Email clients may seem as old-fashioned as a flip phone, but they’re actually a great way to manage your email. If you’re looking for ways to be a little more productive, a native Windows email application may be what you’re looking for.
I have used microsoft clients for about 15 years for both work and personal use. They’re usually easy to set up: download the software, plug in your email, and then select your settings. and you can connect multiple email accounts to one app, so you don’t have to switch between different apps. some clients are even designed to help you increase efficiency with built-in productivity tools and integration options.
But Microsoft isn’t the only game in town. depending on how you want to use your email, there is a windows mail client for any situation. For this article, I tested several dozen windows email clients, and these are the seven best ones.
top 7 email apps for windows
-
em client for customization
thunderbird for a free email client
mailbird for people who live in your inbox
windows mail for simplicity
microsoft outlook for email with a robust business platform
kiwi for gmail for advanced gmail users
the bat! for security and encryption
what makes the best email client for windows?
I began my research by defining the category and clarifying what criteria I was basing my reviews on. this is the most important when I tried every desktop email client.
-
compatibility with most email service providers. this was the starting point for my search and evaluation. The best mail app for windows will allow you to connect to multiple email providers (gmail, outlook, yahoo!, etc).
ease of use. People of all technical levels may want an email app for windows, so I looked for apps that most users would find easy to set up and use.
customization. For people who want more control, I looked for clients that offered a degree of user flexibility for appearance. I also looked at productivity features like chat apps, email filtering, pre-made templates, and the like. These are the tools, built-in and third-party, that can make spending a day inside your inbox less stressful and more effective.
support. The software must have some degree of support, be it an active user community or a responsive support team.
Once the criteria were identified, I searched high and low for windows mail clients that had a relatively large customer base. I looked at each provider’s website to review the features and support offered. for support, I wanted to know if there were any recent responses to forum questions (having a good support dialog showed an active community of users and a better chance of getting your questions answered). From there, I downloaded every single client that met the criteria and had active support communities.
I took notes on the ease of setup and use for each client. for example, several clients required two clicks just to compose a new email, so I marked them as not user-friendly (lots of people here!). For customization, I configured and tested various elements such as themes, inbox appearance, alerts, and options for handling mail, such as filtering. I tried and noticed the productivity tools that made some clients stand out from others. and, if a client had integration capabilities, I plugged it in and used it with a popular app like zoom.
After so much testing, these are the seven apps I would recommend.
best windows email client for customization
em client
em client’s intuitive and modern user interface makes it a joy to use, but it may not be to everyone’s taste. luckily, you get several dozen themes and the ability to customize almost every aspect of the UI to personalize it.
To get started, choose your layout: messages at the bottom, on the right, or turn them off. Common actions like reply, forward, archive, and others are conveniently located at the top of your inbox, but you can add, remove, and rearrange what’s shown here by right-clicking on any of the actions. on the right side, you’ll get a list of previous emails with that address to make it easy to find past conversations.
For most user interface settings, go to settings > appearance > topics. click on your theme and select theme editor. want to change the buttons you mouse over from blue to purple? No problem. spinning wheels, progress bars, links and other elements can also be changed with a few clicks.
The handy sidebar displays contact details, past conversations, your address book, your calendar, and any invitations you may have. these items can also be rearranged and removed. If you need to add a task to your schedule, click the checkmark icon in the sidebar, write a task note, and select a due date with reminders. EM Client also recently added video meeting integrations with Webex, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other providers, plus chat integration with Google Talk, Jabber, and a few others.
If you send many emails with the same message, the quick text feature allows you to create templates to fill in the email body with one click. Perhaps the Achilles heel of em client is the absence of a mobile application. but if you use a different mobile app, em can automatically sync with that app so your emails are always up to date.
em client price: free license available for two accounts; one time payment of $49.95 for the pro version which includes vip support, unlimited accounts and business use.
best free windows email client
thunder bird
With thunderbird, you can specify where your email is stored locally, schedule backups, and manage server settings. it also provides some security features, such as end-to-end encryption, not found in other clients. Because it is open source, Thunderbird has a catalog of plugins from various developers to help improve the user experience. and everything is free.
