration
- Multi-device support
Cons
- AI Cleaner isn’t up to the mark
Canary Mail is undoubtedly one of the most feature-rich email clients for Mac. It offers a state-of-the-art set of security and functionality. The AI features aren’t perfect, but you can get started. We also loved the multi-touch gesture support too.
Check Out Canary Mail ($20)
#3 Boxy — Best macOS Email Client for Gmail
Boxy is the best Mac email client for those who use Inbox by Gmail. Inbox by Gmail, in case you did not know, is a rather focused webmail interface. It also integrates with other Google services like Calendar and To-Dos. Now, Boxy is bringing all those features to a desktop app. You can simply log in using the Gmail account and get all the benefits.
The interface is no different from Inbox by Gmail. That having said, Boxy is easier to manage than the web-based UI. You also get one of the best Email Compose interfaces we’ve seen. In short, Boxy brings all good things about Gmail Inbox to your desktop. There is support for notifications as well as on-time sync as well. Boxy also supports a bunch of common keyboard shortcuts.
If you ask us, we’d recommend Boxy for the sake of the cleaner UI. Everything is available in a clean-packed way. Talking about the UI, Boxy lets you choose between different viewing modes as well as themes. You can, for instance, choose between Dark, Black, White and Crimson themes. Of course, it’s a downside that you cannot use other accounts here.
Pros
- Cleaner UI
- Optimized for Inbox by Gmail
- Easy Mail Management
Cons
- Doesn’t work with non-Gmail accounts
- Lacks customization
Boxy is loved for the simple way it presents your Gmail messages. If you are a Gmail + Google user, Boxy is a superb way to keep track of your email world. We’d recommend Boxy if you want a desktop experience for Gmail messages.
Check Out Boxy (Free)
#4 Spark — Smartest Email Client for Mac
Spark is one of the most versatile email clients we’ve seen for Mac. Developers of Spark say it is the future of email, and we may agree with that. The best thing about Spark is that you can use it for personal as well as organization-level needs. This email client has been designed in a clean manner that you can completely focus on creating the best email.
Unlike many of the email apps we’ve covered, Spark comes with a Smart Inbox. This Inbox can identify the type of email and put it to categories like Personal and Social. You can also Pin certain emails for the further look on the go. Plus, Spark lets you manage them quite easily. Or, if you want, you can shift to the Classic Inbox as well.
There are also some awesome features like mail tracking, follow-up reminders, integrated calendar, smart search, Quick replies, and worthwhile integrations. You can also optimize Smart Notifications so that you are alerted in case of important emails. By the way, Spark has a variant named Spark for Teams, which offers a bunch of features for in-team collaboration.
Pros
- Clean Design
- Smart Inbox with Categories
- Rich Email Creation Experience
Cons
- None worth noting
Spark should be your go-to choice if you need a simple email client with smart features. The developers have succeeded in including the features without making the app so bulky. In case you have a big team, you can go for Spark for Teams as well.
Check Out Spark (Free)
#5 Thunderbird — Best Free Email Client for Mac
Thunderbird is a completely free, open-source email client, available for various platforms. Being a project from Mozilla, you can count on Thunderbird when you want a secure email management experience. You’ll have to miss out some fancy features that we’ve seen in earlier products. Still, you are getting a non-clumsy way to manage email.
Talking about the UI, Thunderbird does not have anything modern to offer. For instance, it does not have a unified interface for showing emails. You can double-click on a message, which would be opened in another tab. On the right side, you can access the Integrated Calendar as well. On the bright side, however, this email client offers one of the best performance levels we’ve seen.
We really believe that Thunderbird can be better with some basic work from the team. For instance, one of the less intuitive things is to configure a new account with Thunderbird. At the same time, we really liked a few features like the Integrated Address Book and better Preferences when it comes to displaying emails. It is a simple tool, but nothing much.
Pros
- Simple, Clean Design
- Better Security and Open Source
Cons
- Rudimentary Design
- Lacks many features
Thunderbird isn’t for everyone. If you are looking for a completely free and open-source email client for Mac, it’s probably the only choice. By doing so, however, you are missing out some of the cool features. On the brighter side, you don’t have to pay a single penny.
Check Out Thunderbird (Free)
#6 Postbox — Best macOS Email Client for Multiple Accounts
Postbox is yet another email client that deserves a place here. It’s probably the best email client for Mac that comes with a lot of features. If you are someone who manages multiple email accounts and wants a cleaner UI, Postbox makes sense. This app is simple, clear and powerful, to quote the developers themselves. And, after testing it for a while, we thought the same.
