What are the best email clients for UNIX-like systems?

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Considered

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Recs.

Jan 17, 2024

Last
Updated

Claws Mail vs Mutt vs Evolution

vs Mozilla Thunderbird vs Geary vs Mu4e vs Mailspring vs kmail vs Blue Mail vs Alpine vs Kube vs Sylpheed vs Mutter vs Nylas N1

Specs

Platforms

BSD, Linux, Mac OS, Solaris, Unix, Windows

Search

Yes

IMAP

Yes

POP3

Yes

Multi-Account

Yes

License

Technology

Exchange Support

Developer

GUI

Default Desktop Environment

Release Schedule

Publisher

File Size

In App Purchases

Push Notifications

Threaded

Unified Inbox

Snooze Emails

Minimum Android Version

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

Init-System

OS Family

Minimum Available Storage

Type

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

Decorations

Platforms

Windows, macOS, Linux

Search

Yes

IMAP

POP3

Multi-Account

License

GPLv2+

Technology

Exchange Support

Developer

GUI

Default Desktop Environment

Release Schedule

Publisher

File Size

In App Purchases

Push Notifications

Threaded

Unified Inbox

Snooze Emails

Minimum Android Version

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

Init-System

OS Family

Minimum Available Storage

Type

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

Decorations

Platforms

Linux

Search

Yes

IMAP

Yes

POP3

Yes

Multi-Account

Yes

License

Technology

Exchange Support

Yes

Developer

GUI

Default Desktop Environment

Release Schedule

Publisher

File Size

In App Purchases

Push Notifications

Threaded

Unified Inbox

Snooze Emails

Minimum Android Version

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

Init-System

OS Family

Minimum Available Storage

Type

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

Decorations

Platforms

Windows, macOS, Linux

Search

Yes

IMAP

Yes

POP3

Yes

Multi-Account

Yes

License

Technology

Exchange Support

Yes

Developer

GUI

Default Desktop Environment

Release Schedule

Publisher

File Size

In App Purchases

Push Notifications

Threaded

Unified Inbox

Snooze Emails

Minimum Android Version

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

Init-System

OS Family

Minimum Available Storage

Type

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

Decorations

Platforms

GNU/Linux

Search

Yes

IMAP

Yes

POP3

Multi-Account

License

LGPLv2.1

Technology

Exchange Support

Developer

The GNOME Project

GUI

GNOME

Default Desktop Environment

Release Schedule

Publisher

File Size

In App Purchases

Push Notifications

Threaded

Unified Inbox

Snooze Emails

Minimum Android Version

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

Init-System

OS Family

Minimum Available Storage

Type

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

Decorations

Platforms

Search

IMAP

POP3

Multi-Account

License

Technology

Exchange Support

Developer

GUI

Default Desktop Environment

Release Schedule

Publisher

File Size

In App Purchases

Push Notifications

Threaded

Unified Inbox

Snooze Emails

Minimum Android Version

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

Init-System

OS Family

Minimum Available Storage

Type

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

Decorations

Platforms

Search

IMAP

POP3

Multi-Account

License

Technology

Exchange Support

Developer

GUI

Default Desktop Environment

Release Schedule

Publisher

File Size

In App Purchases

Push Notifications

Threaded

Unified Inbox

Snooze Emails

Minimum Android Version

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

Init-System

OS Family

Minimum Available Storage

Type

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

Decorations

Platforms

Linux, Windows

Search

yes

IMAP

yes

POP3

yes

Multi-Account

yes

License

Technology

Exchange Support

beta

Developer

GUI

Default Desktop Environment

KDE Plasma

Release Schedule

yes

Publisher

File Size

In App Purchases

Push Notifications

Threaded

Unified Inbox

Snooze Emails

Minimum Android Version

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

Init-System

OS Family

Minimum Available Storage

Type

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

Decorations

Platforms

Windows 10/macOS/Linux/Android/iOS/Amazon FireOS

Search

Yes

IMAP

Yes

POP3

Yes

Multi-Account

Yes

License

Technology

Exchange Support

Yes

Developer

GUI

Default Desktop Environment

Release Schedule

Publisher

Blix, Inc.

