AirMail is an alternative email client for Mac OS X that offers many great features and allows for usability with your IMAP-based webmail of choice. AirMail features great user interface for the design, but some of the buttons and features can sometimes be hard to see. Best and Top Mail Apps for Mac OS X Mountain Lion, we have short information about each of them to show various features. In Mac, we have a beautiful Email client app called. If you are bored looking at the same mail interface from Snow Leopard, then this article will become your favorite without any doubt, as we are about to suggest.

I’m still lamenting the death of SparrowSparrow - A New Gmail Desktop Client for Mac UsersSparrow - A New Gmail Desktop Client for Mac UsersRead More, a fantastic mail app that was acquired by Google and thrown into the recycle bin. I’m not over it yet. Since Sparrow’s untimely demise, I’ve tried a number of alternatives to find the best way to use Gmail on a Mac.

A few specific things are important in my search. My highest priorities are support for Gmail labels and stars, multiple-account support, sorting options, and, if possible, a pleasing interface. Of these, strong support for Gmail labelling is the most important, as I use it to manage an overwhelming amount of communication.

Here’s what I found.

Apps That Didn’t Make the Cut

First, let’s take a quick look at which desktop clients aren’t in this review. There are a few notable ones here, and I’ll address them quickly. I didn’t include Apple MailHow to Make Apple Mail a Better Desktop Email ClientHow to Make Apple Mail a Better Desktop Email ClientTake the time to set up Apple's boring email client just right, and make email processing as painless as possible.Read More, because it just doesn’t work all that well with Gmail. You can copy emails to folders to mimic the labelling functionality, but there’s no way to label an email and leave it in your inbox. It works, but it’s not great.

Inky, Thunderbird, and MailPilot weren’t included because they don’t have label support. To be fair, some of the apps below aren’t great with labels either. But they have some cool features that seem worth including. MailPlane and Kiwi are just the browser interface taken out of your browser. Boxy is the same, but for Inbox.

I’m sure there are others out there. If you’re foaming at the mouth because I missed something, let me know in the comments.

Airmail ($10)

Although all of the apps listed here are purported to work well with Gmail, AirmailAirmail for Mac OS X Is Making Email Beautiful AgainAirmail for Mac OS X Is Making Email Beautiful AgainWhen I first heard of Airmail, I must admit I questioned if I really needed a new way to check my email. Like many people, Mail.app satisfied all of my email requirements, and I struggled...Read More was clearly designed from the ground up with it in mind. For example, it’s easy to label and archive messages. And it’s possible to label messages without archiving them. This is a rare feature outside of the browser interface, and can be extremely useful.

It’s easy to switch from a unified inbox to a label view from a single account, making this a good option for people with multiple accounts. It also works well with non-Gmail accounts, making it very flexible. Stars work the same way they do in Gmail, so you don’t have to worry about them getting messed up during a sync. And Gmail shortcutsEssential Shortcuts to Browse through Gmail FasterEssential Shortcuts to Browse through Gmail FasterRead More mean you can continue flying through email with your keyboard.

Because this app integrates so well with Gmail, you can use the Gmail or Inbox mobile apps without messing up labels, stars, or archiving. Airmail also has an iOS app, available for $5, but the desktop app’s perfect sync capabilities mean you don’t need to buy it if you’re happy with one of Gmail’s native options. I’m currently using Airmail on my Mac and Inbox on my phone, and it works very well.

Unibox ($16)

This “people-centric” app places a strong emphasis on the idea of natural conversation in email. In order to do this, your emails are grouped by person instead of by conversation. You can still view your email conversations if you need to, though. While I found this method of organization difficult to get used to, some will find it natural.

I ran into a couple small snags while testing Unibox. For example, some emails that I had previously archived were showing up in my unified inbox. I also found that the app uses folders instead of labels. When you select “Move To,” the message is archived with a specific label. So my system of labeling items in the inbox isn’t supported.

That being said, anyone looking for a client that organizes mail by contacts should check out Unibox. The interface is very minimal and stays out of your way, it’s easy to set up, and does its job.

Postbox ($40)

Postbox provides solutions to most of the problems Gmail users will be looking for. The interface is fairly minimal, and provides a lot of shortcuts for getting to specific sets of emails. The focus pane lets you get to specific tags (not labels) quickly, as well as filters by things like “has attachment” and “subscription.”

Unfortunately, there’s no support for labels. As with most desktop clients, they’re simply treated as folders, and when you assign a folder, the email is archived. You can add Topics, which function sort of like labels, but you’ll need to customize the list; it’s not imported from your labels in Gmail. And they aren’t displayed especially well.

Beyond the lack of good label support, this is a good option that will let you work through your email quickly. You can also use Gmail keyboard shortcuts, which will help longtime Gmail users adjust. Is it worth $40? Unless you really love the tagging and focus pane, probably not.

MailMate ($50)

This is billed as an email client for power users; customizable keyboard shortcuts, Markdown capabilityLearning Markdown: Write For The Web, FasterLearning Markdown: Write For The Web, FasterMarkdown is the best way to write in plain text but still create complex documents. Unlike HTML or LaTex, for example, Markdown is simple to learn.Read More, advanced search and smart mailboxes, encryption, and a host of other features make this one of the most capable email clients out there. It’s not especially intuitive, but once you learn it, it can be a very powerful way to manage your communications.

Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get it to connect to my Gmail account, so I can’t tell you a whole lot about it. Many of our readers recommend MailMate, and say that it’s worth the hefty price tag. Like Postbox, you can’t directly use your Gmail labels, but you can tag your messages and deal with them that way.

If you’re comfortable with the more technical side of importing accounts (like IMAP and SMTPIMAP vs. POP3: What Is It and Which One Should You Use?IMAP vs. POP3: What Is It and Which One Should You Use?If you have ever set up an email client or app, you will have certainly come across the terms POP and IMAP. Do you remember which one you chose and why? If you are not...Read More) and you’re not afraid of a steep learning curve, this may be a great option.

Conclusion

After this search and a lot of testing, Airmail is the app I’ll be using on my own desktop. The fact that it works so seamlessly with Gmail sets it clearly above the other options. If you want a desktop client for Gmail, it’s absolutely worth $10.

Do you use a desktop client for Gmail, or do you prefer webmail? Which clients have you tried? Share your experiences in the comments below!

Explore more about: Desktop Email Client, Gmail.

1. Just discovered another GMail client named Nylas-Mail https://nylas.com/nylas-mail/
   It is free and opensource https://github.com/nylas/nylas-mail
   BUT, and for me is a bit concerning because there are quite a few issues regarding privacy and security.
   The team of Nylas seems to calm everyone by saying that data is not shared as long as you're a free user yet people dont trust that completely and provide other proofs.
   Basically you have to sign up to their service in order to use the mail client hence the concerns.

2. Whoa. These comments go back pretty far. I'm impressed that Mr. Albright is still providing feedback.

   I checked out the reviews of Airmail in the app store. They're bad enough that I wouldn't have even considered downloading it had I not read this review first. I can't tell if reviewers are focusing on minutiae that's irrelevant for the average user, if they're frustrated with the learning curve required for a new program, if these issues apply to every email client and this is just the best we can hope for right now, or if their concerns are indeed legitimate and they're right to complain.

3. My needs seem to differ a bit: I actually prefer 'filing' my messages into folders rather than labeling, and just need something that is fast and doesn't 'break' gmail. Interface-wise, I actually prefer Apple Mail over most clients, but it can be randomly slow with Gmail and is a real pain to deal with if you take a long time composing a message -- mainly because you end up with multiple draft copies sitting in your drafts folder. You can get around that issue by setting your Drafts to be use a local folder instead of syncing with Gmail, but that becomes an issue if you use multiple computers (since that draft you were working on at your desktop will not be synced to your laptop or mobile device).

   I've tried a handful of alternative apps, but seem to keep running into one of two main issues:
   1. Many older apps that tout themselves as made-for-Gmail are just browser wrappers for the web client. There was one specifically that was literally running an instance of Chrome behind the interface, and killed my laptop battery as a result. While I actually prefer Chrome for some uses, I try to avoid using it on my laptop because it is so resource heavy; I get MUCH better battery life if I use Safari for most of my web browsing.
   2. I hate preview panes, but many of these apps give no option to avoid using them. I know I'm old-school in this, but I prefer to just see my folder on the left and a list of messages on the right -- with mail messages opening in a separate window. I really like the functionality and interface of Spark (which is my default mail client on iOS), but the macOS client refuses to let you work without the preview pane.

   For now, I keep waffling back and forth between Apple Mail and Gmail's web interface (Outlook 2016 is decent, but I reserve that for my work's Exchange account as I accidentally emailed my boss from my Gmail too many times with them integrated haha). If Apple Mail would just fix the Drafts folder issue, or if Spark let me get rid of the preview pane, I'd probably settle on one of those. Until then, I'm still searching...

4. I've been trying to find a decent Gmail desktop app for over 18 months now. I wanted to change the way I organise my email and foud Postbox, then I discovered the fact it didn't support labels and I had big problems with it crashing, so was pretty annoyed at the fact I had set up all my topics and then wasted a lot of time. Having recently subscribed to Office 365, I decided to give Outlook a try... after 3 months I'm not liking it much as no label support and now I'm moving to another Mac, so its time to try something better.

   So thanks for the article and I will give Airmail a try.

5. You forgot about Spark. In my opinion the best one at 0€.

   • Does Spark really support gmail labels? I've read reports that it will import labels from gmail but doesn't allow the creation of new labels. ...and how does it maintain *both* labels and folders?

   • Does Spark really support gmail labels? I've read reports that it imports labels from gmail but doesn't allow the creation of new labels. ...and how does it handle folders and labels simultaneously? (I.e. how would it know which gmail labels should behave as folders and which should behave as labels?)

6. Airmail doesn't support a second factor authentication as implemented by Okta or others.

7. I'm concerned about security with Airmail, I'm using the Airmail beta version for testing v 2.6. It automatically configured my gmail, iCloud and another IMAP account and I'm not sure the security configuration for my accounts is sending out my password in clear text or encrypted: incoming server security set to 'NONE' for iCloud, “PLAIN' for my imap account and “LOGIN” for gmail account. Anyone know if this app is sending out credentials securely?

   Thanks!

   • No Airmail 2.6 for Mac do not have push notification and does not store your credentials or messages on our servers. Gmail tabs support is planned.

8. No mention of the fact that Airmail still doesn't support Google's mail tabs (Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates), which makes Airmail pretty useless if you've been using Gmail web interface or something like Mailplane.