Account Management is perhaps the best thing in Postbox. You can manage your multiple accounts as well as corresponding folders from the sidebar. The modern UI lets you view an email message and perform a lot of actions without much navigation. Postbox also offers a Universal Search feature, which is helpful when it comes to finding emails and attachments.
We also loved the Focus Pane in Postbox. If you’re involved in multiple projects, this feature would help you in easy navigation. Pre-canned responses and HTML editing are some nerd-focused features we found in the email app. In short, Postbox does not compromise the number of features, but you still have an intuitive way to do things.
Pros
- Simple UI and Integration
- Integrated Account Management
Cons
- Navigation Could Be Better
Postbox is a wonderful email app for Mac that everyone can use. It packs a number of features we have not seen in other packages. Still, we’d recommend Postbox for professionals, who have to manage multiple mail accounts as well as folders.
Check Out Postbox (Paid, $40)
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#7 Airmail — Best Overall Email Client for Mac
We’ve saved the best for the last: Airmail. Airmail is by far the most popular email client for macOS. It is so good that people have been using it for personal, professional and combined needs. Just so you know, it is available for both macOS and iOS. You can enjoy the features as well as the same interface on both devices, thanks to the sync.
Navigation is one of the strong points of Airmail. Through a widely customizable design, you can view your emails, folders and other aspects easily. This email client has packed many features without compromising the intuitive nature of the User Interface. Even for someone who hasn’t used an email client before, Airmail is the best place to start.
Better organization of your emails is possible through Airmail, which is a great perk for most people. You can for instance snooze the email messages, star them and manage the whole conversation easily. Because this app is available for both iOS and macOS, you can have benefits of sync as well. Also, you can integrate a lot of services like Dropbox, Calendar and Google Drive with Airmail.
Pros
- Intuitive Interface
- Ample scope for Customization and Integration
- Easy Management
Cons
- Lacks smart categorization of emails
At the end of the day, Airmail is the best-balanced email client for macOS. You don’t have to worry about an extremely tough set-up or hard-to-understand features. For the price you pay, Airmail offers one of the best email and account management experiences.
Check Out Airmail ($9.99)
Which is the best Email client for Mac?
You have seen some of the best email clients you can have right now for macOS. Some of these apps, Spark and Airmail, have multi-device support as well. You can enjoy the same interface and features on your Mac as well as iPhone. Another thing we loved about Spark is that it categorizes emails based on the type, making it really easy for Quick Look.
However, if you need better continuity support, we’d recommend sticking onto the Apple Mail app. And, for anyone who is looking for the best spot between both, Airmail and Postbox would be our recommendations. In other words, depending on the level of features you need, you can choose one of these seven email clients for macOS. Awesome, huh?
Read: How to Send Encrypted Emails in Gmail and Outlook
Over the last few years, email has become an integral part of our daily lives. It has evolved from a simple way to send and receive text between two parties into a familiar and reliable method of communication that can be used as a place to receive newsletters, updates, and notifications from various services, etc. Several email apps have built additional features and experiences on top of the core email technology, such as shared inboxes, team collaboration, delegation, inline comments, etc.
Finding an email client for your Mac is not a trivial task. There are numerous free email apps for Mac that are released every few months and many simply shut down or disappear just as easily. Thankfully, we’ve made it easy for you by picking some of the best email apps out there and highlighting everything you should know about them. By the end of this article, you’ll emerge fully aware why Readdle’s Spark is by far the best email app for Mac.
Here’s our roundup of all the good email clients available for macOS:
1. Apple Mail app
Pricing: Free
Pros: Good set of basic features, well-integrated with the OS, great for starters.
Cons: Lacks advanced features, no customization options, often ignored by Apple.
It’s nearly impossible to talk about the best email apps for Mac and not include Apple’s own Mail.app in the list. Apple Mail is a reliable & solid email app for Mac that is a great option for someone just starting off with email. It comes bundled with macOS and integrates well with the major email service providers. Mail app works best when used with iCloud and automatically sets up the iCloud email account when you set up your iCloud account on your Mac.