File Size

Varies with device

In App Purchases

None

Push Notifications

Yes

Threaded

Yes

Unified Inbox

Yes

Snooze Emails

Yes

Minimum Android Version

4.1

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

Init-System

OS Family

Minimum Available Storage

Type

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

Decorations

Platforms

Search

IMAP

POP3

Multi-Account

License

Technology

Exchange Support

Developer

GUI

Default Desktop Environment

Release Schedule

Rolling

Publisher

File Size

In App Purchases

Push Notifications

Threaded

Unified Inbox

Snooze Emails

Minimum Android Version

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

None

Init-System

OpenRC

OS Family

Linux

Minimum Available Storage

130MiB

Type

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

Decorations

Platforms

Search

IMAP

POP3

Multi-Account

License

Technology

Exchange Support

Developer

GUI

Default Desktop Environment

Release Schedule

Publisher

File Size

In App Purchases

Push Notifications

Threaded

Unified Inbox

Snooze Emails

Minimum Android Version

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

Init-System

OS Family

Minimum Available Storage

Type

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

Decorations

Platforms

Search

IMAP

POP3

Multi-Account

License

Technology

Exchange Support

Developer

GUI

Default Desktop Environment

Release Schedule

Publisher

File Size

In App Purchases

Push Notifications

Threaded

Unified Inbox

Snooze Emails

Minimum Android Version

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

Init-System

OS Family

Minimum Available Storage

Type

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

Decorations

Platforms

Search

IMAP

POP3

Multi-Account

License

GPL

Technology

Exchange Support

Developer

GUI

Default Desktop Environment

GNOME

Release Schedule

Publisher

File Size

In App Purchases

Push Notifications

Threaded

Unified Inbox

Snooze Emails

Minimum Android Version

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

Init-System

OS Family

Minimum Available Storage

Type

stacking

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

GTK+

Decorations

CSD

Platforms

Windows, macOS, Linux

Search

IMAP

Yes

POP3

Yes

Multi-Account

Yes

License

Technology

Exchange Support

Developer

GUI

Default Desktop Environment

Release Schedule

Publisher

File Size

In App Purchases

Push Notifications

Threaded

Unified Inbox

Snooze Emails

Minimum Android Version

Minimum Windows Version

Based On

Init-System

OS Family

Minimum Available Storage

Type

Programming Language

Widget Toolkit

Decorations

Pros + Cons

Con
Interface looks old and setup is not easy

The icons as well as the rest of the interface look like an application from the early 90's, with this there is also no easy setup options built in like the more modern e-mail clients.

Comment

Con
Requires extensions for some basic, if necessary, features

Mail compression (archiving), notifications, address database management along with numerous other core features of a business email client are sadly lacking and require the installation of extensions which bloat the app and slow it down.

Comment

Con
Saves emails in uncompressed format

This takes more space on the HDD.

Comment

Pro
Open-Source

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Highly customizable

Clean interface with 5 layout variants.

Comment

Pro
Many extensions

Has many plugins for extra functionality.

Comment

Pro
Saves emails in uncompressed readable format

Allows one to read archived emails with a text editor.

Comment

Pro
Has very strong filters

The filters a much stronger than in Thunderbird.

Comment

Pro
Clean interface with 5 layout variants

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Comment

Pro
Has many plugins for extra functionality

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Comment

Pro
Good support for Google's services

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Comment

Pro
Low resource client

Claws Mail is a low resource e-mail client that is often default in low resource Linux distributions.

Comment

Con
Not very good with HTML processing

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Comment

Pro
PGP encryption available via addon

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Comment

Pro
PGP encryption available via addon

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Comment

Pro
Uses vi-like keybinding

For users who use vim and other tools with vi-like keybindings will find themselves right at home with mutt. It uses some keybindings that are similar to vi. You can also set different keybindings and configure them in whichever way you are most comfortable.

Comment

Pro
Very lightweight

Mutt is a text-based terminal application. It's very light on resources and doesn't even require a display server to run since it runs inside the terminal.

Comment

Pro
Extremely configurable

Mutt is a very configurable email client. From the overall colorscheme, to buffer placement, to keybindings can be customized.

