Emailing is probably the activity we do the most on our computers. Even if you don't work on a computer during the day, you probably sit down in front of it to check your inbox at the end of the day. If the Mail app that comes with your Mac doesn't provide the features you need, you're in luck. There are dozens of great email apps in the Mac App Store. I've tested many of them and these are my favorites. Each one has a little something special that makes it unique.
- Free & Open Source. Licensed under AGPLv3, hMailServer can be used for free in most commercial scenarios. It's source code is available for anyone to read or extend at GitHub.
- May 18, 2019 Apple Mail is a free, native email application that ships with every Mac, making it a solid default choice for most Mac users, especially those using iCloud only. Despite steady developments from the Apple stable, its email client hasn’t had a major design upgrade in.
- One of the best POP3 mail servers for Mac servers, and it's FREE! I've been using it on several systems for about 3 years, and haven't had a single problem with it. I've used it up to 75 users.
Polymail
Polymail for Mac has a fantastic interface with cute buttons everywhere so you don't have to think about what to do next. It actually looks like it belongs on a mobile device, except that you click the buttons instead of tapping them.
Availability: One of the best sources of Mac server hardware is an old Mac you already own. My first two Mac servers were both hand-me-down Power Macs. My first two Mac servers were both hand-me.
There is a fourth section that appears whenever you select an email, which displays all of the past correspondences you've had with that particular contact or group of contacts. It's great for quickly tracking down something you've talked about in the past.
You can set up new mail with a pre-made template, send calendar invites, get notifications when someone has read your email, and schedule an email to be sent at a later time.
You can also write or respond to emails with rich text formatting. So, if you want to change the font, add bold lettering, bullet point a section, or just slap an emoji in there, it's all available right from the toolbar at the top of your new email. The only thing it's missing is Touch Bar support, which would really make this app shine.
Free Accounting Software for Small Businesses. Works Offline, Easy to Use, Full-Featured & Free Forever. Download for Windows, Mac & Linux. Express Accounts is professional business accounting software, perfect for small businesses needing to document and report on incoming and outgoing cash flow. Accounting software that's free and powerful Wave’s easy-to-use accounting software can connect your bank accounts, sync your expenses, balance your books, and get you ready for tax time. Start taking control of your finances today with the best accounting software for small businesses. Create your free. May 20, 2020 With versions for PC, Mac, iPad and Android. Free small business accounting software in the cloud. Designed for non-accountants. Supports multiple currencies. Have to be online to use. ZipBooks is the best free accounting software for Mac. Sign up for a free account and gain access to our professional design, simple invoicing, and time tracking capabilities. ZipBooks can help your business accomplish its financial goals today. Free small business accounting software for mac.
Polymail can be used for free, but you'll need to sign up for a subscription if you want all of the awesome features that make Polymail stand out, like read notifications, send later, and messaging templates. You can add these features for as low as $10 per month. If you are a heavy email user and these features entice you, give the free trial a run to see if it's worth your money.
If you want your computer email experience to look and feel more like a mobile experience, with big, easy-to-find action buttons, Polymail is the one for you.
Spark
Spark has this 'Smart Inbox' feature that separates mail into categories: Personal, Notifications, Newsletters, Pinned, and Seen. That is, any email that is from someone in your contacts or otherwise looks like a personal email will be filtered to the top of the inbox list. Below that, in a separate section, emails that look like alerts from companies you deal with, like your gas company or Amazon, that include some kind of alert or notification. Below that, you'll see a section called 'Newsletters' which is exactly that. Below that, there are emails you've flagged or tagged as important in some way. Lastly, emails you've seen, but haven't moved to another folder.
Spark also allows you to snooze an email and come back to take care of it at a later time. This is invaluable when you regularly get emails that you need to respond to but don't have time for until the end of the day. I use it all of the time.
It also has gesture-based actions for getting to inbox zero. You can swipe to the right or left to delete, archive, pin, or, mark an email as unread.
And it has Touch Bar support, which I love.
Spark is best for people that like to have their inbox organized before they go through and move emails to new folders, address them, or delete them entirely. If that sounds appealing to you, try Spark.
