There are several instances when you need a desktop-friendly email client app. One, you may have a self-hosted email account but couldn’t afford to get the Google Business Suite. Or, you may be fed up with the traditional interface offered by Gmail and Outlook. Or, probably you would want to manage your emails; get real-time notifications, and enjoy other details on your computer.
Previously, we have covered the best email clients for Android. This time, however, is for Mac. Fortunately, there is a big number of Mac email clients out there. Every day, we see the rise of something innovative. In this article, we have compiled some of the best and versatile email clients for Mac. Regardless of who you are and the work you do, you’ll find a suitable app here. Shall we begin?
Read: Best Email Apps for Android (2018)
Fast email client with full Gmail, Hotmail and other services synchronization. Best replacement for MS Outlook or Thunderbird. Free version for Home users.
Best Email Client for Mac
#1 Mail (Apple Mail App)
Unlike Windows, macOS ships with an inbuilt email client — named Mail. It’s probably one of the best email clients you can have for Mac too. The best part about Mail is that it keeps you active on the Apple ecosystem. That is, you can use the same app on your iPhone or iPad, syncing every bit of information you have. There are also features like Handoff for those who are in Apple ecosystem.
Handoff basically lets you start working on an email on your iPhone and complete it later on the Mac. It’s one of the exclusive features you’ll find in Mail. Keep that aside, and Mail app is the typical email client you can find. Mail does not offer much scope for customization or experimentation. There are a few add-on stuff, but they are not great.
Being an Apple product, the Mail app integrates well with macOS system. For instance, you can click on an email address and start composing the email in a split-screen window. You also get on-time notifications on the panel. Alongside all these, all your information is synced via iCloud. One thing we noted is that the Mail app may not be that seamless when you connect self-hosted email accounts.
Pros
- Free to use and built into macOS
- Continuity features like Handoff
Cons
- A non-intuitive, rudimentary design
- Lacks customization
- Navigation could be better
If you are looking for a simple email client for Mac, Mail is the best option. If you are in the Apple ecosystem, you can benefit from features like Handoff. Otherwise, you have different options too. It must also be noted that you don’t have to pay anything to use Mail.
About Mail by Apple (free)
#2 Canary Mail — Secure Email Client for Mac
Canary Mail is one of the most feature-friendly email clients for Mac. Even when offering a modern UI, it has not made any compromises in terms of security. It’s also one of the very few email clients that offer PGP Encryption. As oxymoronic as it sounds, Canary Mail is a fun & secure email client for Mac. It works with your own email accounts as well as services like Gmail.
There are a few features that we loved in Canary Mail. For instance, it offers two types of inboxes — normal and Focused. Thanks to Natural Language Search and Filters, you can quickly find emails that you are looking for. Email Templates, Snooze Features and Read-Receipt Notifications etc. are also included in the email app by default.
Canary Mail also offers one of the best User Interface designs we’ve seen. You can enjoy the Dark theme on both your Mac and iOS devices. if you ask us, though, we’d say the best thing about Canary Mail is the on-demand nature. You can keep all the super features aside and Canary Mail will still be an awesome way to manage your emails.
Pros
- A modern, intuitive UI
- On-demand Encryption, Read Receipt, and Focused Inbox features
- Seamless integration
- Multi-device support
Cons
- AI Cleaner isn’t up to the mark
Canary Mail is undoubtedly one of the most feature-rich email clients for Mac. It offers a state-of-the-art set of security and functionality. The AI features aren’t perfect, but you can get started. We also loved the multi-touch gesture support too.
Check Out Canary Mail ($20)
#3 Boxy — Best macOS Email Client for Gmail
Boxy is the best Mac email client for those who use Inbox by Gmail. Inbox by Gmail, in case you did not know, is a rather focused webmail interface. It also integrates with other Google services like Calendar and To-Dos. Now, Boxy is bringing all those features to a desktop app. You can simply log in using the Gmail account and get all the benefits.