Comment

Pro
Can be integrated with terminal-based web browsers

You can use a terminal-based web browser (such as w3m) to open html emails right from the terminal.

Comment

Pro
Transferring email settings to another machine is incredibly simple.

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Terminal based

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Comment

Pro
Small and efficient

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Comment

Pro
Threads emails

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Comment

Pro
Highly Configurable Macros

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Comment

Pro
Active development

Even though it was first released in 1995, Mutt still enjoys an active community following it and having new releases constantly.

Comment

Pro
Compose mails in your favorite editor

Edit mails efficiently with an editor you already can work fluently with.

Comment

Pro
Work with regular expressions

Mails can be filtered, deleted, flagged, etc. with regular expressions which makes mail management very efficient.

Comment

Pro
It runs inside the terminal

It doesn't display HTML email, fonts, or graphical elements.

Comment

Pro
Highly configurable macros

[add description]

Comment

Con
Requires a password

It requires a password in the muttrc file. There are other ways to set it up though. Take gmail for example, you can generate a password for mutt, but the password could also be used by others to manage your emails.

Comment

Con
Does not display html well

There is a lot of html code there.

Comment

Con
Requires some familiarity with the terminal

Since it's a CLI-based application, Mutt requires some familiarity with the terminal and CLI to be used to its full potential.

Comment

Pro
Great integration with Gnome environment

Provides desktop notifications and integration with GNOME Calendar.

Comment

Pro
Manages contacts, tasks, calendar and memos as well

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Excellent GPG support

The integration with GPG is excellent. You can sign, encrypt, decrypt, authenticate and verify GPG signatures and GPG signed/encrypted email messages. All of that is just a setting away.

Comment

Pro
Supports exchange servers

Evolution is one of the few Linux desktop e-mail clients that's supports exchange servers.

Comment

Pro
Good support for Google's services

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Clean interface with 2 layout variants

Going to View > Preview has the option of switching between "Classical View" and "Vertical View".

Comment

Con
Tied to Gnome

Pulls in Gnome.

Comment

Pro
HTML rendering is great

Of the many email clients available on GNU/Linux, Evolution has the best HTML renderer. It renders HTML and the entire email content exactly like it would appear on a full blown web browser. Not many email clients are capable of doing that.

Comment

Con
Does more than one thing

Not UNIX-like since it has other things such as calendar

Comment

Con
Poor integration in any non-GNOME desktop

it is written with GNOME in mind.

Comment

Con
Can't choose different settings for each mail account

Settings have to applied to all mail accounts.

Comment

Con
RAM heavy

Very heavy on RAM usage.

Comment

Pro
Stable

This program is very stable and can handle large volume inboxes well.

Comment

Pro
Available on Linux, OS X, and Windows

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Comment

Pro
Easy to use

Setting up your email accounts is quick and simple.

Comment

Pro
Very reliable

Version after version, Mozilla Thunderbird works as expected.

Comment

Pro
Lightning Calendar and Address Book integration

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Comment

Pro
Large assortment of plugins

Thunderbird offers a huge amount of extensions to expand the usability and options of the client.

Comment

Pro
Good filtering system

Flexible filtering system with the ability to set flags and read/unread as well as sort/assign to new mail directories. Numerous plugins to assist in the filtering, as well.

Comment

Pro
Consistent user interface

App design has not changed significantly since its beginning, making its learning curve negligent.

Comment

Pro
Free (as in freedom and beer)

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Comment

Pro
Great and lightning fast search engine

Its search engine lets you find a message quick, with a bunch of filters and showed in a graphical timeline way.

Comment

Pro
Allows multiple accounts with different servers/settings

Very flexible, allowing you to easily post as different users/in different roles.

Comment

Pro
Large assortment of plugins available

Mozilla Thunderbird offers a huge amount of extensions to expand the usability and options of the client.

Comment

Con
Outdated interface

Thunderbird's interface is very outdated and unpleasant. It feels more like a Windows XP application than like a modern MacOS one.

Comment

Con
Development slowed to only focus on stability and security

Thunderbird has slowed down its development of features to only focus resources on security and stability.

