Ask HN: Best email client for a Mac? - mjfern
======
sirn
If you're looking for a more traditional email client, I'd recommend
MailMate[1]. It's a no-fuss email client designed for power user (GPG support,
Markdown support, advanced filtering, text-only mode, etc.) I've been using it
for half a year with Fastmail (personal) and Gmail (work) and pretty happy
with it.

The author also maintains a blog[2] where he post quirks about several IMAP
implementations. For example, Yahoo IMAP[3] or Gmail labels[4]. The app itself
also handled all these edge cases very well.

[1]: [https://freron.com](https://freron.com)

[2]: [https://blog.freron.com](https://blog.freron.com)

[3]: [https://blog.freron.com/2017/slow-descent-into-madness-
yahoo...](https://blog.freron.com/2017/slow-descent-into-madness-yahoo-imap/)

[4]: [https://blog.freron.com/2013/mavericks-gmail-apple-mail-
and-...](https://blog.freron.com/2013/mavericks-gmail-apple-mail-and-
mailmate/)

~~~
n1000
I was very close to jumping ship with Mailmate 2 or 3 times. But the only
reason that kept me from doing so is that it does not offer an option for
local backups.

~~~
sirn
Not sure what you meant by local backups, but all messages retrieved by
MailMate are stored in a plain directory as RFC 822-based EML file in
~/Library/Application Support/MailMate/Messages (which is relocatable from
within the app). It also downloads all emails by default (but not the
attachment).

~~~
n1000
Wait - you mean it is possible to properly archive messages on my mac now?
Without having to run a local IMAP server? If I remember correctly that was
the only solution at the time. Time to take another look it seems.

------
wilbertliu
What’s wrong with the built-in Mail app btw? I use it in daily basis and it’s
pretty good to get its job done.

~~~
scrumper
It gets quite slow with large mailboxes.

~~~
mcv
I've got pretty large mailboxes and have never had any problems. I used to be
incredibly picky about mailreaders, but I've never had any complaints about
Mail.app.

~~~
scrumper
I have about 20k messages in my All Mail and around 5k in inbox, and it's
pretty unwieldy. Usable, but definitely slow switching mailboxes, slow at
searching, slow at sorting and filtering, slow to bring up message windows and
so on. It's more UI lag than anything else.

It is a very fast mail client with near empty mailboxes.

~~~
danaris
I have mailboxes with over 70-100k messages in them in Mail.app, and they
never take longer than about 0.5-2.5 seconds to load up when switching to them
(the higher range being when the system is also under load).

I have a few small gripes with Mail.app (it occasionally claims that some
messages are unread that aren't, for instance), but nothing I've seen of other
mail clients has led me to think they'd ever be better for my workflow.

------
lewi
Spark does pretty well for me. Nice inbox features and search functions.

~~~
nodesocket
I use spark and mostly happy, but the fact that I cannot setup inbox rules (if
subject equals then trash) is a bit frustrating.

~~~
y_molodtsov
You can set up those in Gmail directly.

~~~
nodesocket
Don't use Gmail for personal.

------
dsr_
mutt in your terminal of choice, to a local Maildir structure synced from your
IMAP server, plus your search utility of choice.

~~~
wanderfowl
Mutt is great if you're not often dealing with images or rich text, and if you
love keyboard-based workflows. I was a mutt guy for a while. But I've found
apps like MailMate or even GMail's web client to be keyboardy _enough_ ,
without some of the compromises and pain points (e.g. fighting OfflineIMAP)

------
Doches
I'm partial to Airmail ([http://airmailapp.com/](http://airmailapp.com/)),
which I use for a mix of Gmail and self-hosted (IMAP) addresses. Works great,
lightning-fast to use, and with a very Mac-native feel.

~~~
overcast
Does that store mail on their servers at all? It's becoming increasingly
confusing as to which of these new mail clients require a 3rd party server for
them to do their "magic" on.

~~~
drc37
I don't believe Airmail requires any 3rd party server. I have been using
Airmail for a few years now and really like it.

------
chillaxtian
Mail.app

I use it with my personal email (hosted at Hover), and my work email, hosted
on some IMAP server.

Works like a charm.

------
ljoshua
I've really been enjoying Astro recently
([https://www.astro.ai/](https://www.astro.ai/)). I was a big
Newton/Cloudmagic fan before they shut down in the last month, but nearly
everything I liked from Newton is also present in Astro. Unified inbox,
snooze/send later, excellent keyboard support, etc.

Also has the best "less important emails" inbox implementation that I've used
so far. The whole gimmick of an AI bot I could chat with is just that, a
gimmick, but bot the desktop and mobile apps are solid.

Wishlist items remaining: Newton had you have a Newton account that would
automatically set up all your accounts when you installed it on a new device,
but Astro doesn't do that. Also, I'd love it to automatically pick the right
account to send from once I type in the recipient's address, based on past
correspondence, like Newton did. But neither of these are even small issues.

