Emailing is a crucial part of everyday life, both personally and professionally. Each day, the average person can receive anywhere between 10 and 100 emails, so having a solid email client that can help you stay on top of the emails that matter in an organized way is important.
This is especially true if you are waiting on important emails, or if you use email in work and are likely to either send or receive a high volume of emails. Finding a quality email client for your Mac may seem like a daunting task considering the vast amount of client applications that are out there.
It can also be difficult to know which services to trust and which ones are best suited for you. This article looks to remove all doubt and give you the final and comprehensive list of five of the best email client applications that you can have when using a Mac.
What an E-mail Client Service Should Have
Integration
One of the main selling points for an email client service has to be its ability to integrate with other mailing apps to collect all of your data, and to send and receive from other platforms. The last thing you need is to open an email from Yahoo and see that it is not supported by your client. However, all of the emailing clients on this list are fully integrated and capable of handling emails from any source.
Features
Depending on what you need an emailing client for, having a feature rich platform can be really important. Especially if you are paying for one, because so many services are free in today’s market, companies are under pressure to stand out and offer solid and unique features. However, all of the basics should still be covered, it should keep your inbox organised and notify you of any important mail instantly.
Price
The email client market is growing more and more competitive. So, it is important that services offer their features at a reasonable price. Many services are free to use, but others offer additional features, more templates, or more cloud storage for an additional monthly fee, and again, depending on what you need the client for, these fees may be worth paying.
So, what is an E-mail Client? and what Does it Do?
Simply put, an email client is a program that reads and sends electronic messages. The user interacts with it and the client downloads messages from the email server itself for local use. Okay, maybe that did not sound so simple, but everything aside, an email client allows you to organize and reply to emails as well as send new ones.
They offer solid organizational tools like folders, pockets, or labels and have an integrated search engine to help you find whatever you need. They are great at handling attachments as well, this means that you can send or receive documents, images, files, or spreadsheets with ease.
Email clients look to make your life easier by keeping your emails organized and sending them straight into specific folders to maximize productivity. They are essential if you are emailing a lot, and even if you are not an avid emailer, they are still a quality option to keep your inbox tidy.
1. Microsoft Outlook
If you are emailing and writing a lot with work, then Microsoft 365 Office Outlook is as good as it gets. It gives you email, calendar, and contact lists all in one space and integrates with the entire Microsoft Office suite. This means any Word or Excel document can be easily sent and received. If you have access to Microsoft Office paying $6.99 per month, then Outlook is included in that package, so it is a great idea to utilize its features if you or your company has access.
It integrates with not just Microsoft Office accounts, but with Gmail, iCloud and Yahoo Mail. Although its interface has not changed much, the scope of features that it offers has changed dramatically. For one, it has a “focused inbox” feature, which is where the software uses AI to separate what it feels to be important emails away from spam like emails or emails from mailing lists.
It lets you create templates, set up follow up emails, schedule emails, offers a task manager, support chat, and note taking features. It is far from a basic or simple software, so if simple design and execution is what you want, then look elsewhere. However, if you are looking for an email client that is feature rich and available at a good price, then Microsoft Outlook is the perfect choice.
2. Spark
If I’m going to be honest, Spark is objectively the best email client on this list, and there are a lot of reasons for that. Created by Readdle, Spark is just one of a host of productivity apps available on iOS and Mac. It has the most modern, and easy to use interface on the list, and packs with it some powerful features.
For one, is get all of the basics right, it works well with all major email platforms, is well integrated, and is easy to set up. It also has a ‘smart inbox’, which separates emails accordingly. This allows you to focus on what is important. If you pair that with its ‘smart notifications’ setting, it means you only see and read what is important. It has a detailed search feature, and lets you turn off notifications temporarily using the ‘snooze’ feature, meaning you will not always be disturbed with emails if and when you are busy.
You can add a signature to your email, personalize your dashboard, use pre-set templates to reply to emails faster, and set reminders to send, reply, or follow up on emails. It offers a pro version for $6.99 per month, but what I love most about spark is all of its best feature’s come with the free package. Oh! and how could I forget ‘Spark for Teams’! It lets you invite, collaborate, and delegate emails with others and share emails with them without adding to their inboxes. It is feature rich, easy to use, and free.
3. AirMail
Think Apple Mail, but with a more modern interface and a greater emphasis on speed and efficiency. AirMail has a robust set of features like integration with other applications, unified or separate inboxes, as well as shortcuts to help make sending emails quicker and more efficient. It does not look to reinvent the wheel in terms of the features that it offers, but it does give a sleek and clean user experience that makes the process of sending or organizing emails an effortless one.
You can utilize the snooze feature to turn off specific notifications and create templates to reply with also. if you combine this with its minimalist widget-like icon on your sidebar, it is easy to use, efficient, and is in no way intrusive on your screen. AirMail aims to make your life easier and with its wealth of features being primarily free, with just $2.99 for extra storage, it is an emailing client service to watch.
4. Apple Mail
Did someone say Apple Mail? If you have a Mac and don’t feel like paying for an email client, or don’t want any crazy features, then Apple Mail is what you want. It is built into all Apple devices anyway, so you won’t need to worry about paying for it or downloading it. As well as it’s simple interface and attractive free price point, Apple Mail does have all of the tools that you would want to see in an email client platform.
It integrates well with all other mailing platforms, it has a clean user interface, it lets you create and organize new folders, has both unified and specialized mailboxes as well as smart mailboxes that will filter out any non-essential emails. Its integration with iOS and handoff feature is fantastic because it allows you to start an email on your Mac and finish it on your iPhone, and its comprehensive cloud storage is always an attractive feature for anybody who emails a lot or sends and receives a lot of files.
It will not do some of the tricks that others on this list do, but it is a really good free service and considering the fact that it is built into Mac devices, at least trying it seems like a no-brainer.
5. Unibox
Last but not least is Unibox. Unibox works differently to others on this list, and it actually presents a unique concept. Instead of seeing your email inbox as a long list of spam, Unibox presents it in a chat like format. So, if you have 40 emails from your boss, rather than seeing a long list of emails, you will see a notification box similar to Facebook Messenger with your bosses’ email, and “40 unopened emails” written beside it.
What this does, is make the layout cleaner, more minimal, and more user friendly. On top of that, everything you need can be found on one page, adding to the services clean on efficient nature. Unibox does not take the conventional approach to email. It takes a far more conversational approach, however although radical in its concept, it works very well and if you do not mind the lack of smart features and feel comfortable with the concept.
Then it is a brilliant idea and a really useful client to use. At $13.99 per month, it is a little more on the expensive side. However, it is like Marmite, and if you love it, and it works for you, then you will not mind paying for it.