For a windows mail application, it doesn’t have the most modern user interface: it’s based on mozilla’s browser, firefox, and uses a tab system. but you wouldn’t pick thunderbird for its style points anyway. still, you have options. to see them, click on the hamburger menu at the top right. From there, you’ll be able to customize the look of the app, select privacy settings, and choose basic features like email composition options. themes like soft, dark fox, and two little birds (shown above) bring different looks to your inbox.
with my tests, thunderbird was a mixed bag of send and receive speeds. outgoing emails were received almost instantly from my web based gmail account. but receiving emails in the thunderbird client took anywhere from 10 seconds to several minutes.
click tools > additional options to see the extensions available to get more out of thunderbird. Smart Templates ($5/year) and Quick Text let you create email templates for quick responses. send later allows you to schedule future times to send emails or send messages repeatedly using rules like “every other day”.
thunderbird price: free
best windows email client for people who live in your inbox
mail bird
One of the most modern and easy-to-use email clients I’ve tried, Mailbird’s variety of third-party integrations makes it easy to manage your email and your most used applications. When you’re connected, the integrations share the user interface with your inbox, making Mailbird attractive to users who don’t want to leave. slack, trello, google drive, dropbox and twitter are just some of the apps with native integrations.
To get started, download the client, add your email (or connect to an existing client), and you’re ready to go. As your emails sync, you’ll be prompted to select a layout and connect third-party apps. To connect, click on your app, sign in, and you’re ready to go without leaving your inbox. each app you add appears as an icon in the sidebar for one-click access. With my slack account connected, I just had to look at the sidebar to see activity and quickly reply to messages.
One new feature is speed reading, which mailbird says will increase your email productivity by allowing you to quickly absorb sentences at once rather than identifying individual words. first, select the speed reading option in an email. then click how fast (100 to 1,000 words per minute) you want the email to play. your email will appear on the screen one word at a time at the desired speed.
One way to use your inbox without resorting to other tools is the repeat feature. If you’d like to be reminded of an event like a webinar, right-click the email, choose a date and time, and the email will reappear in your inbox at that time. it will also be stored in your replay folder so you can see what’s coming up. With the unified mailbox feature, you can add multiple email accounts and manage all your emails and folders from your single inbox.
mailbird price: from $39/year for personal mailbird or $95 one time. business plan ($59/year) adds priority and unlimited email tracking and sharing support.
best windows email client for simplicity
windows mail
I’ve used the windows mail app regularly since the 90’s and still use it as a secondary email account because it’s free and easy to use.
click the settings wheel to find all available options, from personalization to notifications. you can create a signature and set up basic autoresponders. customization allows you to create a few different themes with accents and background colors.
One feature I like is the Focused Inbox, a filter that learns which emails you regularly read and puts them in a separate inbox. all other emails are placed in the other inbox. you can specify other emails to be moved to the focused inbox by right-clicking and selecting move to focused. There is also a microsoft to do plugin that allows you to schedule tasks and create repeatable task lists with a few clicks from the taskbar.
You won’t really find many bells or whistles in Windows Mail, which, for many people, is perfect for their inbox.
windows mail price: free
the best windows email client with a solid business platform
microsoft outlook
Since the 1990s, Microsoft Outlook has been the preferred email application for Windows for businesses large and small. it’s a sophisticated platform with lots of advanced features, but it’s still relatively easy to use. And when combined with Microsoft 365, a suite of several dozen productivity apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Sharepoint, among others, it becomes a powerful platform. For any business that wants to buy an email client and never look back, Outlook is that platform.
once downloaded, click info > options to access your settings. For starters, you get a handful of themes and seemingly limitless options for organizing all the features within the UI. that includes customizing the top horizontal menu (the ribbon), which contains all the commands to perform tasks. you can add any of the hundreds of command options for quick access based on your preferences.