It has a basic set of features that are good enough for novice users to get started with the essential email experience. If you’ve just switched to a Mac from a PC, you’ll find the Apple Mail app experience far better than anything you’ve previously used from Microsoft. But you’ll quickly realize that Apple Mail lacks the essential email features that are must-have in today’s day and age and you’ll find yourself searching for the best Apple Mail alternative on Mac.
2. Microsoft Outlook for Mac
Pricing: Free to download, but requires a Microsoft 365 Subscription starting $70/year
Pros: Comes bundled with other Microsoft apps, Built-in Calendar, Dark Mode
Cons: Expensive in the long run, cluttered User Interface, unfamiliar design language on Mac
Microsoft Outlook for Mac is what Apple Mail would be if you threw in a bunch of features and made it look like every other Microsoft app. Unlike the Outlook Mail app on iOS which is praised by many, Outlook for Mac feels like a cluttered mess designed by a team of programmers 10 years ago. It is, however, packed with several great email features. Outlook has what it calls a Focused Inbox, which automatically sorts your important or personal emails into the Focused tab and separates the rest of the junk like newsletters and marketing emails into a separate tab.
Outlook comes bundled with a Microsoft 365 subscription that gives you access to Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, and OneDrive, so if you use any of these apps on your Mac, you can easily start using Outlook for Mac over Apple Mail and take advantage of all its good features. It works with email services like Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud and pretty much anything that supports POP3 or IMAP protocols (I’m looking at you HEY Email). However, if you want a Mac email client that has both a beautiful design & a feature-rich approach, you have to look no further than Spark.
Best Email Client For Mac Reddit
3. Spark
Pricing: Free for Individuals & Small Teams, with optional Premium plans for teams that require more features
Pros: Beautiful & polished design, elegant aesthetics, feature-packed, multi-platform, several team-focused features, great for collaboration.
Cons: Lacks a Windows app (currently in development)
Spark is a beautifully designed and feature-rich email client from the house of Readdle, known for their suite of productivity apps for iOS and Mac. Spark offers a distraction-free email experience through a delightful interface and a very powerful set of features. It works with all major email services like Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, Hotmail, Aol, GMX, Exchange, as well as any IMAP account.
Spark features a Smart Inbox that automatically sorts incoming email in collections of Personal email, Notifications, and Newsletters. This lets you focus on all the important emails first, while the rest of the clutter takes a back seat. This, coupled with the Smart Notifications feature that only alerts you about the important emails is a great way to take control of your inbox and get productive.
Spark comes with a smart & robust email search feature using which you can locate any email buried deep down in an instant. Simply search for what you’re looking for using Natural Language Search terms and Spark will find it for you. Type “Attachments from Nick” to search for all emails from Nick that have attachments in them, and “PDF attachments from David sent last week on Monday” to bring up all those emails from last Monday from David that have PDF files in them. You can even save your frequent searches, so locating those emails is just a click away.
If you don’t feel like attending to an email right away (such as bill reminders or upcoming renewal notifications), you can set the email aside temporarily using the Snooze feature and reduce the clutter in your inbox. You can schedule emails to be sent later, get reminded to follow-up if you don’t get a response by a stipulated deadline, integrate with a bunch of different apps & services, and so much more. Spark has all the features you need to work with email.
One area where Spark really shines is Spark for Teams. Invite your team members to Spark to collectively work on email together. Spark for Teams lets you Delegate emails — complete with a due date, Share & Discuss email with teammates with inline comments, collaborate on email with a real-time editor on Shared Drafts and share your emails with teammates without manually forwarding them and cluttering up their inboxes.
Overall, Spark is a remarkable bundle of all the features you need to work with email. It’s a fantastic email app for Individuals, and even better for teams. You don’t have to deal with two different versions — the same Spark app is the best Mac email client for personal use and adapts itself with built-in features to become the best email app for teams as well.
Best of all, Spark is absolutely free, so you really have no reason to miss out on the wonderful experience that Spark has in store for you.
4. Airmail
Pricing: Free, but requires a Recurring Subscription of $2.99/mo for Pro features
Pros: Loaded with features, fast, and has a Unified Inbox.
Cons: Messy UI that feels like it was hastily put together, requires Pro subscription for most features.
Airmail is a popular email client available for macOS that boasts of several features in its satchel. It supports all the popular email service providers including Exchange, as well as accounts with IMAP or POP3 access. Just like in Spark, there’s an Unified Inbox feature that lets you view emails from all your accounts in one place.