   Maybe upvoting that a bit might help?

9. Nice review. Just a quick question, is it possible to move mails from one account to another in Airmail?

10. Thunderbird worked fine for both POP Earthlink AND IMAP Google for a few days ... then it won't download gMail.

    GOOGLE BULLY !

11. I have not used Thunderbird before and I find I can have mailBox for both POP and IMAP. I am in the process of setting up multiple accounts.

    I don't know how easy it is to set up mail boxes yet. MacMail compared to Eudora is a pain, but at least I can retrieve both POP and IMAP on MacMail.

    Because of my experience with mail clients failing at some point, or the server won't deliver to some mail clients, and not to others for a period of time, I need to have my mail backed up in various places to be bullet proof.

    I'll see how this goes ... Unfortunately Thunderbird does not work on iPhone ...

    I was hoping to find a mail client to use on both iPhone and the MacBook Pros that i have. I'm still waiting for someone to design a mail client as robust and flexible as Eudora. If you did not use it to it's full capacity over a period of years, it is hard to understand the robust capabilities ... I have Eudora on another computer running Snow Leopard just so that I can find the mail I need, but I can't trust that old computer to do run the art applications because it is too small HD.

    • Funny to see someone mention good ol' Eudora. Love of my email life. People have absolutely -no- idea of what they are missing with this mail client. Of course - if you don't live, breath, eat, and die by information, then it doesn't matter. But for those of us that do/did, Eudora is sort of like the Moon space program. Cost enormous amounts of money to make, was built insanely well, and had capabilities that are no longer existent or even understood.
      All of these current clients are missing robust search functions that let you sort and search years and tens of thousands of emails in an intelligent and refined way. This is critical when you need to pull out old information with just a single possible keyword.
      So critical, I run a VMWare Snow Leopard 10.6 session on my Yosemite OS mac. It's a crazy thing to do, but for some of us, our email boxes are like mind maps - like cybernetic memories. And Eudora dying is like a burnt out chip implant in our brains - unupgradable, unfixable, debilitating and painful - since no one was -capable- of building anything like it with a cheap 'freemium' biz model.
      How the hell did email become so depreciated that nobody knows what a real email client could actually be capable of? Apple mail is almost worthless. I understand this, as Apple leaves real client software efforts to real developers. But it seems building something the magnitude of Eudora is not something a few 20 something devs using github, grubhub, Soylent, and caffeine can pound out in a few sweaty equity months, so we have toys that are bought and killed by Acme MegaCorp if they remotely start to function. Craaaazy man...

12. I would not have discovered MailMate without this article. I just downloaded the 30-day full trial.

    I gotta say I really like it. It automatically set up and downloaded 8 mailboxes based upon what I had in Mac Mail.

    I'm reading the 'instructions' my only questions is can I download earthlink mail as well like I can in Mac Mail.

    This is a really really fine mail client. If I can't find something that functions with gMail as well as this, I might spring for the $49 ...which is something we really cannot afford at this time, but I can't be using a web server browser screen for mail at this point during my life, LOL.

    Thanks again for the article ! In the meanwhile I'll check out some of the others.

13. Apologies, I'm so annoyed with my lack of downloading gMail that I completely forgot to THANK YOU for the wonderful research ... I'll give a few a try ... but please peeps, forget PostBox. Very unreliable.

14. PostBox *used* to work with gMail ... I have spent months trying to get it to work and it will not.

    I use MacMail as it will download both Earthlink and gMail ... however now THAT will now download gMail either!

    So I'm looking for a mail client to use as a backup for my gMail mail. It goes to the iPhone but not Mavericks desktop. This is very frustrating as I backup my Hubby's mail on my Mac and now his Google mail has been lost several times and I have no backup.

    I want a mail client that LOOKS and WORKS like Eudora ... that I can write scripts for and have a ROBUST mail client like that. One that never fails and for me -- I hate stars, personalities, and all that garbage.

    I want a regular dependable mail client that will down load for IMAP and POP and will do stuff in folders like Mac Mail and Eudora but will ALWAYS work with gMail.

    DropBox is owned by relation to Bush ... no wonder peeps were saying that DropBox is not secure !

    I guess I'll have to wait for the reincarnation of Eudora or a different MacMail ....

    Thank goodness I never gave up my Earthlink emails (almost 20 years) for that stupid free gMail as they keep blocking my downloads when I have never asked for that and it seems almost impossible to get them running again. It worked for a year and then nothing. No matter how many times I delete an account, change the password, etc. etc.

    We need some creative programs who will do a labor of love and create an AWESOME mail client.

15. Geez, I guess desktop email apps are just out of style on Windows and Mac. I'm not crazy about any of these.

    Postbox looks good, but it has gone up to $15. That seems like a lot considering probably 80% of the code came to them at no charge.

    I was entertained by the Condoleezza Rice comment considering the context of this article: GOOGLE mail clients. Worrying about privacy in Mailbox is like going back into a burning house to see if you left the oven on.

16. Why not just simply use Apple Mail app?? It has a nice interface and handles multiple email accounts nicely and does all the cool things you seem to like works flawlessly in the Mail app.

