Need robust email client

[PaperQueen]

Between the three companies/foundations I run, plus my personal accounts, I monitor no fewer than 28 email accounts (it sounds nuts, but is actually a really great system, keeping customer service, newsletters, media inquiries, etc. in their own inboxes). The downside is that Mail is groaning under the weight as time continues on.

Webmail's not an option, since the businesses don't "live" on the same server or with a single host.

I periodically archive and delete items saved in folders, have everything set to "offline" until I'm ready to actively sweep for new messages, but still.... Mail hangs fairly often, or worse, freezes up.

My gut tells me I need a more robust client. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Repo]

28?

Thunderbird might help. Check out all the features.

 

[DewGuy1999]

Probably the most robust email client of all time is the discontinued Eudora. My understanding is that although it's been dead for years it still works on Leopard and Snow Leopard (I use it under Tiger), but may see the final nail driven in it's coffin if Rosetta is now longer available under Lion.

 

[dianeoforegon]

Check out Mail Archiver X. It offers several options to archive including it's own database for viewing mail.

http://www.mothsoftware.com/drupalmoth/

If you own FMP, there are several options for archiving.

 

[maflynn]

I don't know how it would handle 28 accounts but check out postbox.

 

[Angelo95210]

I would say Thunderbird.

But I would personally opt for Gmail which can retrieve mail from other accounts.

 

[encomium23]

I run 6 accounts with thunderbird, works great!

 

[gks]

My gut tells me you're doing things wrong.

You should consider moving to a rule based filtering method for your email accounts. There is really no good reason for 28 email accounts.

I have my own domain. I do these as an example.

myname+amazon@mydomain.com
myname+newsletter@mydomain.com
myname+bank@mydomain.com

then I setup filtering rules so that they get filtered into folders/mailboxes.

I can also easily block a particular sender by merely sending something+myname@mydomain.com to the junk folder and creating a new email address in place.

 

[PaperQueen]

My gut tells me you're doing things wrong.

You should consider moving to a rule based filtering method for your email accounts. There is really no good reason for 28 email accounts.

I have my own domain. I do these as an example.

myname+amazon@mydomain.com
myname+newsletter@mydomain.com
myname+bank@mydomain.com

then I setup filtering rules so that they get filtered into folders/mailboxes.

I can also easily block a particular sender by merely sending something+myname@mydomain.com to the junk folder and creating a new email address in place.

Okay...I'm missing something. I understand using rules to sort incoming messages into folders, but how do you retrieve messages from the server without each address set up as a unique account (including user name, password, outbound/inbound server, etc.)?

I don't see how an Mail account for myname+amazon@mydomain.com could also retrieve messages sent to myname+newsletter@mydomain.com. Same for replies--wouldn't they all end up with the same "sent from" on them?

 

[barduck]

I can't imagine how I could manage so many accounts like that without going crazy. Sounds very tedious and certainly not scalable. You don't need a robust email client, you need a better system and workflow.

I too have the need for many email addresses. I have a Google Apps service set up with my domain. I have a main account that I set to be a "catch all" so everything *@mydomain.com automatically goes to that main account. I use many "throw away" email addresses (that I sign up to services, for example) and few public facing addresses (admin, support, etc) without ever needing to actually create those accounts in Google Apps (unless I really need to).

If I need to answer emails with a "reply to" address that is different than my main account's, Google Apps lets you create aliases to that account you can "send mail as". These aliases require an email validation but very easy to set up. One minor issue with these aliases is that although the "sender" and "reply to" appear as the alias, it is still possible to recognize the original sender if someone looks at the actual email headers.

If I need a true separate mailbox, I just create it in Google Apps and set my main account to pull emails from it. Then I only need to log into that mailbox only when I need to send an email from that address without any trace of my main account. Happens rarely.

I even have separate different domains associated with the same Google Apps account (Google lets you add domain aliases too) so I can further separate my public entities and manage them in one place.

For years, I manage dozens of "real" email accounts and hundreds of "ghost" accounts like that and only usually use one login to Google Apps. Works well for me.

This is just one way to set it up, there are probably many others. But working with 28 different email accounts sounds very impractical to me.

 

[gks]

Okay...I'm missing something. I understand using rules to sort incoming messages into folders, but how do you retrieve messages from the server without each address set up as a unique account (including user name, password, outbound/inbound server, etc.)?

I don't see how an Mail account for myname+amazon@mydomain.com could also retrieve messages sent to myname+newsletter@mydomain.com. Same for replies--wouldn't they all end up with the same "sent from" on them?

Some servers support + addressing

https://www.fastmail.fm/help/features_plus_addressing_and_subdomain_addressing.html

I do all my email through Fastmail since they just flat out rock.

You sir, seriously have a problem when it comes to email accounts. You should at the minimum setup Aliases so that they all point to the same account and you can filter based on what the "To:" address field is set to.

I'd recommend forgetting about finding a new email client and instead think of better ways to actually improve your method of organization.

 

[ratsg]

definitely thunderbird.

And you really don't have that many accounts. I currently have 72 accounts configured.

The largest account has 347 folders.

All configured for imap over SSL (tcp/993)

 

[nefan65]

I would think a set of rules, and SmartMailboxes would work quite well...no?