MailMate vs eM Client

While most email clients support searching content from their To, From and Cc fields, MailMate lets users search down to the different sections of these fields. For example, you can search for the address only, or the name only, or even any one of the embedded headers. Subjects can be searched by prefixes, or by specific words which may be contained within and so on.

MailMate is extremely keyboard-focused. Almost every action can be configured to be achieved through a key combination in the settings. With the help of the keyboard shortcuts you can easily navigate through thousands of messages to find the one you need.

Markdown is a way to format text quickly using only the keyboard. Different text characters create different text: for example, putting asterisks (*) around a word or group of words will italicize them, while double asterisks (**) will bold that text. Markdown is a basic formatting system that can then be adapted to HTML or other formats.

MailMate's UI is very basic. The icons are limited to some default MacOS standard folder images and the interface is very clean and simple, showing only what's needed without any fuss or distracting colours. Instead, opting for a mostly grey interface, with a sprinkle of some other colours here and there.

• you can choose out of tenths of mailheaders (several hundreds including virtual headers)
• "<header> is (not) in <folder> <header>" operator which enables you to do cool filters
• each smart folder can have smart subfolders by an user definable key

Both MailMate's speed and performance are highly reliable.

The official documentation for MailMate is very thorough and helpful. It covers all options and features in a clear and efficient manner.

Faster the Mail.app specially if you have many emails

One can define tupels of IMAP keywords and tags (which are shown in UI). In case of Gmail one can define triples of IMAP Keywords, Tags, and gmail lables.

(in Thunderbird one can only define the tags, whereas the corresponding IMAP keyword is not user-definable.)

Such as sorting through categories, etc.

It is free for 2 accounts and as long as you don't use it commercially. Paid version comes with support and can handle more than 2 accounts.

They've been developing and improving it consistently for years.

eM Client seamlessly integrated the Quick Text extension that was available on Thunderbird. This makes it easy to quickly auto-insert dynamic text, based on many variables, saving time and the need to tediously repeat manual text replies.

eM Client includes integrated chat, so you don't need another application for chatting with your friends. All common chat services supported (Google chat, Jabber and others).

eM Client sends straight .pdf files for fax messages flawlessly.

It saves space, unlike Thunderbird.

But only because it has no alternative.

It provides (almost) complete Gmail functionality (calendar, tasks, chat, contacts), while offering advantages of an application: offline use, more e-mail providers in one place, very good design, support, etc.