17. thanks for the comparison

18. Airmail has an iOS version coming soon as well. Can't wait!

19. Check out kiwi for gmail (gmail for mac on kickstarter)

20. Thanks for your review. I am going to buy Airmail because you mentioned the one feature that I really want and have not been able to find: the ability to label a message without archiving it. I have tried Mailbox, Outlook, and Postbox.

    Thanks!

21. I've been using the Gmail web app for about 6-7 years now, but since became a freelancer I travel so much, I felt I needed a desktop client so I could work offline at airports, on trains, etc.

    I've tried out a few options above but none was perfect:

    Mailbox: really like the simplicity and the interface, but for some weird reason, it didn't mirror the current state of my (empty) Gmail inbox, hence I had 4200 unread messages, which isn't very helpful.

    Airmail: like the interface, but when I tried to work offline, annoying messages popped up that it couldn't send the messages. More annoyingly, it doesn't offer the not very complicated outbox feature, so all the unsent messages were categorised as 'Drafts' and I had to send them manually, once I had connection again.

    Postbox: ruled it out as you have to decrease the security of your gmail account, which I was not willing to do.

    • Now that it has been a few months, how has Mailbox worked out for you? Being able to get things accomplished while offline is one of the main reasons why I don't use Webmail. That can really boost productivity while you're on the road.

      I've been using Apple Mail for everything (including Gmail) over the years, but now that I'm collecting emails from 10+ mailboxes, the volume has really bogged down the app. I keep deleting, but it's problematic to have tens of thousands of emails.

      I want to separate my Gmails from my domain emails, which I've already done on iOS devices w/ the Gmail app. Now I'm looking for the best email client for Gmail on the desktop!

22. I am looking for another email program to use. I have been using Thunderbird for nearly 10 years, on a PC and now on a Mac Book Air, for the last 3 years.. I have been very happy with Thunderbird and would still use it, if it would operate correctly with the new apple update OS X Yosemite. Since I downloaded OS X, Sending a photo with Thunderbird can no longer happen.. Apple have made the files where your photo are kept, very hard to find for Thunderbird.. In fact the photo file that TB tries to find isn't there.. As TB is so old and OS X so new the, it seems they have different ways of finding things.. I'm not very happy with the way Photos in OS X has sorted out my files a lot more work and harder to move photos around. In time we will all get use to using Photos but in the mean time there will be a lot of unhappy people.. Has any body else had trouble with OS X trying to email photos?

    Looking at some of the other email programs no one has mentioned emailing photos?

    Look forward to any comments Gary

23. First off, thanks for the post. I am not a experienced user per say, and i think my needs are fairly simple. I have only one gmail account that i want to link to my mail app, so labelling may not be a priority. I need it to be very user friendly and stable, and easy to archive messages.

    I tried Outlook for Mac, but I kept receiving the same e-mails two to three times, and couldn't find a way to eliminate that. Sometimes I received e-mails on the web, and not in outlook...

    I tried the original Mail app for Mac, but i never could figure out a proper way to install the account and synchronize everything.

    I am now using Thunderbird, but it is a bit problematic not to be able to see event invitations. And it now seems to be a bit unstable (a lot of application memory problems...)

    I am starting to think the only stable option is the web based gmail, but as others were saying: it is not fantastic...

    Any hints?

    • Check out Airmail! I think it's the best option available right now.

24. Gmail Offline is a reasonable suggestion, but I have not tried it. If it's anything like normal Gmail web client, it would not meet my wishes, which are:
    * Integrated work and home email accounts
    * Introspect dates, addresses in mail body to auto-create events and contacts when you rollover (I think only Air Mail and Apple Mail do this).
    * Archive messages to local storage where they are still searchable
    * Sort mail lists by to, from, status, attachment, etc.
    * Include mail in OS X Spotlight searches (often finds things I wasn't expecting to find in email)
    * Its hard to copy text (like subjects) when everything is a link.
    * I reserve Chrome for Flash content browsing only. Flash is not installed in OS X, for efficiency and extra security. http://daringfireball.net/2010/11/flash_free_and_cheating_with_google_chrome (or Google 'gruber flash chrome')

    To resolve slowness, I'm paring down my gmail archive, and upgraded to Yosemite last night.

    Because we use email so much, the user interface and UX is critical and personal. Everybody can find something that works for them, and choice is great! Which is why this comment thread could go on forever :-)

25. I used Airmail for about half a year, with an Exchange account and two Gmail accounts. It did a good job with Exchange as well. In the end, though, the way it would file my sent mail item in a conversation along with a reply, when I only wanted to file the reply, was a deal-breaker. Did you notice this or find a workaround?

    I'm back on Apple Mail, although having severe performance problems due to Gmail's seem tendency to archive everything, even though I've set Mail to trash-not-archive mode. At about 50,000 items, Mail can't keep up.

    (I love how the conversation here has continued over time. I'm always finding pieces like this via Google search, and extended commenting is increasingly rare. Nice job on the replies.)

26. I was not a fan of the Bush administration but your assertion that Condoleezza Rice's being on the board of DropBox makes people nervous about using Mailbox is just plain stupid. You're either a bald-faced liar or an utter idiot. Seriously, do you think she's sitting in board meetings saying stuff like, 'Let's loosen up security controls in Mailbox to make it easier for us and the government to snoop on people.'? No, I don't work for those companies. I have no vested interest in the product. I don't even like Rice.