Comment

Con
Serious bugs

Clicking on a subject line can bring up the wrong email.

Comment

Con
Doesn't have native support for Exchange and Office 365 servers

If the corporative network has IMAP blocked, Thunderbird is useless there.

Comment

Con
Feature Creep

Thunderbird isn't just an email client but a task manager, calendar, and chat client. It even has a default search engine and tabs. It's the most bloated email client / internet productivity suite.

Comment

Con
Terrible integration with macOS

Simple things - drag/dropping pictures doesn't work, for instance.

Comment

Con
Subject lines can (temporarily) disappear from the list

This is sporadic behavior.

Comment

Pro
Can share/copy settings with other platforms

It is possible to copy the setup folder to other platforms (e.g. a Windows laptop) to save the hassle of setting up all email accounts individually again.

Comment

Pro
Send large files easy

Install pCloud plugin for Thunderbird and your files (up to 20 GB free storage provided) will be received as download links.

Comment

Pro
Consistent and involving a moderate learning curve

The app design of Mozilla Thunderbird has not changed significantly since its beginning, making its learning curve almost non-existent.

Comment

Pro
Tabs for navigation

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Comment

Con
It's Mozilla

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Comment

Con
It's Mozilla

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Comment

Pro
Easy to use

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Comment

Pro
Beautiful UI

Everything about the look and feel of Geary is a breath of fresh air after the clunkiness and ugliness of it's competitors.

Comment

Pro
Clean UI

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Comment

Con
Good interface, but search barely works

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Comment

Pro
Lightweight

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Comment

Pro
Fast and responsive

Geary is faster than most e-mail applications, upon starting the program or even just browsing in folders.

Comment

Con
No Pop3 support

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Comment

Pro
Works in the background

Yet, this feature is not active by default. To activate, go to Preferences -> Always watch for new mail.

Comment

Pro
Simple account setup

This is the case even for IMAP accounts.

Comment

Pro
Straightforward and simple UI

Setting up accounts is a simple as putting in the users e-mail address and password.

Comment

Pro
GNOME native

For those who use GNOME DE this app will feel right at home. This includes native notifications and notification badges on the dock (number of unread mails in the app icon). It still doesn't integrate with Online Accounts.

Comment

Pro
Client side decoration (CSD)

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Comment

Pro
Threaded conversations

Threaded conversations means all subsequent replies are view-able underneath the initial e-mail.

Comment

Con
No unified inbox

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Comment

Pro
SQLite DB for email

It uses SQLite DB for storing email messages from all accounts in one single DB file. This makes it portable as in you can just copy one SQLite DB file and move your offline mail content to another PC/location. Also, one SQLite DB file for all messages means it is incredibly fast.

Comment

Con
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Comment

Con
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Comment

Con
You need to enable "less safe apps" in Google accounts

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Comment

Pro
Native GNOME application

It looks and works like a GNOME application should, so it Just Works™.

Comment

Con
No integration with GNOME Online Accounts

Online Accounts integration would allow the user to allow access to the emails in one place only. Instead you have to login twice if you want to use Online Accounts and Geary.

Comment

Con
No spellchecking other than English

Yet they are working on it: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=720335

Comment

Pro
UI optimized for speed

The UI is designed to allow for quick keystrokes to get around and is pretty clean. Header View: Message View:

Comment

Pro
Built-in Autocomplete

Doesn't require you to import address books for autocomplete, learns from your emails just like Gmail.

Comment

Pro
Fully search based

Mu4e has no folders or other organizational tools, rather it relies on very fast search queries to help you find your mail.

Comment

Pro
Asynchronous

Heavy actions never block emacs, unlike most other emacs email clients.

Comment

Pro
Can write rich text emails

Using the (beta) org mode, Mu4e can compose fully rich text emails.

Comment

Con
Poor privacy client

You need to create a mailspring ID in order to start the client. And let mailspring to have access to many things from your online profile, too much sensible and using mailspring servers as intermediate servers between the client and the servers.

Comment

Con
Can't use without creating a Mailspring ID

There is no need to create a third party ID for an email client. What if the Mailspring closes in the future - can't install a previously downloaded Mailspring software any more to continue using it or access your stored emails?

