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Which e-mail client do you use with your Mac, and why?

blue22

blue22

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 15, 2010
505
18
I've used Eudora to manage my emails for over 10 years, loved the software, but now with OSX Lion looming on the horizon (thus putting Eudora on ice since it relies on Rosetta to run) I'm looking to migrate over to another Mac-based email client and I wanted to ask which one do people prefer using the most with their systems, and why it serves them well?

The requirements I'm personally looking to fulfill are:


1) The ability to manage my two primary email accounts off my hosted web-servers onto my local computer; thus I'm not interested in using a web-based solution like Gmail.

2) To be able to read all my email accounts through this primary account, including my Gmail, Yahoo! and MSN accounts (and if possible to aslo be able to respond to messages to each of those accounts as if I'm in the specific email account via personality settings).

3) A reliable search function to sift through messages, the speedier the better.

4) import 10 years worth of emails (about 12,000 messages) from Eudora, with as little pain as possible.

5) Ideally have a half decent & user friendly UI system.


So far in my initial research I've track down these apps as having the most potential to do what I'm looking for listed above:

- Apple Mail
- Entourage
- Outlook
- Postbox
- Sparrow
- Thunderbird

If anyone could share their thoughts, suggestions and/or insights regarding which of these email clients is more worthwhile to use over the other (including any that I overlooked) that would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
 
I'm a big big huge fan of Mail in OS X Lion. Although I'm not sure about the importing of 10 years' emails.
 
Mail

Just the standard Mail app. Its easy to set up all your accounts and the new Lion update makes it look even more easy to navigate :D

You will find that if you use Apples software you will be rewarded with their beautiful design. I stick to their standard software with the acception of Google Chrome.. Obviously :D
 
I use the default 10.6 mail.app. I also have postbox installed and I use that from time to time.
 
Thunderbird; ease of use, add-ons, most simple set-up of all email clients (try setting up Yahoo IMAP on Mac Mail, such a pain) and it's pretty fast!
 
I use the built in mail function in my web browser of choice - Opera. saves having to run another app... easy, reliable and pop3 or imap etc.

Does the job fine for me.

Coops
 
Apple Mail is the most popular thus far...

Thanks so much to everyone who responded to this thread so far!!! Quite a few of you are in favor of using Apple Mail, so I'll give that a try over the coming week, along with Thunderbird to see which one of those two feels more suitable to utilize. Eventually I'd like to also test drive OSX Lion's mail app, but I guess I have to wait another month for that.
 
I've been enjoying Sparrow especially since their last update got MobileMe push working. Of the clients I have used, Mail.app and Sparrow are the most "mac like".
 
blue22 said:
Thanks so much to everyone who responded to this thread so far!!! Quite a few of you are in favor of using Apple Mail, so I'll give that a try over the coming week, along with Thunderbird to see which one of those two feels more suitable to utilize. Eventually I'd like to also test drive OSX Lion's mail app, but I guess I have to wait another month for that.
Click to expand...

Just use Apples Mail App and Mobile Me/iCloud ... I've been a .mac/.me guy for 5 yrs and Keeping things Apple just makes life easier...

P.S. those 10yr e-mails.. I suggest storing those on an external and start fresh, no need to have any complaints if for some reason you run into errors doing the transition .... also call Apple to verify the process of doing such a transition
 
I tried Sparrow for few months, Gmail integration on Sparrow is really good but I could not get Yahoo! mail to work properly. I couldn’t get it to sync my folders so I switched back to Mail app, not as nice as sparrow but it works.
 
fkhan3 said:
I tried Sparrow for few months, Gmail integration on Sparrow is really good but I could not get Yahoo! mail to work properly. I couldn’t get it to sync my folders so I switched back to Mail app, not as nice as sparrow but it works.
Click to expand...

I'd check back with them as they put out updates. I've consistently seen things work better with each update put out.

Not sure how well Yahoo plays with IMAP though. Haven't used them in quite a number of years.
 
fkhan3 said:
I tried Sparrow for few months, Gmail integration on Sparrow is really good but I could not get Yahoo! mail to work properly. I couldn’t get it to sync my folders so I switched back to Mail app, not as nice as sparrow but it works.
Click to expand...

So does this mean that Lion has the ability to "archive" from the Gmail server instead of delete, within the mail app? This is one of the biggest things for me in regards to lion. I know it sounds small, but I like to have a paper trail of almost all of my correspondence.
 
