Could someone suggest a good email client

Question

I want to use an email client as number of email accounts I'm managing is getting out of hand. My friend suggests Thunderbird as a no nonsense email client. I have a number of emails with free service providers like Gmail, AOL, Yahoo!, Hotmail and a few other ones.

Could someone suggest a good client that would be compatible with all these email providers?

I know that Thunderbird seems to be a good option; its light, looks like it has a friendly interface and doesn't seem to be bloated like other clients I've reviewed. I just want to be sure in terms of the features I get.

Can someone suggest a good client that would manage all my email and also keep my folder organizations because doing all the organization again would be next to impossible.

Answer 1

Thunderbird is a safe bet, Postbox is a good option too, it's based on Mozilla code so it looks and feels like Thunderbird, runs extensions, and has some really nice enhancements like conversation view (think Gmail), the attachment viewer and the address collector. It used to be free during initial beta tests, but not anymore though.

I prefer Postbox out of the two, but give both a try, they both have quick setup wizards to setup your Gmail/Live and IMAP accounts, I think client access to yahoo accounts is restricted to "plus" accounts or something along those lines.

Answer 2

First of all, an answer: Thunderbird.

Then the commentary: Email clients are like text editors - everyone has a favorite, and religious wars have been fought over the littlest things.

You didn't mention what platform or what kind of budget, that might make a difference. However, it sounds like you're not part of a big corporate entity with a major email infrastructure, some something self contained would be good.

Okay, yes, I prefer Thunderbird for most of my work - it runs on both many platforms, can connect to many email server types, and is pretty easy to control. Also, it doesn't keep email in proprietary format folders like MS-Outlook does, so it is easy to get at your mail in nonstandard ways if necessary.

Answer 3

You could use Gmail to import all your messages into one place, it has an IMAP import function. You can find an overview at Lifehacker. Gmail also lets you send messages as any other email account as well, so you can have all your mail in one place, and still maintain separate addresses.

Answer 4

I would recommend you Sylpheed as an alternative to Thunderbird. It may not be as polished, but it does a good job, and personally I like it a lot more than TB. It's a bit more advanced I believe, but you could give it a try and see if you like it.

Answer 5

Since you're using Windows, I wonder if you've also installed Microsoft Office. If you have, then Outlook should be a good option too. Any email provider that uses POP3 or IMAP would work fine under Outlook and although you're drowning in options, it does offer you a lot of extra functionality.

If all you want is to read your mail, Thunderbird 2 is what Google supports. If you think a task list is useful, and a calendar is useful, then just use Outlook.

Most mail readers tend to have problems connecting to encrypted mail servers. These encryption methods can't just be exported that easily, thus some readers can't even handle those providers. In general, if it can handle SMTP, POP3 and/or IMAP all with additional SSL/TLS support then it should work with these free providers.

Answer 6

Not so long ago, I used the GMail web-app with Prism as my main email-client. I can wholeheartedly recommend that if you like the look and feel of GMail. Add a few Google Gears and it even works without being online.

Personally however, I switched from GMail to Mail.app (OSX only) because I prefer its Mac-like-interface to the webapp-look of GMail.

Even though I don't use them, many people seem to like Outlook and even Windows Live Mail.