When comparing Mozilla Thunderbird vs Mail Pilot, the Slant community recommends Mozilla Thunderbird for most people. In the question“What are the best e-mail clients for macOS?” Mozilla Thunderbird is ranked 4th while Mail Pilot is ranked 20th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Free (as in freedom and beer)
Pro Available on Linux, OS X and Windows
Pro Good filtering system
Mozilla Thunderbird offers a flexible filtering system with the ability to set flags and read/unread, as well as sort/assign to new mail directories. There are also numerous plugins available to assist in the filtering.
Pro Very reliable
Version after version, Mozilla Thunderbird works as expected.
Pro Large assortment of plugins available
Mozilla Thunderbird offers a huge amount of extensions to expand the usability and options of the client.
Pro Great flexibility
More options and extended settings than most power users could dream of. Get it working how YOU want.
Pro Tabs for navigation
Pro Lightning Calendar and Address Book integration
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.
Pro Send large files easy
Install pCloud plugin for Thunderbird and your files (upto 20 GB free storage included) will be received as download links
Pro Good security features
There are options to display URLs you get in emails, or to disable pictures by default if you are afraid of getting malicious data from suspicious emails.
Pro Doubles as a to-do application
Mail Pilot turns emails into tasks. It has a built-in system of setting reminders and collecting emails into groups as to-dos.
Cons
Con Development slowed to only focus on stability and security
Mozilla Thunderbird has slowed down its development of features to only focus resources on security and stability.
Con Outdated interface
Thunderbird's interface is very outdated and unpleasant.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.
Con Terrible integration with macOS
Simple things - drag/dropping pictures doesn't work, for instance.
Con Subject lines can (temporarily) disappear from the list
This is sporadic behavior.
Con Serious bugs
Clicking on a subject line can bring up the wrong email.
Con Makes a huge mess of IMAP mailboxes
Builds many new categories and basically uses IMAP as a database. Makes it difficult to work alongside other mail clients or webmail.
Con Not reliable
Mail Pilot seems to be riddled with bugs and glitches.
Con Not for everyone
Since it's mainly focused to turning emails to tasks and a strong believer of "inbox zero", it may not be suitable for everyone's workflows.
