Linux comes with various GUI based email client to stay in touch with your friends and family, and share information in newsgroups with other users. The following software is similar to Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail and is used by both home and office user.
Webmail interfaces allow users to access their mail with any standard web browser, from any computer, rather than relying on an e-mail client.
However, e-mail client remains extremely popular in a large corporate environment, small business, home and power users. An e-mail client (also mail user agent (MUA)) is a frontend computer program used to manage e-mail. Mail can be stored on the client, on the server side, or in both places. Standard formats for mailboxes include Maildir and mbox.
The following are top five amazing piece of cross-platform software from various projects to make your life easy with wide variety of plug-ins / add-ons.
#1: Mozilla Thunderbird
It is an e-mail and news cross-platform client software package by Mozilla Foundation. Thunderbird can manage multiple e-mail, newsgroup and RSS accounts and supports multiple identities within accounts. Features like quick search, saved search folders , advanced message filtering, message grouping, and labels help manage and find messages. Just like Firefox, the tons of extensions and themes for this client makes it very secure and flexible to to enhance your productivity.
Fig.01: Mozilla Thunderbird
=> Download Mozilla Thunderbird
#2: Claws Mail
Claws Mail is a free, GTK+-based, open source email and news client. It is very light lightweight. Like Firefox , the wide variety of plug-ins for this email client makes it very flexible and secure. Claws Mail runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Unix-like systems such as Linux, BSD, and Solaris.
Fig.02: Claws Mail in Action
#3: Spicebird
Spicebird is a collaboration client that provides integrated access to email, contacts, calendaring and instant messaging in a single application. It provides easy access to various web services while retaining all the advantages of a desktop application. It is developed by an Indian company called Synovel. It is a free, open source and cross-platform software.
Fig.03: Spicebird in Action (image credit Spicebird project)
#4: Zimbra Collaboration Suite (Open Source Version)
Zimbra is a client and server platform for messaging and collaboration. The web client integrates email, contacts, shared calendar, VoIP, and online document authoring in a rich browser-based interface. This is more like MS-Exchange and Outlook combo. In other words it is compatible with proprietary clients such as Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail, both through proprietary connectors, as well as the open-source Novell Evolution, so that mail, contacts, and calendar items can be synchronised from these to the ZCS server. Zimbra also provides native two-way sync to many mobile devices such as Nokia Eseries, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iPhone with 2.0 software.
Fig.04: Zimbra (credit offical Zimbra website)
=> Download Zimbra Collaboration Suite (Open Source Version)
#5: Sylpheed
Sylpheed is a free, GTK+-based, open source email and news client. It is very light lightweight. Sylpheed runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Unix-like systems such as Linux, and BSD.
Fig.05: Sylpheed in Action
Comparison of E-mail Clients - Essential Features
The following tables compare general and technical information between e-mail client programs.
| Feature | Thunderbird | Claws Mail | Spicebird | Zimbra | Sylpheed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cross-platform | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| License | MPL, MPL/GNU GPL/GNU LGPL | GPL | MPL, MPL/GNU GPL/GNU LGPL | MPL (server) and ZPL (client) | GPL/LGPL |
| Cost | Free | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Authentication | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| SSL and TLS | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Image blocking | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Junk filtering | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Phishing filtering | Y | Y | Y | Y | ? |
| Add-ons | Y | Y | Y | ? | N |
| Thread view | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| PGP support | Y | Y | Y | ? | Y |
| Label Messages | Y | Y | ? | Y | Y |
| Spell Checking | Y | Y | ? | Y | N |
| Signatures | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Scheduled message | Y | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Message templates | Y | Y | ? | Y | Y |
| Database | mbox | MH, mbox | ? | File system | MH |
| POP3 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| IMAP4 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| SMTP | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| NNTP (News) | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| RSS Feed | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| LDAP | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| iCalendar | Y | ? | Y | Y | N |
| Paid Support | ? | ? | ? | ? | Y |
Y = supported; N = not supported; ? = unknown; Privacy feature; Security features; Productivity features; Cross-platform - runs on Mac OS X, Windows and UNIX like operating systems.
Other Email Clients For UNIX Like Operating Systems
- SeaMonkey - Mozilla SeaMonkey is an all-in-one Internet application suite that includes an Internet browser, email and newsgroup client, HTML editor, IRC chat, and web development tools. It includes a pop-up blocker, junk mail controls, and a tabbed interface.
- Pine (Alpine) - Alpine is a rewrite of the Pine Message System that adds support for Unicode and other features. Alpine is meant to be suitable for both inexperienced email users and the most demanding of power users.
- Evolution or Novell Evolution - Evolution provides integrated mail, addressbook and calendaring functionality to users of the GNOME desktop.
Our Recommendations:
- Claws Mail - Highly recommended for netbook user due to lightweight usage.