Kiwi for Gmail
If you have one or more Gmail accounts, you should consider switching to Kiwi. This all-in-one triumph brings the look and feel of Gmail for the web to the desktop in the form of an app. With the service's unique Focus Filtered Inbox, you can view your messages based on Date, Importance, Unread, Attachments, and Starred. In doing so, you can prioritize your emails in real-time.
Perhaps the best reason to use Kiwi for Gmail is its G Suite integration. Thanks to the app, you now get to experience Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, as windowed desktop applications. Kiwi is available for Mac and Windows.
Postbox
New on our list for 2020, Postbox has been designed for professionals, but anyone with more than one email account should continue using it. Available for Mac and Windows, Postbox works with any IMAP or POP account, including Gmail, iCloud, Office 365, and more.
Postbox offers one of the fastest email search engines available, which is ideally suited when you need to find files, images, and other attachments. With the app's built-in Quick Bar, you can move a message, copy a message, switch folders, tag a message, Gmail label a message, or switch folders with just a few keystrokes.
Looking for more? Postbox comes with 24 (counting) themes, and much more.
Your favorite?
What's going to be your next email client for Mac?
Updated February 2020: Guide updated to reflect price changes and more.
macOS Catalina
Main
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.
Closed for 2020Apple says its offices in the US will not fully reopen until at least 2021
According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple is planning for its office and many of its retail workers to remain remote for the rest of the year.
Get Canary Mail
Having an email client installed on your Mac can make a huge difference for your productivity. After all, your web browser is a portal to distraction, and any time you boot up Chrome or Safari to check on your inbox you’re in danger of losing at least 10–15 minutes to reading the news, browsing Facebook, or going down a “wiki-spiral.”
That said, not every email client is built the same. While macOS comes with the Apple Mail app by default, it might not necessarily be the best fit for your needs.
Get a bundle of best email clients
With Setapp on your Mac, you get access to the list of best email tools. Experiment with all of them flexibly — until you find the one.
Best Email Apps For Mac 2020
So what’s the best email app for Mac then? Depends on what you do. You might be a power user, comfortable with running macros to make the most out of your email experience, or you might just want something that works out of the box without having to fuss with settings. Security could be your top priority if you work with sensitive materials, or you might just need to easily manage multiple accounts.
Whatever the case, there are a few things to keep in mind when evaluating all email clients: How fast is the setup process? How easy is it to use? Is it secure? What are the sorting options for your inbox? Is it nice to look at?
Let’s sift through some top email apps using this questioning framework.
Apple Mail: Best email client for Mac by default
What makes Apple products great is also what limits them: because Apple needs to make apps that are so easy to use that anyone can use them, much of what they produce is quite basic in functionality. Which is fine — just make sure you know what you’re getting with the Apple Mail app.
You definitely get clean, user-friendly design that’s in line with all the other Apple software. In addition, you get outstanding integration with macOS and iOS, including the use of the Notification Center and the ability to send emails via the Share function in other apps.
Although adding multiple email providers, including iCloud and Gmail, is easy — there have been some bug reports around using Microsoft accounts, such as Hotmail or Live. Maybe the old Apple and Microsoft feud is not over yet?
In step with the times, Apple Mail app makes it effortless to add emoji to your emails from the shortcut bar right in the composing email window.
Honestly, for most people, the Apple Mail app will absolutely be enough. However, if you’re the kind of person who has a lot going on in their inbox, there are not too many ways to filter through all the messages quickly and pin down important conversations, or simply delete unwanted mail.
What’s great:
Clean design
Easy-to-use Mac mail
Fantastic Mac and iOS integration
Not so great:
A history of bugs with Microsoft accounts
Lacking high-powered organizational tools
Mozilla Thunderbird: Best free email client for Mac power users
Perhaps most widely known for their web browser, Firefox, Mozilla’s other major product is their email client, Thunderbird. Hailed as the best free email app on the market at various points throughout its long history, where does Thunderbird stand in 2020?
Unfortunately, Thunderbird’s design shows its age. Blocky and utilitarian, it’s quite a bit uglier than most modern email clients. But look below the surface and you’ll discover some very handy features.
For one, you have the option of tagging emails as they come in. Just add tags like Personal, Work, and ToDo and suddenly conversations become much easier to find later on. Even better, create your own tags to make the classification system as specific as you need it to be.
