Best Free Email Client
Email programs today are a much more sophisticated breed than they used to be. In addition to simply sending and receiving email, they now can manage your contacts and calendar, read news groups and RSS newsfeeds, and even integrate with various web-based mail systems like GMail and Hotmail. MS Outlook revolutionized email and made it more user friendly, but there are programs now available that don't add bloat to your system and are much more secure.
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Outlook Express users should seriously consider switching. You’ll be rewarded with a more advanced product with these features:
On top of that, the product is more secure than Outlook Express and, unlike the latter, is still being actively developed. Switching is made easier by the fact that Thunderbird looks and works similar to Outlook Express. Tools within Thunderbird also allow you to easily import your Outlook Express account settings and stored email. If you need assistance, there is an excellent guide from Mozilla available for download in the "Product Specifications" section below. |
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If you want an alternative to Thunderbird then try Foxmail. Despite the name it is not related to Firefox, but comes out of China. It's an impressive product with features that match or exceed Thunderbird's, and it's also very easy to use. My only real beef is the quality of the help files. Yes, they have been translated to English, but rather poorly; so poorly that they are actually quite amusing. Foxmail also lacks support for the IMAP protocol, which may be a turn-off for some people. If you don't need IMAP and are savvy enough to figure out the program yourself, Foxmail is worthy of consideration. It's a top product with eight million users world-wide, and it's a real alternative to Thunderbird. If you need help there's a good FAQ available in the "Product Specifications" Section. |
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Another good option that many people are not aware of is in the web browser Opera. The folks at Opera call it their "M2 Mail Client". Though there is no calendar in this program as in Outlook (it wasn't meant to compete with Outlook anyway), it is still quite powerful. This built-in e-mail client is a combined e-mail database, news reader, mailing list organizer and RSS news feed reader, and it supports both POP3 and IMAP protocols. My experience with it was quite pleasant. It was easy to set up, very intuitive to use, and it easily found any contact I had ever had email correspondence with. Overall, it's a very nice product. |
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Subscirber Shane Diamond suggested I take a look at DreamMail, and I'm glad I did. DreamMail has a lot of the features of Foxmail but goes a step further. What makes it unique is its ability to set up both standard POP3 accounts and access to web-based email accounts from within its interface. This is an excellent feature for those of you who have both a POP3 account and a GMail or Hotmail account and, frankly, it blew me away. The program is also skinable and extremely customizable. Like Foxmail, the current version of DreamMail is limited because it only supports POP3 and has no support for IMAP, but there is talk about adding that feature into the next version. It has a great support forum in multiple languages, and is an excellent product overall. |
Product Specifications:
Mozilla Thunderbird
Website: http://www.mozilla.org/
Download page: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
Author: Mozilla Corp.
Current version: 2.0.0.14
Version date: 5/1/2008
License: Freeware - Mozilla Public License
Download file size: 6.4 MB
Operating systems supported: Windows 98-Vista, Mac OS-X, Various Linux Distros
Additional software required: None
64 Bit version available: Yes - Avalable here
Portable version available: Yes 0- Available here
Non-English languages supported: Many - Available here
Other relevant information:
- Thunderbird Extensions: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird
- Webmail Plugin: http://webmail.mozdev.org/index.html
- Guide for Migrating from Outlook to Thunderbird: http://opensourcearticles.com/introduction_to_thunderbird
Foxmail:
Website: http://fox.foxmail.com.cn/
Download page: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/E-mail/E-mail-Clients/Foxmail.shtml
Author: Foxmail
Current version: 6.5 beta
Version date: 9/25/2007
License: Freeware
Download file size: 5.44 MB
Operating systems supported: Windows 95-Vista
Additional software rquired: None
64 Bit version available: Unknown
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: Chinese
Other relevant information:
- FoxMail English FAQ: http://www.hazeleger.net/psjs_faqs/index.html
- Note: If after installing, the program comes up in Chinese, all you have to do is delete the file chinese.lgb in the installation folder.
- Developer's website is in Chinese.
Website: http://www.opera.com/
Download page: http://www.opera.com/download/
Author: Opera Software
Current version: 9.25
Version date: 1/15/2008
License: Free
Download file size: 4.7 MB
Operating systems supported: Windows 95-Vista, Mac OS 7.5-OS X, Various Linux Distros, OS/2, QNX, Various mobile phones, and Palm OS 5
Additional software rRequired: None
64 Bit version available: Unknown
Portable version available: Yes - Available here
Non-English languages supported: Many - Available via downloadable language files
Other relavent information:
- Opera Language Files: http://www.opera.com/download/languagefiles/
- Note: Runs as part of the Opera Web Browser
Website: http://www.dreammail-europe.org/
Download page: http://www.dreammail-europe.org/index.php?action=download&lang=en
Author: The DreamMail Team
Current version: 4.4.1.0
Version date: 7/16/2007
License: Freeware
Download file size: 5 MB
Operating systems supported: Windows 98-Vista
Additional software required: Windows Vista users have to download the file , "DHTMLEdit" available here: http://www.dreammail-europe.org/download/vista_DhtmlEd.msi
64 Bit version available: No
Portable version available: Yes - Available here
Non-English languages supported: French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Chinese
Other Relevant Information: None
- Best Free Outlook Add-ins
- Best Free Spam Filter for the Average User
- Best Free Web Mail Accessory
- Best Free Outlook Express Backup
- Best Free Spam Filter for Experienced Users
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I am a former Thunderbird user and thought it would be my the last client I'd ever use.