If you have a Mac notebook with a Touch Bar, Airmail puts your frequently used actions on it so that they’re just a tap away. You can, of course, customize these actions with your favorite set. There’s a lovely Dark Mode to help you with the night sessions, Quick Replies for short responses, a Today Widget to get a quick overview of your inbox, and a handy Share Extension so you can instantly email anything using Airmail.
Overall, Airmail is a really good email app for macOS, and would do really well if it wasn’t for its messy UI and it’s requirement of a recurring subscription of $2.99/mo for Pro features that hasn’t gone down well with its users.
5. Mailplane
Pricing: $30
Pros: Brings the familiar Gmail experience with a native interface
Cons: Only works with Gmail, often breaks due to changes by Google
If you have multiple Gmail accounts that you use simultaneously, Mailplane is the app you need to have on your Mac. Simply put, Mailplane is a native Mac app that wraps around the familiar web interface of Google’s products. With Mailplane, you get Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts — all in the same application. You can use multiple accounts in the app, and you can mix and match the accounts & services. For example, you can have Tab 1 for your personal Gmail account, Tab 2 for your G Suite for Work account, and Tab 3 for your Work Calendar account.
Mailplane has a handy notifier that not only alerts you about new emails, but also shows unread messages count in the menu bar. It has a ‘Search Everywhere’ feature that lets you simultaneously search for emails across different mailboxes. It also seamlessly integrates with a bunch of different macOS apps. My favorite Mailplane feature is that since it is essentially a browser for Google’s web UIs, it supports most of the popular third-party extensions to enhance your experience. You can enable Grammarly to improve your language, Simplify/Gmail to clean up the Gmail UI, Boomerang for Gmail to power-up features, Clearbit to add context to email addresses, and so on.
Unfortunately, your experience is still plagued with issues as Mailplane has to depend on Gmail’s web UI for it to work correctly and oftentimes it just fails to load Gmail, asking you to load an basic HTML version instead. You’ll also often be annoyed by Gmail asking you to enter your account credentials to verify yourself if you use too many accounts in Mailplane. To avoid these hassles, you can set up multiple Gmail accounts in Spark for Mac. This way, you get a premium native email experience and you also have access to your Google Calendar and contacts at your disposal.
6. Canary Mail
Pricing: $20
Pros: Good design, with heavy focus on Security & Privacy
Cons: Lacks Team features
Canary Mail is another email app for macOS that puts a heavy focus on privacy and security. It features end-to-end encryption, full PGP support, and an open source mail sync engine, making it a good choice for users who rely on PGP for all their email communication.
Best Email Client For Macbook
Canary has a beautiful design that looks like any other native Mac app built by Apple. There are familiar icons and buttons in the Mac app, and the UI is built to be simple yet powerful. It’s almost like the default Mail app on steroids.
While Canary is a pretty good email app for personal use, it lacks team collaboration features that are the need of the hour today. If you need to discuss emails with your team, need to draft emails together, and want to share emails without manually forwarding them, then Spark Mail app is what you really need.
7. Newton Mail
Pricing: Recurring Subscription of $49.99/yr
Pros: Multi-platform, Minimal & elegant design
Cons: Expensive subscription with an unclear future
Best Email Client For Mac
Newton mail is an immensely popular email app that has spent quite some time in the news cycle lately. The app has an extensive set of features that make it an attractive choice for normal and pro users both. Newton features a very minimalistic user interface that takes the clutter out and lets you focus on the core email experience. Unfortunately, the UI is a little too minimal for many who are bothered by the empty spaces in the app.
In recent times, Newton has managed to alienate its loyal users after it announced that it is shutting down, two times in a row. The first time, the original owners of Cloudmagic announced that they were shutting down Newton, only to be bought over by Andy Rubin’s phone company Essential. Then for round #2, when Essential was shutting down, they announced that Newton would meet its end as well, only to be brought back by two independent fans of the service who didn’t want to see it die. As of now, there’s no clear future for Newton, especially considering that the service is priced at a hefty $50 per year.
When pitted against all the popular email apps for Mac available in the market, Spark Mail app emerges as the best email app for Mac by a long margin. It has the absolute perfect combination of a friendly & elegant user interface along with an extensive & robust set of features. Coupled with its impeccable polish, seamless integrations, phenomenal team features, and highly impressive price of being available for free, there’s really nothing that comes close to being a viable contender. Spark is truly the best email client for Mac.