What's your favorite email client?

couragethebravedog@lemmy.world to Android@lemdro.id – 134 points –

I'm tried of how terrible Gmail is. Id like an email client with folders or categories. If it can sort them automatically (like how Googles now defunct inbox app used to) that would be even better.

Edit: in a couple days or whenever the activity on this post slows down. I will update this post with a list of the most recommended email app.

Edit2:

Results are in: Number is the amount of people who specifically mentioned it.

  1. FairMail 6
  2. K-9 5
  3. Spark 2
  4. ProtonMail
  5. Re:work
  6. Nine
  7. Tutanota
  8. Canary Mail
  9. Aqua
67

Fairemail is pretty much the default android client. Open source, full featured, not bad on the eyes. It just fucking works without hassles.

If anything, the settings are too feature packed, it can take a while to tweak everything if you really want it customized

Agreed. Lots of features - definately worth the effort though.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm tired of the official app and will try this out instead!

FairMail is very good, and gets updates frequently.

Works great with Gmail, and other mail services.

Another vote for FairMail. I've been using it for a few years at this point and never had a reason to look for an alternative.

I'll probably give K-9 a try when it eventually rebrands as Thunderbird though.

Spark. Absolutely adore it. Once I tried it, I've never gone back.

Do you like it's new interface?

I like the Smart 1.0 implementation.

2.0 just hides away a lot of important messages. I have 5 email IDs due to work and other stuff, and I CANNOT figure out how that interface works.

The 1.0 works perfectly.

I'm absolutely agree. I really tried to get used to the new interface, but its a pain.

Also, the new Windows version lacks support of Exchange, and it messes up your accounts on another devices.

Still love it. Not the windows version.

I prefer the original Mail and Calendar app that came with Windows 10.

But Microsoft being Microsoft, abandoned their own app dev platform to essentially just make a web app instead. Apparently, native apps are just too much to ask for these days. 🙄

Nine

Been using for a long time because of the rich text email options. But it is awesome all around. My pick for best of the best.

You're the second person that's recommended nine so I guess I'll give it a shot. Do you know if they collect data from your emails?

Is it still being developed? It looks like the last update was back in April last year.

  • On Android: K9Mail. By far the best.
  • On Linux: ThunderBird. It's bloated like an obese whale on cortisone but I've yet to see a better client.

How is K9 better than FairEmail?

Agreed. FairEmail is my goto choice. They're both open source and on F-Droid.

FairEmail does have a $9 license you can buy to add extra features, but even without the license, I found it to be a nicer app than K9.

I just wish Android had a nice email client that was material you and material 3 like Gmail and also wasn't Gmail

Thunderbird - a bit slouchy at times but featurewise I'm very happy with it :)

K9. Super happy in general, apart from push email not working properly most of the time

I used K9 for years but recently switched to FairEmail. Works better in terms of auto-completing addresses, has better sever-side search. Previously it looked horrible compared to K9 but lately it has added Material You and other attractive theming options. It has a rather intimidating level of options but is very powerful. That being said, I still like K9 and will probably continue to check in as they add features and become part of Thunderbird. Both K9 and FairEmail are really good in terms of being ad-free, privacy-respecting clients with unified inboxes, dark mode and other features most important to me. K9 has advantage of being totally free where FairEmail puts some key features behind a purchase, which I understand, as it's a solo developer.

"Id like an email client with folders or categories."

I tried a few other email clients to see if I could ditch the gmail one (years ago, admittedly), and where those clients fell short for me was they didn't support labels, only folders. Multiple labels can apply to one email, but an email can only belong in one folder.

Does anyone know if things have changed, whether third party clients now support gmail labels?

There are email clients that do support labels (like em mail client), but I haven't found one where that actually syncs with the server. As far as I can tell, IMAP does support labels, but maybe the label concept isn't the same so it doesn't translate? Maybe it works over exchange as a protocol, but I haven't tried.

Basically, I think it's a limitation is the (by now) rather old protocol that's still being used, and the lack of (well supported) alternatives?

Note that em client sports Gmail's labels just fine, and syncs them properly, but that part only works with Gmail. Which kind of defeats the purpose of trying to ditch Gmail, but wanting labels and not folders.

I like Spark. I've had many interactions with the company and support out of Ukraine and they're always great. Haven't found anything better for my needs.

I love spark for how it helps one curate their inbox. For me it made email slightly useful once again!

Tutanota, which is unfortunately my only option with my email provider lol. They have their own client which is really slow and clunky, but it has a simple view with my email, contacts, and calendar. It's all stored e2ee too.

I have a tuta account as well. Their app is very barebones. I support the company though as I believe in their mission.

Re:work. If you need Exchange connectivity look no further. It has a subscription model, but there's absolutely nothing better than it. Made my the same company that made the previous Exchange king, Nine.