~~~
xemoka
Funny/sad considering that Astro was _just_ picked up by slack... with a
shutdown of October 10th! That's a short sunset period... harsh.

~~~
ljoshua
BAGH!!! I just got the announcement email as well. Lame.

------
hs86
If you are looking for an email powerhouse that requires some time to set it
up in order to use its full potential, then I recommend to take a look at
MailMate: [https://freron.com/](https://freron.com/)

------
seishan
I've had a good experience with Mailspring. It has a clean user interface and
sets of key bindings that are similar to email clients like Mail.app, Gmail,
and Inbox.

------
eatbitseveryday
Does any integrate with Microsoft Exchange and their encryption of emails? It
has made my use of Thunderbird less and less an option because of this.

------
hagbart_celine
Thunderbird

------
kposehn
I’ve been using Boxy ([https://boxyapp.co](https://boxyapp.co)) for inbox for
a long time and now they’re on to making Boxy Suite
([https://www.boxysuite.com/](https://www.boxysuite.com/)) which should cover
Gmail and Calendar once Inbox is deprecated.

Overall quite happy with them.

------
overcast
I love [https://www.uniboxapp.com/](https://www.uniboxapp.com/), mainly for
the way it treats mail as a continuing conversation like iMessage. It hasn't
been updated in a while, but works well. I can't go back to the dreaded thread
layout of most mail clients at this point.

~~~
tmikaeld
I wanted to use this, but i couldn't get any answer from the developers if the
App stores my e-mail credentials on their cloudservice. There was a review on
app store where the user had their account overtaken in connection with
installing the app.

~~~
overcast
Been using it for a couple years. Not aware of any cloud based account, there
isn't a single mention of that anywhere. It's just a standalone mail client. I
could be wrong though!

------
kps
You can pry Eudora from my cold dead hands…

~~~
geoah
How does it feel holding on to a relic? :D

In a more serious note, are you actually using eudora? If so I'd love to hear
if there is a still-maintained version as well as the reasons sticking to it.

~~~
kps
I still use it for ‘real’ (own domain) email, while using a popular web
service for web logins and other junk attractants. I have an OS X 10.6 machine
to run it along with some other things that I don't want to ‘upgrade’ (e.g.
non-subscription Adobe CS). The main missing feature is UTF-8, but as an
English speaker it hasn't been a problem in practice.

Eudora was recently donated to the Computer History Museum¹, so there's some
faint hope of a revival, although it would more likely be the inferior Windows
version.

¹ [http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/the-eudora-email-
client...](http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/the-eudora-email-client-
source-code/)

------
tannedNerd
I've been really enjoying Canary. Good cross platform support for iOS and Mac
and its a one time purchase instead of monthly. Add in the security features,
snoozing, and smart notifications and its almost at inbox levels.

------
Yoric
As I'm frequently switching across platforms, I still haven't found anything
better than Thunderbird for my use cases.

------
declanqian
Try [https://notmuchmail.org/](https://notmuchmail.org/) with emacs

------
massung
Just noting that if you're like me and use multiple gmail accounts for
personal, work, etc., then I suggest Wavebox.

------
pixelrevision
I started using spark since google announced discontinuing inbox. Works really
well between iOS and macOS.

------
xwvvvvwx
mailplane. I just want inbox but I don't want to waste a pinned tab on it.

------
drivingmenuts
Postbox works for me at home, Gmail at work (because corporate policy)

------
k12tech
Mailmate- good search, updates, responsive dev... keyboard centric

------
vityaz_
Postbox is pretty swell.

~~~
krono
I used to love Postbox until the latest 6th version.

Sure, they've - allegedly - made it run faster but they've also removed
extension support, blocked any ways to hack in a calendar (which could
previously be done by adding a permanent browser tab pointing to Google
Calendar) and seriously hurt legibility with its new design by removing
dividing lines, decreasing contrast across the board and giving all the icons
a bright random colour.

A real shame as there are no real alternatives.

------
mikeloden
try [https://www.thunderbird.net/](https://www.thunderbird.net/)