Thunderbird features an integrated calendar and chat client, both of which are indispensable for work, and boasts great privacy features — like not automatically displaying images (hence stopping pixel trackers) when you open emails (can be changed in Preferences).
Overall, Thunderbird has some powerful value propositions, but is also a bit ugly and unintuitive. So, if the looks don’t bother you, give it a try. Otherwise, you’re better off using another option.
What’s great:
Tagging is powerful and helps you organize your emails quickly
Precise search
Not so great:
Not the prettiest interface
Unintuitive user experience. It takes time to figure out Thunderbird’s best features.
Kiwi for Gmail: Best Gmail app for Mac
If you don’t use Gmail, you can skip this one: Kiwi isn’t for you.
But for all other Gmail for Mac users, Kiwi for Gmail is an excellent Mac mail option. A desktop app with the look and feel of your browser email inbox, Kiwi features the ability to combine multiple accounts and filter your inbox with Focus to organize correspondence by date, importance, attachments, and more.
In many ways, Kiwi is Gmail’s missing ingredient, making the best free email provider online also the premier Gmail app for Mac. What’s even more exciting is that Kiwi lets you run G Suite apps like Google Docs and Sheets outside of your browser. Being able to leave Chrome or Safari behind and get some focused work done alone makes Kiwi worth the install.
What’s great:
- Kiwi makes Gmail better
- Combine multiple Gmail accounts
- Focused work outside the browser with Google Docs
Not so great:
Doesn’t support non-Gmail accounts
Spark: Best Mac email client for a clean inbox
A relatively new email client for Mac, Spark is based on an intriguing premise: What if your inbox was able to sort itself out based on your priorities but without your input?
Spark’s Smart Inbox algorithms are able to instantly identify whether an email is personal, work-related, or just a newsletter you signed up for years ago because it gave you a coupon but have since completely forgotten about. This kind of artificial intelligence works so well that Apple gave Spark an Editor’s Choice Award a few years ago.
In its quest for widespread adoption, Spark doubles down on usability, offering quick, one-click replies with generated text based on how you typically respond to emails and powerful automatic functions to clean up your inbox in seconds. Besides, the app is beautifully designed and very easy to use.
Of course, for Spark to have all of these powerful features, complete access to the content of your emails is required — which might raise some privacy-minded eyebrows. However, a lot of people would be happy to offer that in return for ease of use. So, if this notion doesn’t bother you, Spark might well be the best free email app for Mac.
What’s great:
- Clean design
- Smart Inbox organizes your unread emails
Could be the most professional email client for Mac
The only non-Apple email client with the Apple seal of approval
“Send later” feature lets you schedule emails
Frequent updates
Not so great:
Requires more of your data than other email clients
Canary Mail: Best security in an email client for Mac
New to the Mac email client game, Canary Mail’s outstanding list of features still makes it a worthy contender.
Canary Mail prioritizes security and privacy, providing every email you send with end-to-end encryption, so that if your data is ever intercepted it can’t be read. Even better, you don’t have to change any settings to do this — everything is set up right out of the box.
Free Email Servers For Mac
Add to that a fantastic design and some excellent filtering options, such as natural language search, smart tags, algorithmic bulk cleaner, and intelligent typography enhancements, and Canary Mail might well be the best email app for Mac, period.
What’s great:
- Great design
- Smart filters
- Intelligent typography
- Automatic end-to-end encryption
- Available to all email providers
- Algorithmic bulk cleaner
Unibox: Most innovative email client for Mac
The most exciting thing about Unibox is how it fundamentally changes the way you see your inbox. Instead of organizing everything by date received or subject, Unibox structures every conversation around contacts. That way your inbox resembles your text messages or messaging app, making everything intuitive and easy to navigate.
The developers of Unibox worked hard on making their email client for Mac the easiest to use on the market — and it shows. The design is stunning and you can easily respond to any email in the same window, get previews of attachments right there, and just scroll to remind yourself of all the conversations you’ve had with that person.
What’s great:
- Email like messages
- Intuitive and easy-to-use design
- Works with all major email providers
Best of all, Canary Mail and Unibox are both available for a free seven-day trial through Setapp, a subscription platform with over 150 top Mac apps chosen to make your day more productive and fun. Now can’t you wait to go back to emails already?