27. I love Reading these posts but I think we all miss sparrow right? There is simply no alternative and that sucks :-)

    • Exactly. Sparrow was the best client. I would still continue to use it but Sparrow started to act weird. When I send an e-mail to my domain's email from my Gmail's address it is rejected by secureserver.net (GoDaddy server). And if I send the same email from Google web interface or Apple Mail it works fine.

      I have no idea why Sparrow started to use GoDaddy smtp server or what other reason for this behaviour. It seems I just have to withdraw Sparrow and it's really pity.

      It was a bad choice for Sparrow team to cancel Sparrow support the next day the got money from Google. Funny thing I have bought Sparrow for Mac and just next day they announced it's over ;)

28. Hello,
    thanks a lot for your benchmark about these mail software.
    Can you tell me how did you show the name of your labels in AirMail in your thumbnail ?

    Thanks

29. What about foxmail ?

30. Note that Outlook for Mac works differently than the version under Office 365. Regular Outlook for Mac will sync calendar and contacts, where the 365 version requires Exchange to do so. I thought that might need to be clarified.

31. I saw the comment on Outlook for Mac. I wouldn't have gone to it but with my frustration with Mail and my wife getting a Office 365 subscription with her new Surface I decided to give it a go. Microsoft support tells me that gmail calendar and contacts will not sync without Google creating an Exchange account for my gmail to flow through. Ive never used Exchange, except when dealing with my employers email, so Im wondering if they will want to charge me for it. If so, I may abandon Outlook and come back to this article to choose another client. Good list here. Thanks

    • Hi Mike and Dann,
      I just trialed and then started an install of Office 365, with Google Apps support on the phone, and just as I was ready to hit 'go', he found a major problem: Outlook for Mac 2011 AND Office 365 do not support aliases. That's it; game over for me!Really bummed.

32. Gmail for Mac (by Zive) is supposed to be released soon. It looks very promising, although I can't imagine they'll be allowed to keep that name. I'm currently a Postbox user, have been for many years, and is my preferred client. While not quite as visually appealing as others, it's customizability and functionality are above and beyond the competition. Works flawlessly with Gmail, labels, etc. and even allows Gmail shortcuts (to some extent).

    I just installed MailMate and must admit I'm impressed. The scope of Smart Folder options makes it a very powerful tool for message grouping/processing. $50 is hardly expensive for a piece of software that is used daily and increases productivity through its feature set. 10 cups of Starbucks. 5 fast food meals. A tank of gas. I mean, seriously.

33. Unfortunately Postbox has been decreasing in usability for a while now. Over the last three months especially it's been crashing about 6 times a day, freezing a lot and just generally being really shitty. I've stopped using it - decrease in work output due to constant restarts, having to rewrite emails, etc was too much. Am on the lookout for a new client...

    Shame too, as I really love to delegation of emails (important, etc) and also use of smart inboxes that can sit along the top tool bar...

    Maybe if they fix all the bugs - instead of telling me to look at their FAQ all the time - I'll head back. It's a good app for sure and really did help a lot when I first started using them...

    • it's frustrating for sure, but it seems to be part an parcel with email clients these days. think i've tried about ten now, all which fail in some way or another. seems anyone building a client is more obsessed with the fairytale dream of 'zero box' versus creating something for people who need it for organisation.

      again, if postbox pull their finger out i'll head back. right now i'm stuck in the browser with gmail. also very gross.

      thanks for the heads up on airmail, was about to re download it again for another shot (search function, or lack there of it, has always killed it for me)

34. Good article, Dann, and very much appreciated but it was really spoiled by the interjection of politics into an email review.

    Obama's NSA spying on ALL emails and cell calls of ALL of us doesn't scare you 1,000x more than Rice, an ex-Secretary of State and highly respected college professor and college President, on the Dropbox board?

    Privacy concerns are fair but really?

35. I'm looking for an alternative to Mac mail, which I find drab and unreliable (some messages from inbox get trashed and no one seems to know how), and I'm seeing mostly conflicting opinions. Macworld likes Postbox, the Sweet Spot loves Mailbox, which this site doesn't (Bush administration and Condoleezza Rice, really???) and prefers Airmail which SS hates.

    I think I'll give Postbox the chance; it looks robust and I think I live with some austerity. Anyway, thank you for the analysis; it helped me make the decision.

36. I tried the $2 version of Airmail for a while but I had all sorts of syncing problems with Gmail, such as not being able to find Sent mail (it wasn't getting labeled). I like Apple Mail's aesthetics except it doesn't always work reliably with Gmail. Sometimes mail sits for hours and hours on the Gmail server and never gets synced over into Mail. Also the lack of simple labeling (shortcut L) and label/archiving (shortcut V) is a big drawback.

    I've been using Mailplane for a while now simple because it is reliable and because of the Gmail shortcut support. But its handling of embedded images is really awkward (it takes like 4 clicks before you can finally paste a PNG and get it sized right. That works much better in Mail. And, of course, it only works with Gmail.

    One feature that Mail has which neither Gmail nor Mailplane has is 'Send Again' which is very useful in my work. In Mailplane the best you can do is forward and clean things up before sending. Airmail insists it has a 'Send Again' feature but at least the version I had did not and I got tired of arguing with their developers about it. The feature labeled Send Again didn't. I wonder if the new $10 version has that feature.