Last edited:
iDisk said:
Just use Apples Mail App and Mobile Me/iCloud ... I've been a .mac/.me guy for 5 yrs and Keeping things Apple just makes life easier...

P.S. those 10yr e-mails.. I suggest storing those on an external and start fresh, no need to have any complaints if for some reason you run into errors doing the transition .... also call Apple to verify the process of doing such a transition
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions; perhaps it is better to start "fresh" and skip the import of old messages. :cool:
 
Outlook 2011

This my personal choice.

I use it in the Windows world at work and its what I've supported for almost 10yrs vs 3yrs with Lotus Domino/Notes, with 4mths of Novel GroupWise on Windows. Of the 3 I prefer Outlook 2011 - I cannot speak about Entourage but I heard its horrible.

Outlook 2011 has conversations support - MUCH better layout and in daily use than Outlook 2010 on Windows (currently I use both for work: 2011 on Mac, 2010 on Win7); and the index search on Win7 with Outlook 2010, although really good CANNOT hold a candle to Spotlight+OSX+Outlook 2011. Conversations can be individually moved to folders, deleted from the thread or just completely isolated.

There is so much more - yet I cannot advise how this can be used with me.com email account and ability to archive previous emails: Outlook on Windows can use a PST file or archive file - but I don't think Outlook 2011 can create archive/pst files - just import/use/augment them.
 
You will probably want to use Apple Mail

Apple Mail will probably be your choice.

2 main reasons;
  • Can be set up for multiple accounts to be accessed from the one interface.
  • Can import you past emails from Eudora using the import wizard. Both applications use similar mbox formats so you should not come up with any problems there.

I have been using it for a few years with no issues, no lost mail, no send/receive issues, etc and interfaces into iCal and Address Book with no issues

Hope this helps
 
Mail in OSX Lion: what's changed?

actionmarker said:
Apple Mail will probably be your choice.

2 main reasons;
  • Can be set up for multiple accounts to be accessed from the one interface.
  • Can import you past emails from Eudora using the import wizard. Both applications use similar mbox formats so you should not come up with any problems there.

I have been using it for a few years with no issues, no lost mail, no send/receive issues, etc and interfaces into iCal and Address Book with no issues

Hope this helps
Click to expand...

Yes, it actually does help to narrow the choices down a lot thanks!



Mr. Pink said:
I'm a big big huge fan of Mail in OS X Lion. Although I'm not sure about the importing of 10 years' emails.
Click to expand...

Ryanm93 said:
Just the standard Mail app. Its easy to set up all your accounts and the new Lion update makes it look even more easy to navigate :D
Click to expand...

I forgot to ask you two earlier: what's the major differences/improvements of Apple Mail in OSX Lion? I'm still using Snow Leopard so how does it compare?
 
I just use the Apple Mail app that comes with Snow Leopard. I'm sure the one in Lion will be just as easy to use. Like others said, it just makes things easier sticking with the built in Apple programs.
 
At present I use none of the programs you mentioned (the vast majority of my email goes to a "fake" email address in the form of myfirstname@mylastname.net. From there it gets automagically forwarded to my gmail account, as well a few other rarely used accounts. I use Mailplane to view my Gmail account (a truly great app if you're primarily a
gmail user, btw).

Having said all that, based on my most recent experiences with the programs you mentioned, I'd have to say that Thunderbird was probably the best of the bunch.

12000 emails? Once you import all of those, how much room would you have left for apps and data? That's part of the reason why I switched to Gmail. I thought I was the last holdout against web-based email. Guess there are a few people around who are even more Luddite than I. :)
 
personal preference & peace of mind...

SteelWheel said:
I thought I was the last holdout against web-based email. Guess there are a few people around who are even more Luddite than I. :)
Click to expand...

A Luddite?! LOL, but hardly that. It's more about the ease of recalling archived messages than anything else; just a personal preference. I also tend to value not having all my digital correspondence centrally located online to help offset any privacy concerns using those systems as well.



SteelWheel said:
12000 emails? Once you import all of those, how much room would you have left for apps and data? That's part of the reason why I switched to Gmail.
Click to expand...

Honestly, just FYI, it doesn't take up nearly as much space as you would think, only about 0.5 GB for all 12,000+ messages. And if I include the attachments folder then the total tops out to about 750 MB, which leaves plenty of space left over in modern HDD & SSD's for everything else, including installing apps and other data files locally. :)
 
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