The interface is no different from Inbox by Gmail. That having said, Boxy is easier to manage than the web-based UI. You also get one of the best Email Compose interfaces we’ve seen. In short, Boxy brings all good things about Gmail Inbox to your desktop. There is support for notifications as well as on-time sync as well. Boxy also supports a bunch of common keyboard shortcuts.
If you ask us, we’d recommend Boxy for the sake of the cleaner UI. Everything is available in a clean-packed way. Talking about the UI, Boxy lets you choose between different viewing modes as well as themes. You can, for instance, choose between Dark, Black, White and Crimson themes. Of course, it’s a downside that you cannot use other accounts here.
Pros
- Cleaner UI
- Optimized for Inbox by Gmail
- Easy Mail Management
Cons
- Doesn’t work with non-Gmail accounts
- Lacks customization
Boxy is loved for the simple way it presents your Gmail messages. If you are a Gmail + Google user, Boxy is a superb way to keep track of your email world. We’d recommend Boxy if you want a desktop experience for Gmail messages.
Check Out Boxy (Free)
#4 Spark — Smartest Email Client for Mac
Spark is one of the most versatile email clients we’ve seen for Mac. Developers of Spark say it is the future of email, and we may agree with that. The best thing about Spark is that you can use it for personal as well as organization-level needs. This email client has been designed in a clean manner that you can completely focus on creating the best email.
Unlike many of the email apps we’ve covered, Spark comes with a Smart Inbox. This Inbox can identify the type of email and put it to categories like Personal and Social. You can also Pin certain emails for the further look on the go. Plus, Spark lets you manage them quite easily. Or, if you want, you can shift to the Classic Inbox as well.
There are also some awesome features like mail tracking, follow-up reminders, integrated calendar, smart search, Quick replies, and worthwhile integrations. You can also optimize Smart Notifications so that you are alerted in case of important emails. By the way, Spark has a variant named Spark for Teams, which offers a bunch of features for in-team collaboration.
Pros
- Clean Design
- Smart Inbox with Categories
- Rich Email Creation Experience
Cons
- None worth noting
Spark should be your go-to choice if you need a simple email client with smart features. The developers have succeeded in including the features without making the app so bulky. In case you have a big team, you can go for Spark for Teams as well.
Check Out Spark (Free)
#5 Thunderbird — Best Free Email Client for Mac
Thunderbird is a completely free, open-source email client, available for various platforms. Being a project from Mozilla, you can count on Thunderbird when you want a secure email management experience. You’ll have to miss out some fancy features that we’ve seen in earlier products. Still, you are getting a non-clumsy way to manage email.
Talking about the UI, Thunderbird does not have anything modern to offer. For instance, it does not have a unified interface for showing emails. You can double-click on a message, which would be opened in another tab. On the right side, you can access the Integrated Calendar as well. On the bright side, however, this email client offers one of the best performance levels we’ve seen.
We really believe that Thunderbird can be better with some basic work from the team. For instance, one of the less intuitive things is to configure a new account with Thunderbird. At the same time, we really liked a few features like the Integrated Address Book and better Preferences when it comes to displaying emails. It is a simple tool, but nothing much.
Pros
- Simple, Clean Design
- Better Security and Open Source
Cons
- Rudimentary Design
- Lacks many features
Thunderbird isn’t for everyone. If you are looking for a completely free and open-source email client for Mac, it’s probably the only choice. By doing so, however, you are missing out some of the cool features. On the brighter side, you don’t have to pay a single penny.
Check Out Thunderbird (Free)
#6 Postbox — Best macOS Email Client for Multiple Accounts
Postbox is yet another email client that deserves a place here. It’s probably the best email client for Mac that comes with a lot of features. If you are someone who manages multiple email accounts and wants a cleaner UI, Postbox makes sense. This app is simple, clear and powerful, to quote the developers themselves. And, after testing it for a while, we thought the same.
Account Management is perhaps the best thing in Postbox. You can manage your multiple accounts as well as corresponding folders from the sidebar. The modern UI lets you view an email message and perform a lot of actions without much navigation. Postbox also offers a Universal Search feature, which is helpful when it comes to finding emails and attachments.
