[jprint714]

Four years ago, Macworld published a great article on email clients, which outlined the pros and cons of the available software and the best options for advanced email users: http://www.macworld....ailclients.html

It has been four years since that email came out and new clients have since been developed. I'm grappling w/ the central question of that article: which email client is the best? I presently have Mailsmith, but it just crashed and I lost all of my files. It appears this has to do more w/ my hard drive than Mailsmith itself. But I?m now reconsidering what kind of email client would be best, esp. since I?m about to upgrade to a new powerbook and Leopard. The most important emails features for me include:

-Searching (critically important)
-Filtering (I had about 12 mailboxes for one account)
-Stability (crashing and losing email is disastrous)
-Security (wish I could improve it, but it seems elusive)
-Capacity (for storing lots of email)

Powermail looks like it has amazing search tools, but I?ve read that it?s lacking good security.

Thunderbird has a new feature that enables one to look at the viewing history, just like a web browser. That looks appealing, but I don?t know much more about it beyond that feature (and I've heard negative things about it).

I?ve heard positive things about the Mailsmith?s beta, but have advised not to use it for important email since it?s still being beta tested. It?s unfortunate since they?ve been testing it for almost two years now.

I have no idea which email client offers the best security. I have PGP but haven?t even really used it since it?s hard to find others who have it and use it. I wish I could find a better solution for security, esp. when I travel.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Still searching for that perfect Mac email client, indeed...

Thanks!

[rab777hp]

Apple's mail is a great email client, well, maybe not 100% awesome, but it is really good and has a lot of good features.
Also if you search you'll see that macworld has a more recent article on mail apps and web apps.

[dougster]

-Hi,

I've been using Thunderbird for about 4 years now and won't look back. Their security updates are more frequent compared to most other email clients. I truly can't find anything missing using TB. But folks are a little picky when it comes to mail software... B-)

[rab777hp]

TB lacks a lot of features that Mail has, while it has some of its own, however it lacks interaction with other apple apps, such as with data detectors. Also, importing contacts is a no go with TB. in addtition to this, TB is a very large app, Mail is much smaller, and comes preloaded on your system.

[jprint714]

I've heard that about Thunderbird, which is part of what discourages me from using it. Is anyone using Mailsmith's beta version? Any other solid and versatile recommended email clients?

[dougster]

jprint714 said:

I've heard that about Thunderbird, which is part of what discourages me from using it. Is anyone using Mailsmith's beta version? Any other solid and versatile recommended email clients?

-Hi,

If you want your email client to be interwoven w/ Apple apps than Apple's Mail is the answer. But if you want a more robust client you'll actually have to test drive a few to get the real feel. The thing I found w/ Apple's Mail is that its not real dependable. You can export your Contacts and then Import them into most clients w/ no problem.

[jprint714]

Thanks very much. Yes, I hear you about test driving. I was hoping to narrow the scope of which email clients I would test drive by getting a sense of what were the preferred email clients -- esp. for the features I mentioned, that is, Searching, Filtering, Stability, Security, and Capacity. Any other thoughts...? Thanks everyone!

[jprint714]

Just wondering... Which article were you referring to...? I tried to find it, but was unsuccessful. Thanks!