    Also, the aesthetics of Airmail still didn't seem as nice to me as Apple Mail. The black left columns seemed gaudy to me. But again, I don't know if that has changed lately.

    I read about all sorts of problems with Airmail and Gmail, but you seem to indicate that there are no problems anymore. No syncing or missed labeling issues remaining?

    Thanks,

    doug

37. Dann, the Mailbox (beta) app for Mac actually does support Gmail labels. But like its iOS sibling, you need to move all your labels (in Gmail web) under the [Mailbox] label. Then they all show up in the Mailbox app.

38. One of my frustrations with The default Mail app is that the font becomes messy when emails are viewed in Outlook on pcs (they'd often arrive in 2 different fonts). I tried add-ins but found they always seemed to lag Mac updates. Hence switched to Airmail and this has addressed the problem. Since many corporate users are not in the Mac environment isn't the presentation format of emails important in any assessment of desktop email client?

39. A useful roundup, but if you're truly searching for 'the perfect Mac desktop Gmail client' then I feel you should have reviewed MailMate for its features and THEN commented on its cost – not simply rejected it solely on that basis.
    MailMate is a very powerful, effective email client, and I originally found it through a similar article that did exactly what I suggested above: reviewed it for its features and pointed out the cost. From that I made my shortlist of apps to try and decided that MailMate's price was worth it *for me*. It has turned out to be MY perfect email client, as far as such a thing is possible.

40. You've left out Google's own offline Gmail client. It is by far the best.

41. You have successfully logged my monthly experience and evaluation of mail apps for quite some time! I found this post by doing my regular search for 'Mac Email Client.' I was too a fan of Sparrow and ditched it when support stopped. Since then I've been simply web-based Gmail... but that is so... I don't know... 'non-fantastical.' The search continues for me — and may include giving Airmail another go. I am also excited (?) about the Gmail 'Inbox': the Google Kool-Aid has been good so far so I'm all for drinking more of it.

42. I'm sorry If It may sound out of sync but why was Outlook for MAC not a part of evaluation here?

    • Oh yes; must say not a fan of Outlook or M$ but then been in professional environment and using exchange addresses, I've had to work with it. I've been using Outlook for mac for my personal gmail account for nearly 4 years now. Granted no supported for labels; it plays fairly nicely actually. I still use OSX's stock calendar which works pretty well(instantly) with Gmail's calendar. That's why I wondered why not Outlook for Mac.
      I've used Apple's Mail but much as I like Apple's products(barring iPhones), Outlook for mac is what I'd prefer.

43. Mailmate has a 30 day trial option. Given that's the case, I'm amazed you can assert that it's 'way too expensive' without offering any supporting evidence.

    For me at least, Mailmate had a unique combination of *working* label / tag support, multiple account / identity support, and a functional threaded conversation view that no other client offered.

    Well worth the price od admission if you drive your workflow largely from email, and don't want to be locked into a particular web client / provider.

    • Here, here.

      i worked thru all the listed apps in the list above and found that with my 5 mail email addresses (all on different services) Mailmate was well worth the money.

      Frank

44. Before I made the change to Mac earlier this year, I was an undecided Thunderbird/Webmail user. Thuderbird, being free, was an excellent choice. The possibility of running a calendar extension made things even better. But, like discussed, the 'labels' feature made web(g)mail more interesting and, at times, easier to use. I created a million different filters to get my folders on Thunderbird to work similar to webmail, but I continued to use both intermittently. I later won a Postbox contest (courtesy of MakeUseOf) and didn't return to Thunderbird or Webmail. The interface and other little things were decisive.

    Later, with the change to Mac, I figured I'd continue using the OSX version on my Mac. I set up both Postbox and the native Mail client... but for some reason, the Mac's native client felt better.

    Sure, I can't play around with labels (but for my day to day usage, they're not that necessary), and for integrating my work account, it seemed to perform better than Postbox. Mac Mail has what I need... and whenever necessary, I'll jump to webmail to clean out my trash and spam and all that other junk Mail can't handle.

45. I tried all of desktops mail clients and still number one for me is Sparrow. I know that no updates but everything works fast and good :)

In the world of email clients, there aren’t very many choices if you want something that works well, feels smooth, and has pleasing aesthetic design. Most users are probably familiar with Outlook and Thunderbird, but not much past those two. But in recent years, Postbox 3 has really risen to the top as one of the best email clients on the market.

Postbox 3 is resource friendly, packed full of features, and extremely pleasant on the eyes. I use it and I’m a big fan, preferring it over Gmail’s web interface and alternatives like Thunderbird. It does everything I need it to do and I’ve never once struggled with a learning curve.

We’ve done Postbox 3 giveaways in the past, but here we go with another one because it’s that good. Postbox 3 is available for $9.95 for Windows XP, Vista, 7 as well as Mac OS X (Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion). This week, we’ll be giving away 25 copies of Postbox 3 worth a total of $250 for FREE!

Do you want a copy? Of course you do. Procuring one of these free copies is extremely easy. All you have to do is read through this review and view the giveaway details at the bottom of this post. What are you waiting for? Go on!

Interface

The Postbox 3 interface is reminiscent of most email clients–mostly because this design has proven itself over and over again to be efficient for viewing and managing emails. You’ve got the primary panel that organizes all of the email accounts you have. Within an account, you have 2 more panels: one for viewing stored emails and one for viewing actual email content.