We also loved the Focus Pane in Postbox. If you’re involved in multiple projects, this feature would help you in easy navigation. Pre-canned responses and HTML editing are some nerd-focused features we found in the email app. In short, Postbox does not compromise the number of features, but you still have an intuitive way to do things.
Pros
- Simple UI and Integration
- Integrated Account Management
Cons
- Navigation Could Be Better
Postbox is a wonderful email app for Mac that everyone can use. It packs a number of features we have not seen in other packages. Still, we’d recommend Postbox for professionals, who have to manage multiple mail accounts as well as folders.
Check Out Postbox (Paid, $40)
#7 Airmail — Best Overall Email Client for Mac
We’ve saved the best for the last: Airmail. Airmail is by far the most popular email client for macOS. It is so good that people have been using it for personal, professional and combined needs. Just so you know, it is available for both macOS and iOS. You can enjoy the features as well as the same interface on both devices, thanks to the sync.
Navigation is one of the strong points of Airmail. Through a widely customizable design, you can view your emails, folders and other aspects easily. This email client has packed many features without compromising the intuitive nature of the User Interface. Even for someone who hasn’t used an email client before, Airmail is the best place to start.
Better organization of your emails is possible through Airmail, which is a great perk for most people. You can for instance snooze the email messages, star them and manage the whole conversation easily. Because this app is available for both iOS and macOS, you can have benefits of sync as well. Also, you can integrate a lot of services like Dropbox, Calendar and Google Drive with Airmail.
Pros
- Intuitive Interface
- Ample scope for Customization and Integration
- Easy Management
Cons
- Lacks smart categorization of emails
At the end of the day, Airmail is the best-balanced email client for macOS. You don’t have to worry about an extremely tough set-up or hard-to-understand features. For the price you pay, Airmail offers one of the best email and account management experiences.
Check Out Airmail ($9.99)
Which is the best Email client for Mac?
You have seen some of the best email clients you can have right now for macOS. Some of these apps, Spark and Airmail, have multi-device support as well. You can enjoy the same interface and features on your Mac as well as iPhone. Another thing we loved about Spark is that it categorizes emails based on the type, making it really easy for Quick Look.
However, if you need better continuity support, we’d recommend sticking onto the Apple Mail app. And, for anyone who is looking for the best spot between both, Airmail and Postbox would be our recommendations. In other words, depending on the level of features you need, you can choose one of these seven email clients for macOS. Awesome, huh?
Read: How to Send Encrypted Emails in Gmail and Outlook
If you’d told me I would be writing about the best email app for the Mac in 2018 when I was in college, I’d have thought you were crazy. For as far as technology has come in the last twenty years, e-mail is still essential to our workflows. We’ve got pocket computers on our wrists and smartphones with 4GB of RAM, but e-mail is still required to live and work in the internet era. If you’d asked me in 2002, I would have assumed something else would replace it.
I got my first email account in the mid–90s (When it was still $2.95 per hour for AOL). I stuck with AOL until I got an @comcast.net account when my parent’s first got high-speed internet. I switched to Mailblocks around 2002 (it was eventually acquired by AOL). I switched to Gmail in 2004 when it first launched, and then I finally switched to .Mac in 2005 when I got my first Mac (a Powerbook G4). I stuck with it during the disaster that was MobileMe, and finally arrived at iCloud.
One of the things about my use of email that is most surprising is that I’ve gone in the reverse with how technology has moved. In the early days of e-mail usage, I preferred using web-based mail, but as time went on, I preferred app based email. Part of that is that I am bringing in multiple accounts into one app (personal iCloud and multiple G-Suite accounts), but another aspect is that I prefer native apps. I think a lot of it has to do with iOS where native apps are the default. On the desktop, we’re moving everything to the web.
