Choosing a mail client for Mac
After getting a POP or IMAP email account with a hosting company, one of the most popular questions is how to I access it? This can lead down various rabbit holes that ultimately leave you frustrated and switching back to gmail, yahoo and, hopefully not, hotmail or AOL.
Stop right there! You picked that new email address for a very good reason, so lets put it to use.
The easiest way to access the account from anywhere is using the web mail that your hosting company has made available to you. For my hosting company 1and1 the mail can be accessed from their webmail address. With some email hosting this is not as simple, for example godaddy members have to log in to their account then navigate to their email account. A hassle for sure. Going to a simple web address is much easier. (*hint* *hint* use 1and1.)
If you’re thinking, “Well that’s great but I’m normally just on my personal computer. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could always have access to my email without logging in constantly.” I have a solution for you. An email client. You install this just like any other program and just like any other program there are many options.
A few basic requirements that narrowed my search, and should yours.
- Cost – Must be Free. There are too many great free options to pay for an email client.
- Ease of use – Should be intuitive to the user and familiar.
- Speed – The software will be on in the background, slowing down your computer is not an option.
I’ll address a few of the top ranked; Mac OS X Mail, Thunderbird, and Eudora Free.
Mac OS X Mail
Mac’s come with an email client installed, Mac OS X Mail (Mail). Since it is already installed, it’s going to be the easiest to access and its free. +1 so far.
Mail’s interface and client look like most other email clients, nothing out of the ordinary here. In this case, that’s a good thing. It has common features such as RSS feed reader, task list (to-do lists), and notes. The junk mail feature is pretty good at detecting and moving or removing spam mail. Ease of use check.
Since Mail is developed by Apple it is pretty well integrated in using the OS X engine. I have not experienced any noticeable delay’s while using Mail
Mozilla Thunderbird
This can be obtained by a simple download from mozillamessaging.com You’ll install this like any other Mac App. Download the file and for the option “Open with” choose “DiskImageMounter.App”. This will automatically open the installer when it has completed downloading. Once it has unpacked, drag the Thunderbird icon over to the “Applications” folder. This will copy the Thunderbird application to your applications folder. Finally, if you want it in your task bar, just drag the icon from you “Applications” folder to the Dock. Not too tedious and if you need more guidance, Mozilla has the answer. Overall easy set up and it is free.
Thunderbird for me is slightly more intuitive. This is more of a user preference issue. There’s nothing I can really point to other than it “feels” better. I swear it has nothing to do with the fact that it is an open source project and out there for developers to work on. I swear. Ok so that probably plays a part in my decision, but I think it should yours as well. This also means that the development of plug-ins is quite high. If there is a feature that you need that is not bundled with the initial install, chances are there is a plugin for it.
While running Thunderbird I have not noticed anything being slower. As far as how it compares in use to Mail for the most part they are quite close. Mail’s search seems to be quicker for me, while Thunderbird can speed up my use by it’s tagging functions.
Eudora (Free Version)
Like I stated in the beginning they had to be free. Eudora’s paid version is quite nice and might be better than the other two, but it is paid thus it is off the table for this comparison. On the Eudora’s Free version.
Eudora is refined like paid software should be. Eudora offers a fast and comfortable UI experience. Eudora provides several nice features like HTML formatting, multiple accounts and even throws in usage stats.
The free version has all the speed and refinement of it’s paid brother. It activated very smoothly and was prompt to repond to what I was doing. I again noticed nothing lagging or slowing down when in use.
Final Verdict
I declare the winner: Mozilla Thunderbird, on the strength of numbers. All three of these clients are at the top for a simple reason, they are all very good. You really can’t make a wrong choice with any of them. My select for off of the following. Eudora was passed over because some nice features that the other have are unavailable in the free version (Anti-spam measures and Fast Search – available for Windows only anyway). Mail and Thunderbird are close, but I gave the edge to Thunderbird for it’s flexibility in using plugins.
Thunderbird the best mail client for a Mac, rather, free email client.
Tags: email, imap, mail client, mozilla, smtp, thunderbird