Then I found spicebird, it is base on Thunderbird and Sunbird code. But also has RSS, IM and a To Do List, it some will support iGoogle apps as well.
Its still be working on but ver.0.4 is stable and takes Thunderbird to a new level.
find it here>> http://www.spicebird.com/
hey You have not included the windows live mail Client. For most of the users it is the best mail client which does exact most of us want to.
When Opera's M2 was introduced I was using Opera both as a browser and as a mail client for quite some time. I was really annoyed by M2 - it was nothing like OE or anything familiar. I even posted into their wishlist telling them to revert to the old mail client. After two weeks of using it, I could not leave it anymore. It's years now since I'm using M2. I have gathered about 4 GB of archived mail, and it still works like a charm. It would be traumatic if I had to switch to another mail client now.
A few interesting things with M2: I never created a mail rule or a mail folder anymore. Its auto-organizing capabilities and its search functions are more than enough for me. (not to worry, you _can_ create folders and mail filtering rules, only, there's no point in doing it, at least for me - all that I would organize myself it does so by itself.)
Only, I'm sure everybody will need the at least two weeks period of accomodation I needed. It's significantly different from other mail clients, even if it has everything other mail clients have too.
The new king is/will be Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop (www.zimbra.com). It supports Yahoo Mail, Gmail and POP3/IMAP accounts including calendar sync and meeting invitation functionality. It has a great Ajax interface, low resource requirements, mashup tools, advanced searching, tasks, conversation thread view, tagging similar to gMail and additional features that is too long of a list to cover here. It's open source and will always be free. Finally, not just an Outlook Express killer, but an Outlook killer!
Thanks great review. I just check out the Foxmail link as provided. In Chinese changes notes, the newer version 6.5Beta now supports IMAP protocol.
I tried the courier email and...its now my new email program for the last couple of months now
Thanks for the helpful reviews~
I found WebMail's installation instructions to be imprecise, jargon-filled and ungrammatical. Presuming it was a simple matter of clarification, I tried to rewrite them, but found it impossible to decipher the jargon or guess some of the inferences. Although the preliminary clicks to get to the set-up section of Thunderbird are not stepwise, I was able to stumble through. But when it came to setting up the individual accounts, the instructions presumed knowledge about the various e-mail account provider settings, and was ambiguous about whether it was asking for settings from the ISP or the e-mail providers~
A complete and stepwise rewrite of the instructions is called for. Also note that Thunderbird must be updated to version 2 before attempting to install this promising Add-on.
I'm looking for a text-based, or 'Console' e-mail client.
I'm currently using Alpine, but I'm interested in a client that supports multiple e-mail accounts.
You can download eprompter -- it tracks mail from gmail, aolmail, yahoo, MSN/Hotmail, roadrunner
Maybe more
http://www.eprompter.com/
read data about the program and click download if you wish it
The only one I'm aware of is Alpine as well.
eMailya looked good too.
I'm still waiting for the new Eudora product, not the Mozilla T-bird version but the other. The T-bird version actually loses some of the Eudora mailbox labels when run (integrating the mailboxes) so backup your Eudora mailboxes before integrating.
DreamMail is alsi Chinese, so may well be linked to FoxMail. What's more, from 31st July it will no longer be supported by DreamMail Europe.
PeterB.
PeterB;
Well they want everything on one site as I think they're going to be releasing a new site and possibly a new version of the email program who really knows only time will tell but I guess people get confused by having one site as they always think that the Europe one is the main site when in fact it isn't...
But keep ya fingers crossed as Dream Mail is an excellent product and hopefully will get a update soon.
Shane Diamond
Have y'all tested ymail? (http://www.spacejock.com/yMail.html) I ran across it a short time ago but have been hesitant to try it out. Thanks - Conrad
I tried most of the free ones after years on Outlook and found Thunderbird the best for a combination of mail, rss (could be better though) and calendar (the Lightning add on works great, and has the advantage over outlook of being .ics based for easy exporting into other programs or web based calendars if you so desire).
Joe,
Mozilla Thunderbird has meet my personal needs so far, I really like it!!
Thanks,
Have you tried Calypso, (now called Courier Email)
Its the best
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