As much as I love iOS, If you told me that I had to pick between macOS and iOS, I’d choose macOS. When it comes to my “heavy lifting” type work, I can get it done much faster than on my Mac. Like I said earlier, I am pulling in multiple email accounts into one app, so using webmail isn’t something I want to do. I want one app to use instead of four web apps. So if you are reading this article, and are screaming about how much better Gmail’s web interface is – know that I am not looking at web-based solutions at all. So I want to answer the question, what’s the best email app for the Mac?
Apple Mail
Apple is always going to be at a disadvantage in some ways when building apps because they have to develop for the masses. They are developing apps for the power user while also the computer novice. In a lot of ways, Apple Mail doesn’t seem to be a lot different than it did when I first used it under OS X Tiger.
From 40,000 feet, Apple Mail does precisely what you’d ask of it. You add your mailboxes, and it builds a traditional looking mail app (with a universal inbox), it supports all the primary services (iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Exchange, etc.), and generally works well.
My biggest issue with Apple Mail is that it doesn’t do anything to drive the concept of email forward. It primarily works the same as it did a few years ago. It’s only added a few new features like Mail Drop (a feature where you can send large attachments using iCloud), mark up on attachments, and VIP support.
On the flip side, if you want the traditional Apple experience, you’ll love this app. I use it day-to-day, but I know it’s mostly lagged behind a lot of the other apps concerning new features. If you do want to extend Apple Mail further, be sure to check out plugins like Mailbutler and Mail Act-On. The downside is that these run locally, so if your Mac is offline – nothing will happen to your email that requires these plugins.
Overall, it’s a fine app, but I am hopeful Apple begins to add new features to help people re-think email.
Outlook
When I did my review of best email apps for iPhone, I praised Outlook.
If you want to find an app that feels like Apple Mail+, Outlook is it. It includes a smart inbox (sort between important emails and non-important ones). It contains customizable swipes (delete, archive, etc.). You can also schedule messages to show back up in your inbox. This feature is useful if you want to make an email disappear until you are back at work, etc.
Unfortunately, Outlook on the Mac hasn’t been given the same treatment. It feels like a completely different app. Microsoft has said they are overhauling it to make it more like the iOS apps, but we’ve not seen that yet. It still feels like a Mac version of Outlook for Windows. If you are a business user using Exchange 365, you’ll probably love it. Everyone else should look elsewhere.
It’s not that there is anything fundamentally wrong with Outlook, it’s just that, like Apple Mail, it feels stagnant. It’s the same tried and true app that they had years ago with a prettier design. If it can act more like the iOS version, I could definitely consider it a strong contender for the best email app for the Mac.
Spike
Spike is one of the most unique takes I’ve seen on email in many years. It takes a cue from an app like iMessage or Facebook Messenger, and it brings that same look to email. So many of my emails are short messages (think Slack style), and Spike builds a design that helps make you more efficient. It strips away things like headers, signatures, etc and help you focus on just the content. It also includes a priority inbox to help keep your inbox with just the important stuff, so you can get right to work.
Another unique feature is the Groups feature that Spike offers its users. You can create groups for work departments, sport teams, etc. There is no need to download another app for messaging.
Share Groups with companies and businesses you regularly work with and create online workplaces designed for easy collaboration—get one for each department, project, office, yoga buddies, whatever you need, it’s open to everyone. All they need is email.
Groups is a collaborative tool for businesses that keeps people together and everyone on the same page. Simply choose the type of group you want to create, give it a great name and invite everyone who needs to be a part of the conversation. You don’t need separate instant messenger apps for quick communications, and you don’t need complicated collaboration platforms to share files.
Spike is an app/service that I am really interested to watch in the future. It’s free for personal usage, and there is a premium tier for business customers.
Spark
Spark is one of the newcomers to the third-party email app market, but it has had constant enhancements since it was released. Their tagline is “Love your email again,” and it certainly does a great job of helping you take control of your inbox. It supports all the usual accounts like iCloud, Google, Yahoo, Exchange, Outlook, and IMAP.
