When comparing K-9 vs Boxer, the Slant community recommends K-9 for most people. In the question“What are the best e-mail clients for Android? ” K-9 is ranked 2nd while Boxer is ranked 16th. The most important reason people chose K-9 is:
K-9 is available for free and licensed under the Apache License version 2.0 with source code available [here](https://code.google.com/p/k9mail/).
Specs
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Pros
Pro Free an open source
K-9 is available for free and licensed under the Apache License version 2.0 with source code available here.
Pro No privacy concerns
Pro Lightweight
K-9 mail does not use too many system resources when using the app, which allow it to be fast and lightweight.
Pro Complete PGP encryption
It's possible to complete encrypt email communications via PGP using K-9.
Pro imap
Works well with locally maintained IMAP server.
Pro Optimized for phone and tablet
On a tablet the UI looks a little different but given the extra real estate is logical.
Options to enable UI widgets a plus, can be enabled on a tablet and disabled on a phone.
Pro Material UI version
There is a fork of K-9 available on Google Play that uses Material design, improves the interface a lot.
Pro Excellent email threading
Threaded email support is better than most.
Pro Swipe actions
Swipe a message to the left to archive, swipe right to place it in a to-do list.
Pro Supports Gmail labels
Boxer has Gmail labels fully supported.
Pro Integrates with other services
There's Dropbox and Box support for cloud storage, LinkedIn and Facebook support for social profiling, Evernote support for notes, etc.
Pro Quick-responses
Click the 'quick' button below when composing a message to put a prewritten snippet of text inside the email. There's a set of ready-made solutions, but you can add your own.
Pro Allows "liking" messages
You can automatically send a quick message of appreciation to the sender by clicking like.
Pro Combined inbox
Boxer uses a combined inbox for all your accounts.
Pro Reminders
Cons
Con Dead app
Con Emails received as forwarded EML attachments are not natively supported
When you receive an email which was forwarded as an EML attachment, K-9 Mail is not able to open it natively. It opens it using a third-party application registered for this mime-type on the device, if any. The Gmail email client app is able to read the EML attachments, thus you need to have it installed as well (or any other EML capable app).
Con Noisy UI
The user interface is bland and tries to cram a lot of information on screen, making it unpleasant to use.