Comment

Pro
Neat UI

The UI is very well designed and neat.

Comment

Pro
Open source

The Mailspring UI is open source and development happens on GitHub so you can find and report issues easily. (Note: only the UI is open source, the application itself is closed.)

Comment

Pro
Amazing features

Snooze - allows an email to be snoozed until a date/time you desire. Reminder - sends a notification if there is no reply until a certain date to the email you sent.

Comment

Pro
Great integration with Gmail

Mailspring has great integration with gmail features and tags.

Comment

Pro
CPU / battery efficient

Mailspring uses a C++ sync engine designed to be as efficient as possible, so you can leave the app running and not see your laptop battery life drain away.

Comment

Con
Pro subscription model

To use some features, like contact profiles and link tracking more than a few times a month, you need to pay for a Pro subscription.

Comment

Pro
Unified inbox

Using a single inbox for all of your email accounts helps you get more done in less time. Mailspring supports every major mail provider—Gmail, iCloud, Office 365, Outlook.com, Yahoo!, and IMAP/SMTP—so you have a single, streamlined command center for all your messages.

Comment

Pro
Snapcraft distribution

Mailspring is available as a snap so it auto-updates and you can install it easily on almost all Linux distros.

Comment

Pro
Read receipts and link tracking

Activity tracking is built into Mailspring so you get notified as soon as contacts read your messages and can follow up appropriately.

Comment

Pro
Snoozing support

You can swipe to archive / snooze messages and specify when you'd like them to resurface in your inbox.

Comment

Con
No address book

[add description]

Comment

Con
Does not support POP

Just IMAP.

Comment

Con
Very limited user interface

No way to see the messages as a list, no way to rearrange views.

Comment

Con
No way to see messages as plain text

And HTML is only optional.

Comment

Con
UI is sluggish (Windows)

Click and only after a tiny delay (~half second) something happens.

Comment

Con
Does not support multi-user installation (Windows)

But instead installs to the user's home directory.

Comment

Pro
Touch support

On touch-screen Linux laptops you can swipe to archive mail and the buttons are all large enough for touch interaction.

Comment

Con
Some paid features

There's a Pro version of Mailspring and the app nudges you to upgrade after you link your fourth email account.

Comment

Con
Bug when configuring an IMAP email

See here.

Comment

Con
No support for POP3

For incoming emails, Mailspring does not support POP3.

Comment

Con
Buggy as of 2020

There are many bugs which are hard to track down in kmail, sometimes without any useful logs for troubleshooting. Sometimes the bugs are related to supportive applications like Akonadi, ect.

Comment

Pro
Proper kde intergation

Its the only graphical email client which is properly integrated into kde plasma.

Comment

Con
Poor UX

The user experience of kmail is extremely poor comparison to Thunderbird or evolution on Linux.

Comment

Con
Buggy related kdepim applications

kmail by itself isn't the only application which is buggy, the many of the kdepim applications are buggy as of spring 2020.

Comment

Con
No google support

You cant pass google 'Authentication' for the majority of the kdepim applications, The only support which works is via the kde 'online accounts' under 'system settings'. This only supports youtube and google hangouts integration.

Comment

Pro
Has system tray icon

Good integration with plasma 5

Comment

Con
Akonadi

Akonadi needs lot of ram

Comment

Pro
Supports POP3 and IMAP mailboxes

[add description]

Comment

Con
Not a great choice for privacy

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Highly customizable notifications

Offers a lot of different preferences (like Quiet Hours, Custom Sounds, Vibrate, LED Light, Snooze Alerts, etc.). You can set different preferences for each of your accounts.

Comment

Pro
On-screen contextual help

Alpine has contextual help that can be displayed on-screen. Removing the need to consult the man pages every time you forget a command or how to do something inside it.

Comment

Pro
Extremely user-friendly

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Can use the built-in text editor or can be integrated with another text editor

Alpine comes with pico, a lightweight text editor which can also be used as a standalone tool. It can also be integrated with vi, vim, emacs, etc... if the user prefers to do so.

Comment