The great thing about Spark for Mac is that it brings over a lot of great features from the iOS version. The app includes a smart inbox to help organize your email into buckets like newsletters, pinned, new, seen, etc. It also includes the ability to snooze emails, send later, email follow-up reminders, smart notifications, and tons of integrations with third-party apps (Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive, etc.).
The send later feature is one I’d love to see come to Apple Mail. I want to be able to process my inbox on the weekends, but not clutter other people’s inboxes up while they aren’t at work. It also includes a built-in calendar that supports iCloud, Gmail, etc.
Spark also has team plans that answers that question for me. By signing your organization up, you can collaborate on emails together, talk about replies privately (without having to forward things back and forth), and create permanent links to email messages (helpful for linking in a CRM, etc.).
A basic version of Spark for Teams is free, but they have paid versions (monthly per-user fee) with extra file storage, enhanced link sharing, and team roles and control. This add-on turns Spark into a platform as much as it does an email app. When Spark initially launched, I questioned how it could remain in operation with no business model, but I now clearly understand how it plans to grow. If you’re interested in a teams plan, but Spark doesn’t work for you, PolyMail is a similar product.
Spark is free download on the Mac App Store.
AirMail
Airmail has been around for many years, and it’s one of the most common third-party mail apps that I see mentioned on the Internet. Airmail supports all the major email accounts like iCloud, Exchange, Outlook, Google, Yahoo, IMAP, etc.
Airmail features an extensive list of apps you can integrate. The list includes Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, Trello, Asana, Omnifocus, Google Tasks, Evernote, Todoist, Drafts, Deliveries, Things, and many more. Airmail supports snoozing an email to another date/time as Spark does. You can create a PDF from an email, mute/block senders, or create a to-do (Airmail offers a lightweight to-do list built in). The action list of items you can take on a message is too long to list. With Airmail, almost everything is customizable. If you want an email app with a lot of knobs to tinker with, Airmail is going to fit in with your workflows.
One feature that Airmail offers that I’ve not seen any other macOS email app offer is a Google Apps/G-Suite Directory look up. This feature allows you to look up email addresses in your global G-Suite directory that you don’t have in your contacts list.
My main complaint with AirMail is that lacks the polish of Apple Mail and Spark. It’s a great app, but it’s never been able to win me over for day-to-day usage. It’s definitely near the top, but it’s not the best email app for the Mac.
AirMail is $9.99 on the Mac App Store.
Post Box
Post Box is one of the apps I hadn’t heard of before I started doing my research on this topic. At first glance, it is nice looking, and it looks a lot like a prettier Apple Mail. It claims to be an email app for power users, but I fail to see what it’s doing that Spark or AirMail aren’t doing. It does have many third-party integrations, but so do many of the other apps.
It also lacks essential features like Snooze and Send Later. It’s most unique feature is Account Groups. This feature allows you to combine multiple accounts (example: all of your personal accounts) into one unified inbox that keeps your work separate.
You can buy Post Box for $40, and there is a 30-day free trial available.
MailMate
MailMate is most known for its extensive keyboard control, Markdown email composition, and advanced search conditions. It’s not the prettiest app, and it doesn’t have the most overall features. It really could be called the Plain Text Mail App. I find it hard to recommend for novice users or for someone who wants features that Spark and AirMail are known for, but if MailMate interests you, it’s probably the only app that will satisfy you. It has a unique set of features that aren’t for everyone, but it will interest a specific user group. I wouldn’t be able to say it’s the best email app for the Mac, though.
MailMate is $49.99, and there is a free trial available.
What’s the best email app for the Mac?
Before I get to the reason you read this article, I do want to mention one other app. If you have a few Gmail accounts, and you are happy with the Gmail interface, check out MailPlane. It’s a native macOS app for Gmail (supports G-Suite as well).
If you want the best email app for macOS, and you want more features than Apple Mail, I would have to recommend Spark for Mac. It has a great design, a broad feature set, and a clear business model. If you hate your email, Spark claims you’ll “Love your email again” with their apps. If you already love the Mac version, be sure to check out the iOS app.