- Mozilla Thunderbird - The wide variety of add-on for this email client makes it very flexible, secure and easy to use. Highly recommended for desktop and power users.
- Zimbra Collaboration Suite ~ Open Source Edition or Businesses Editon - Highly recommended for business and corporate users due to its support for a broad range of email clients and mobile devices via "over the air" sync.
All of the e-mail client listed above used by me at one point or another. If you know of, or use, another e-mail client that offers better features than those mentioned here, tell us in the comments.
Updated for accuracy!
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- Last Updated: Aug/8/2009
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
Kontact?
LDAP is supported in Thunderbird. You should double check that table.
@Bash,
Thanks I’ve update table both Thunderbird and Claws Mail do support LDAP.
@Humberto,
I’v not used Kontact. Why do use Kontact?
It’s hard to take this article seriously without any mention of Kontact/KMail.
Measuring usage of open-source applications is difficult, but going off of Ubuntu’s popularity contest for installed packages, KMail is almost 3x more popular than claws-mail, almost 5x more popular than sylpheed, almost 15x more popular than spicebird and zimbra.
Granted, this is misleading because KMail is installed by default with KDE which means it may not actually be used, while other applications need to be actively installed.
“That’s it for this article begin to read this blog. Plus a subscriber:).
Hello,
It’s not Kontact but Kmail, a nice email client on KDE environnement.
Mutt rox ! :)
If you do not need a GUI and can live with an e-mail only application, why not use mutt?
According to the Claws website (http://www.claws-mail.org/win32/index.php) the Windows port does not support LDAP or spell checking.
Don’t forget about OpenPAG and Enigmail integration.:)
PGP not PAG.:)
I have used all of the email clients on the list, and I like Spicebird a lot but after Thunderbird 3 beta3 I am hooked Thunderbird.
I found it hard to present top 5 emails clients for Linux/Mac/Windows without talking about Evolution or Kontact.
However it’s true that if you take into account mostly Mac and Windows, your listing is true. If you take more Linux into account, then you can’t avoid Evolution ( which have Exchange support ) and Kontact.
Evolution have a windows port, but this one lag behind the linux version.
Kontact have been ported recently to windows with KDE 4.0, but some features are still missing, and installing Kontact means using the KDE installer.
http://userbase.kde.org/Kontact
http://www.kolab.org/screenshots.html#kontact-windows
Kontact exists for Mac too. IMHO, once it will be easier to install it, it could be a very interesting application.
@FACORAT Fabrice,
I’ve considered ease of installation as a major factor while listing 5 e-mail clients.
I know I’ll get ridiculed for this, but I’m going about this in a GUI perspective.
They all look the same. Sure, they may have different features and whatnot, but really, where’s the attention being paid to the interface? Innovation also means providing a rich user experience. The only one I can see that doesn’t look it came from 1998 is Spicebird.
when you discuss mail clients, then i think you are trying to discuss Y! Zimbra Desktop NOT ZCS. Look and Feel of both the versions are same but with Zimbra Desktop, you can configure Y! Mail too for offline access(apart from gmail, AOL,POP/IMAP etc).
Vivek, you forgot about HTML mail support in that table ?
HTML mails are often used.
And what about Opera? It es email client and browser at the same time, and it works pretty well.
I’ve been using Postbox for the last few months and really like it. I’m using it on Mac OS X, but it is also available for Windows. It has some very interesting and useful features. It’s free right now, but I don’t know if it will continue to be offered at no cost.
Zimbra is extensible through “zimlets”, which are AJAX applets.
The list describes several of the email clients as “lightweight,” yet the comparison table does not include any information about their size, memory usage — or about the shared libraries on which they depend.
Inattention to details like that is the cause of the ever-increasing bloat that’s infecting computers and impairing their performance.
Mutt — one of the very best among email clients !
Thanks for the compilation!
We use the Zimbra Collaboration Suite at work, and at the first glance it has a rich-featured interface packed with interesting things. but viewed on the day-to-day basis this software is pretty buggy, especially when you use a language other than english because many identifiers are hardcoded so some features doesn’t work anymore. The development is slow so it is very unprobable to see a change for one’s specific problem in the next year.
Personally I turned then to Mozilla Thunderbird for the ease of use also it is somewhat faster; only for Calendar entries I do Zimbra…
so long
how to prevent spam well, I use thunderbird
Teresa, I’ve been trough a lot lately, tried all email clients lately until I read your post and gave postbox a try, it’s soooo good, no problems with settings, no crashings, nice nice interface.. love it!! thanx a lot!!
What about KMail? I
Yup, this is a foolish blog…
Kontact/Kmail, as other posters have already said, is a tremendously powerful (if not perfect, but no software is) email client. Absolutely stupendous.
And although I am not a Gnome user, it seems that the 2 main PIM clients (Personal Information Managers) in the Linux world are Kontact and Evolution. So, the absence of both of these is conspicuous enough to show that the blogger does not know what he/she states.