As you can see from the screenshots, Postbox 3 allows you to toggle between two modes. I like to call these modes the “Thunderbird” and the “Outlook,” though Postbox 3 officially names them as Classic mode and Vertical mode. Vertical is my preference because it’s just so flawless.

Easy Setup

Postbox 3 interfaces with most email services and automatically detects the necessary settings so that you don’t have to dig through and find all the manual addresses, ports, and whatever else you would usually need.

If you use Gmail, all you have to do is type in your email address and password, and the program will do the rest. I haven’t tested it personally, but I’m sure the same can be said for the other big-name mail services, like Hotmail.

Once you’ve created an account, everything is good to go right out of the box. I didn’t have to do anything else — it immediately started downloading all of my emails from the servers and it was smooth sailing from there.

Intuitive Organization

Postbox 3’s features and design really lend themselves towards ease of organization. I’ve never had to look around for more than 1 minute before finding that particular email that I needed, whether it was unread, trashed, sent, unsent, drafted, or whatever else.

If you like to handle all of your email-related business inside one program, Postbox 3 can do it. Open emails and links within tabs so that you can quickly switch between important emails and links as you need them.

Postbox 3 also stylizes conversation threads so that it’s quick to gloss over certain response chains and immediately glean the information you need. This right here — the conversation view — is one of the main reasons why I use Postbox 3 over Thunderbird.

And like most email clients, Postbox 3 can handle folders and topics (i.e., tags). You can set certain emails with varying priority levels or you can mark them as “to be done later” to build a sort of simplified to-do list. I love that I can mark an email as important and come back to it later without a hitch.

Mac Os X Snow Leopard Iso

Addons System

Postbox 3 features an addon system that allows you to extend or alter the functionality of the program. The number of available addons falls short of other clients like Thunderbird, which has a massive community backing, but there are enough that you won’t feel like it’s a wasted feature.

You can view a list of available Postbox 3 addons here. Keep in mind that version 3 is still new, so it may take some time for addons from previous versions to catch up.

Flexible Options

There are a few options that you can fiddle with in Postbox 3 that let you customize your client to your own preferences, but you probably won’t find anything that completely revolutionizes the emailing experience. After all, Postbox isn’t trying to be avant-garde; rather, it aims to make everything easy and sleek.

Postbox 3 supports: separate email accounts, signatures, custom fonts, local storage, POP, IMAP, SMTP, plain text and HTML, spam filters, sound alerts, and sharing on social networks.

Advanced Features

Apart from the usual email client stuff, Postbox 3 has a few advanced features that may ease some of the inconveniences of other email clients.

• Gmail Integration: Gmail is one of the most popular and robust email services out there. Postbox 3 natively supports a Gmail interface that seamlessly handles labels, archives, Gmail keyboard shortcuts, and conversion of dates into Google Calendar events.
• Sync with Apps and Services. Postbox 3 integrates with a number of third-party services, including Dropbox, Evernote, iCal, Google Calendar, Facebook, Twitter, and more.
• Canned Responses. Build any number of preset templates that you can use for sending automated replies. If you receive a lot of emails of a similar nature, canned responses can save you a lot of time.
• Summarize Mode. This feature provides a clean and beautifully formatted who-said-what-when email that lets message recipients jump into discussions with more clarity, context and insight. Basically, a more informative version of quoting emails in a reply.
• Ultra-fast, Complex Search. Postbox 3 executes searches even faster than previous versions. For advanced users, you can use search operators to create advanced search queries to find those pesky, elusive emails.
• Anti-Phishing and Anti-Malware. Postbox 3 protects users from viruses, spyware, and trojan horses by checking emails against a local database of suspected phishing or malware sites and displaying a warning for potentially malicious emails.

Again, we’re giving away 25 free copies to all of our loyal and beloved MakeUseOf fans and readers. As a reminder, Postbox 3 runs on Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8 as well as Mac OS X (Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion).

How do I win a copy of Postbox 3?

Step 1: Fill in the giveaway form

Please fill in the form with your real name and email address so that we can get in touch if you are chosen as a winner. MakeUseOf giveaways are open to readers worldwide.

The giveaway code required to activate the form is available from our Facebook page and Twitter stream.

The giveaway is over. Here are the winners:

• @k1922h
• Barb Belanger
• Briareoushex
• Chris
• Commandor
• Dan Gruntz
• Daniel Hartle
• Debra Brown
• Elisa De Vittori
• Guy Schein
• Jerimy Schilz
• Jesus Hernandez
• Jon Read
• Krzysztof Wilczek
• Lee Hamilton
• Matthew Arntzen
• Mike Henderson
• Paul Harris
• Rita Spratlen
• Sacha Obado
• Samuel Almeida
• Samy Filali
• Sinisa Dumanic
• Tim Klepfer
• Yang Yang Li

Congratulations! If you were selected as a winner, you would have received your license via email from jackson@makeuseof.com. If you require any assistance, please get in touch with jackson@makeuseof.com before Oct 5. Enquires beyond this date will not be entertained.

Step 2: Share!

Best Email Client For Mac

You’re almost done. Now, all that’s left to do is to share the post!

Tweet it

(Note: no points will be awarded.)

Best Email Client For Yahoo Mail

By participating in this giveaway, you agree to the giveaway rules.

