When comparing Mailspring vs MailMate, the Slant community recommends MailMate for most people. In the question“What are the best e-mail clients for macOS?” MailMate is ranked 1st while Mailspring is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose MailMate is:
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.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Great integration with Gmail
Mailspring has great integration with gmail features and tags.
Pro Neat UI
The UI is very well designed and neat.
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.
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.
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.
Pro Snoozing support
You can swipe to archive / snooze messages and specify when you'd like them to resurface in your inbox.
Pro Unlimited number of accounts
Only in the paid version though.
Pro Extremely powerful search features
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.
Pro Keyboard focused
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.
Pro Markdown support
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.
Pro Clean, no-fuss interface
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.
Pro Smart folders on steroids
- 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
Pro Reliable
Both MailMate's speed and performance are highly reliable.
Pro Great documentation
The official documentation for MailMate is very thorough and helpful. It covers all options and features in a clear and efficient manner.
Pro Columns (which have gone missing in Apple Mail in Catalina)
Pro Faster
Faster the Mail.app specially if you have many emails
Pro Nice tagging support
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.)
Pro The only mail app compatible with BusyContact in Catalina
Cons
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?
Con Slow updates and bug fixes
It takes months to fix some simple bugs. For example, they can't fix bug with notifications on mac OS from April 2019! Upd: they fixed it after 6-7 months
Con Unstable, have to keep fixing passwords
You have to keep "updating the password" because it continuously finds it hard to sync with multiple Outlook accounts.
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.
Con No addressbook
Con No way to see messages as plain text
And HTML is only optional.
Con Does not support Microsoft Exchange
Con Very limited user interface
No way to see the messages as a list, no way to rearrange views.
Con No portable windows (.zip) bundle available
Con Does not support POP
Just IMAP.
Con Does not support multi-user installation (Windows)
But instead installs to the user's home directory.
Con UI is sluggish (Windows)
Click and only after a tiny delay (~half second) something happens.
Con Hard to master
For occasional users who only write emails to friends and loved ones, MailMate's features may be a bit of an overkill since it's designed for power users who spend a lot of time writing and reading/organizing emails.
Con Not so "native" Gmail support
Because it's more IMAP native, and Gmail uses some non-native IMAP stuff (according to MailMate's documentation).
Con Ugly!
Seriously dated UI and looks too much like Apple Mail
Con No POP or Exchange support
MailMate supports IMAP and IMAP only, there's no POP or Exchange support.
Con A little steep price
$50