Go do some real research before writing these types of blogs, please.
D, TDS
I am surprised you dont have Kmail in this list. It is a very easy to use email client that integrates well with other applications in Kontact as well as other apps in the KDE suite. I have been using it for years. KDE is now availalble for Windows as well as Mac.
I vote for Kontact (which includes the email client Kmail) too. If you like keyboard shortcuts, lots of features, support for lots of protocols, etc it’s a must.
I tried Zimbra and discovered that it insists on downloading ALL email from Gmail, even though my POP setting in Gmail is “download mail only from such-and-such date…” Imagine downloading all the mail, including frivolous stuff from your Gmail account for the past 3 years :-(
I agree with many responses here… have been using Kmail for more than 3 years now, and can’t do without it… works almost flawlessly for me, with 6 email accounts, two calendars and ongoing tasks lists…
I can tel the fanboys are having a field day here! What about Opera? The article was about the “top 5″ on a number of platforms. That does not include Opera or any of you other fanboys’ even more obscure favorites.
Nice post!
I thought Claws was a fork of Sylpheed?
what about X.509 certificates for signing and encryption capabilities?
Any of the ‘5′ above are OK I expect – “if” you’r just starting out building your email [contact] [e-ddress] &[message] “history”… But, if you’ve already got long (and valuable) files of emailzzz, contacts ect., then you are certainly going to be looking for a (new) email client that can easily importexport data to-from your ‘original’ emailer – (in my case; Outlook Express).
No where (yet) have I read about this (((major))) compatability subject talked about?.?
In summary; your “Top 5 Email Client For Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows Users” is nothing but a fly-over “busy-work” bunch of useless filler, (besides all the errors and omissions).
What about Eudora? I have used it for years and find it powerful and flexible. I see they are developing an open source version and not supporting the Windows version anymore. It is a shame. I’ll try Thunderbird on my new machine. Thanks for this review.
Lovable this website, and very interesting the majority of the articles, but this is a bit unuseful since the “approximate” selection of the clients…
Probably better to review by OS (!)
Anyway, thanks for the work!
no mutt? Even after people have recommended it already.
Evolution and KMail happen to be email clients of two most widely used Desktop Environment Gnome and KDE respectively. While console junkies/power users still use mutt/pine. Seriously what was this five random email clients I can recall. Apart from Thunderbird and Claws I’ve never heard of any of clients listed here.
Your mention of easy of use is even more tasteless, because easy of installation is distribution dependent and all popular distributions install any package in one like command.
emerge
pacman -S
aptitude install
yum install
Its a shame that in all the select glamorous clients make all the lists and powerful console clients (not just for mail) are left to rot in obscurity among it’s fans. No wonder that even professional linux bloggers call ubuntu as operating system.
Talking serious about MUA’s you have to put mutt in this list. Mutt does what it have to do, a good and fast MUA. Together with other applications it is working like a horse. I have used all the above applications for years, but came back to this console based app. All those graphical MUA’s are overloaded with features, which do not belong to a MUA!
Nice article!
I suppose the post started with cross OS e-mail clients. NOt with Linux clients.
So is there a Windows/Mac OS client or port for:
- mutt
- Evolution
- Kontact/Kmail
without installing a complete CygWin?
Guys I really need help, I have been a user of OUTLOOK EXPRESS on Windows XP, then moved to WINDOWS MAIL on VISTA, I have very important mails and over 2000 contacts now I am using WINDOWS 7 which does not have any e-mail program, I tried OUTLOOK & LIVE MAIL I REALLY HATE BOTH SO MUCH I WANT TO CRASH MY COMPUTER WITH ALL THE BULLSHIT THEN HAVE PUT IN THE INTERFACE AND FUNCTION —– CAN SOMEONE PLEASE RECOMEND ME A GOOD E-MAIL PROGRAM AND HOW TO TRANSFER ALL MY MESSAGE & CONTACT,
THANKS
CHRIS
@ E-mail clients…I suggest you go to >www.mozillamessaging.com< and download Thunderbird.
Evolution is probably the best choice in a 100% linux host configuration for a user in a corporate windows (exchange) environment… But if users wish to share some parts of the profile between multiple hosts running various OS (windoze laptop, linux development workstation…), Thunderbird is probably best with some custom setup using a shared drive (NFS unix home…): You can have the exact same local directories on both hosts for instance.
Don’t really understand your classification… maybe because the usage is not made clear!
Evolution has chance to be the best choice however it has a lot of bugs and restrictions. It’s almost impossible to use for a little bit more experienced user that dummy.
Nice article, but I missed the email client Taroby which has come a long way since 2007 and is available for Linux, Win and Mac.
What, no mention of Kerio? Tis open-source, and good value. My company uses it – of all our IT infrastructure, it requires the least babysitting.
Yeah…so Evolution pretty much blows.