Also within the email client there are pre-made templates, built-in dictation, read-aloud text, and rules for managing emails with keywords, flags, sender’s name, to/from field, and more. and there are hundreds of third-party integrations (called plugins) to customize your experience.
A relatively new productivity suite is viva, which is included in the business plans and is available as stand-alone modules for the business plans starting at $4/user/month. click the blue viva insights icon in the top right ribbon to get your insights for the day: view tasks, prepare for upcoming meetings, stuff like that. one that I found particularly helpful is the daily report I received to keep track of the requests I submitted. For example, I emailed a contact to try to set up a meeting last week. in the informational email, I can click done or remind me, which automatically sets a reminder for the next day (or a custom date). or click the bar graph icon above your name to see information about your productivity. how do you spend your day (eg, meetings, email, calls)? Are you distracted by email? you’ll get productivity tips based on your most recent work patterns.
if you are configured to use the email client developed by microsoft, it will not be a commitment at all.
Microsoft Outlook price: You must purchase or have a Microsoft 365 license to use Outlook (after a free trial). microsoft 365 apps for enterprise is $8.25/user/month. Please note that Business Basic does not include the desktop client.
best gmail client for windows
kiwi for gmail
If you want your gmail experience to be replicated in an email client, kiwi for gmail offers that, and more. Not only does it provide the same gmail user interface you are used to, but it also allows you to work in all your google apps without leaving the client, without opening files in new browser windows.
once you sign in, your google workspace automatically loads into the UI in the left sidebar next to your familiar gmail inbox. from there, it’s just one click to open docs, sheets, and slides. your new window “floats” in the client by default, which means you can drag it anywhere on your screen without taking another step (in gmail, you need to press shift + →).
By pressing control + alt + windows + m (essentially they’re all together), you can open a compose window from anywhere on your computer. if you need quick access to a closed document, click file > recently closed documents.
Because it’s designed to mirror the gmail experience, kiwi doesn’t offer many additional productivity tools or customization options, but you can use all of gmail’s settings to customize your inbox. and they offer integrations with zoom, grammarly, boomerang, and a handful of others.
price of kiwi for gmail: free for basic license that supports one account. from $34/year for a premium license compatible with six accounts.
best windows email client for security and encryption
the bat!
the bat! it’s a highly secure email client and also one with tools to help you be more productive. It has more features than any other email client, with the exception of Outlook, so learning what each one does will take some time. but I found that many of the common features, such as setting up filters, folders, and rules, were pretty self-explanatory. for the more difficult parts, the company’s support section and forum are excellent.
“encryption on the fly” allows you to set a master password when you first start the bat. then all your data (messages, address books, configuration files) will be sent and stored encrypted. you will receive a warning if an attached file has a double extension (for example, photo.jpg.exe). executable files cannot be opened from the client, and with the api, you can add third-party anti-virus and anti-spam plugins.
the bat! It feels more utilitarian than some other clients (and similar to thunderbird), but it gives you control over the layout. you can select a light or dark theme and from there adjust the UI menu and toolbar to include only what you want. format what appears, such as commands, font, and colors in messages. you can change almost any field or box you are in by right-clicking and selecting preferences from the menu. this will take you to the options for that area/field.
the bat! it also comes with some fun and nice-to-have features. The mailticker provides a running stock market-like ticker on your screen for all unread emails. the speed and colors of the ticker can be customized, and you can drag (or hide) it anywhere on the screen. smartbat allows you to take notes in simple text files like a digital notepad or diary. and the qr code generator allows you to quickly generate a code from text, emails and just about anything else within an email.
the bat! price: $49.99 for the home version; $59.99 for the professional version
what is the best windows mail application?
The best email application for windows is the one you enjoy using. find the one that best suits the way you use your pc and give it a try: besides downloading the software and connecting your email, there’s not much else to do for a test drive. keep trying until you find the one you feel like using during the day.
This article was originally published in March 2019 by joseph yaker.
-