Best Email Client For Android

This giveaway begins now and ends Tuesday, September 25th. The winners will be selected at random and informed via email.

Spread the word to your friends and have fun!

Interested in sponsoring a giveaway? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us.

Best Email Client For Mac Snow Leopard

Explore more about: Desktop Email Client, Email Tips, MakeUseOf Giveaway.

Free Email Client For Mac

1. Hi, I want to know if Postbox can edit e-mail subject. eg receive e-mail subject:: Your Monthly Account. Can this bechanged to Your Tax Account Feb 2016 WITHOUT forwarding to yourself like 99% other e-mail clients

2. I have it and like it very much

3. have you informed the winner of the result? Just want to know if I was lucky or if I have to buy a license. Postbox looks very interesting but I will not end up with two licenses.

4. are the winners known already?

5. Who r d winners????

   • They have not been announced, yet. Please give it a few more days.

6. Please count me in.

7. I've never used an email client but Postbox 3 looks really promising. I would love to be bale to use this program.

8. I love your site and getting your emails! So much information to read and great ideas!

9. Count Me In

10. I am a regular visitor of your site since last 4 years. I really like your efforts. Keep up good work. all the best.

    • It's awesome for us to hear from readers who have been returning to us for so long. Great to have you!

      • It's my pleasure. Thank you for your comment. I highly recommend your site to my group for latest website news and giveaways. Once again thank you all for making such wonderful website.

11. Since I am seriously considering using (linking) a desktop email client to my Gmail main accounts I was very interested to check this version out. It didn't look very much like Thunderbird that I now vaguely remember testing out over 6 years ago. I do like to see how desktop email clients have evolved. My main problem with using a desktop email client was that I was constantly needing to clean out big chunks of useless email either because it was 100% spam or stuff that I just did not need any more to keep my hard drive (small at the time and expensive) space freed up plus it causes a lot fragmentation which always made the defrag work overtime getting everything sorted out. Oh and then there is those ultra nasty email viruses / trojans that once I went to using just web based email like Gmail vanished since I get to choose what I download over to my local hard drive. My reason for considering using a desktop client is to finally grab some of the email that I would like to have out of my Gmail account so I can wipe out a bunch of folders thus free up some space for more useful emails to start gathering dust plus it isn't always convenient or easy to log in and search for information since the information either is buried deep or for some reason I don't have internet access and this will help resolve those issues (I think)...LoL. Have a wonderful day

12. looks like great app . have to try and know more

13. Since Thunderbird mor or less is gone it would be nice to try Postbox. Not may left for Mac nowadays

14. I'd love to win a copy of this for Mac and it ends on my birthday. Just saying!

15. I am surprised nobody has suggested MailStore for backing up your email. This will save your email no matter where it lives. You can archive it by completely removing it from your service provider, or simply make a backup copy.

16. This looks awesome, fingers crossed!

17. Would love Postbox 3 for Windows

18. I did take this crappy software against my reward points around a month back and tried to configure my standard IMAP email (which configures perfectly with Windows Live email client). The auto-configure fails as it does not take the standard ports, so I was forced to manually configure. then it only synced two arbitrary sent items emails. when I delete mail in my client, it doesn't delete in the server but mark it as read, though I did specifically define it in the client. I did post my problem as a question here, but did not get any resolution (and after waiting, marked the question as resolved out of frustration). Worst is the customer support of the Postbox developers. I have written to them from their website and till date have not heard from him. I simply un-installed the software and never re-visited it again. Would highly recommend not to touch this software even from a 10 mile distance. The worst software and customer support ever seen by me. For you guys reference, this is the url link to the problem question I posted then. //www.makeuseof.com/answers/email-clients-work-indiacom-address/

    • Sorry, not a month back but a fortnight back.

19. Sparrow is a better e-mail client for mac

20. Awesome! didnt know we could use our points!

21. Welcome. At the beginning I wanted to thank you for such a wonderful contest and Review. Can write in a few sentences. We currently do not have any application to receive mail. Only check e-mail through the site. So when I saw this contest, I stated that it was looking for something like this post. So please do Count Me In. I hope fate smiles on me. :)

    [Broken Link Removed]

    Best Regards Jarek.

22. I tried to do what was necessary to apply for the PostBox give-away, but I'm afraid I got stuck on the 'giveaway code' step. How do I find it ? I looked at the MUO Twitter site but can't see anything relevant. :-( (I don't use Google + or FB.)

23. Would love Postbox 3 for Mac

24. I got Postbox months ago via MUO, believing it was a unique mail client with a tight, optimized backend that was capable of handling heavy duty content.

    Turns out it uses a fork of Thunderbird for the grunt work, which I had earlier abandoned due to being flaky at best, randomly crashing merely by dragging a window.

    Postbox is a bit more robust than that, as it turns out, but optimized it is not. I wish I had known of it's Thunderbird roots - I migrated from Forte Agent with an archive containing nigh on a decade of email. Where Agent could search that mail with nary a blip on the CPU, Postbox struggles when I merely select another folder.

    Now I know it is unlikely to ever improve, I'm looking at a fun backward migration.

    Sorry, Forte.

25. Great website, Learn many thing from here :D

26. Now it gives me the option to use my points!?!

27. I tried to enter the giveaway by using my points, but it told me I had to be logged in to do it. I was already logged in, so I logged out and logged back in. It still told me to log in. Why?