Alternative to Thunderbird?
July 22, 2020 6:18 AM Subscribe
I have been using Thunderbird for a couple years, but formatting emails has always been incredibly frustrating. I'm frequently having issues with strange spacing, different fonts being changed halfway through emails, and emails not appearing the way I intend when they arrive at the recipient. I previously used Outlook, and I never had these issues with email formatting. What email clients would you recommend?
A few other requirements:
- Must have a calendar feature, that can integrate with google calendar
- Preferably no fee, or else a small one-time fee (no recurring usage fee)
A few other requirements:
- Must have a calendar feature, that can integrate with google calendar
- Preferably no fee, or else a small one-time fee (no recurring usage fee)
Response by poster: One more note: When I say "integrate with google calendar," I mean two-way integration, so the ability to write to Google calendar as well as read. This is one of the key things missing from most email clients.
And to answer above, I am using Windows.
posted by unid41 at 6:21 AM on July 22, 2020
And to answer above, I am using Windows.
posted by unid41 at 6:21 AM on July 22, 2020
Response by poster: Sorry - realizing all the details I didn't include! I would like it to be a standalone desktop program, where I can integrate email accounts from multiple different platforms.
posted by unid41 at 6:48 AM on July 22, 2020
posted by unid41 at 6:48 AM on July 22, 2020
I've used Thunderbird for a long time: effectively since it was called Netscape Communicator. (Yes, I know there was a rewrite in between, but it has shared heritage.)
The “emails not appearing the way I intend when they arrive” problem is a symptom of not using Outlook, unfortunately. Any other client but Outlook will cause this issue. Outlook caused the problem, but is too big to fix. Anything beyond HTML 2.0 formatting (so no tables) is likely to display badly on Outlook if the email didn't come from Outlook.
Thunderbird has some unaddressed font styling issues which are unlikely to ever be fixed as it went on feature-freeze some years ago. The most irritating one for me is that Thunderbird sneaks in an unwanted style change at the end of your e-mail. If you hit the End key, or otherwise edit after this invisible code change, your style will drop out to something you didn't want. I work around this by hitting return a few times in any message or reply, then moving the cursor back up to the start. That way I'm always editing within the same style section. WordPerfect Show Codes come back, all is forgiven …
I used Thunderbird's Lightning calendar plugin with Google for several years. I think you also need to install the Google Calendar Provider for Lightning for it to provide two-way sync.
posted by scruss at 7:17 AM on July 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
The “emails not appearing the way I intend when they arrive” problem is a symptom of not using Outlook, unfortunately. Any other client but Outlook will cause this issue. Outlook caused the problem, but is too big to fix. Anything beyond HTML 2.0 formatting (so no tables) is likely to display badly on Outlook if the email didn't come from Outlook.
Thunderbird has some unaddressed font styling issues which are unlikely to ever be fixed as it went on feature-freeze some years ago. The most irritating one for me is that Thunderbird sneaks in an unwanted style change at the end of your e-mail. If you hit the End key, or otherwise edit after this invisible code change, your style will drop out to something you didn't want. I work around this by hitting return a few times in any message or reply, then moving the cursor back up to the start. That way I'm always editing within the same style section. WordPerfect Show Codes come back, all is forgiven …
I used Thunderbird's Lightning calendar plugin with Google for several years. I think you also need to install the Google Calendar Provider for Lightning for it to provide two-way sync.
posted by scruss at 7:17 AM on July 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
Email is sort of where browsers were 20 years ago, i.e. you can't expect much consistency between different clients. The move to GMail and Hotmail (now Outlook), made the email client market basically worthless. Businesses tend to use the Outlook client, and Thunderbird is stuck in aspic indefinitely.
eM Client, despite the awkward name, looks encouraging, and it's the one I'm watching with a view to switching when I'm done with Thunderbird.
posted by pipeski at 8:27 AM on July 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
eM Client, despite the awkward name, looks encouraging, and it's the one I'm watching with a view to switching when I'm done with Thunderbird.
posted by pipeski at 8:27 AM on July 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
Thunderbird 78 is coming out soon with a bunch of changes, so you might want to try that out before deciding to jump to something else.
The problem with email clients is that every startup with a good email product seems to get taken over by Google or Microsoft e.g. inbox
posted by Lanark at 10:59 AM on July 22, 2020
The problem with email clients is that every startup with a good email product seems to get taken over by Google or Microsoft e.g. inbox
posted by Lanark at 10:59 AM on July 22, 2020
I use Postbox on the Mac, but they have a Windows version as well.
It will not integrate with Google Calendars, sadly.
It is based on the code for Thunderbolt so you should feel right at home. But it is 100% more polished, at least from the versions of Thunderbolt I used to use. It is paid software and is professionally developed. I've used for over 8 years.... and it's very solid. It feels like a power-user email app from the olden days of IMAP. You could use the free trial period to see if it fixes your formatting issue.
I use it with a Gmail email address and it works very well. There is even an option to use Gmail keyboard shortcuts in the Postbox app - so I often have both Gmail web view/Google Calendar open and Postbox. I switch to the web when I need things like search that google does well, and Postbox when I need to process through lots of mail. I also use Postbox when I'm on location with slow or no internet.
posted by sol at 11:36 AM on July 22, 2020
It will not integrate with Google Calendars, sadly.
It is based on the code for Thunderbolt so you should feel right at home. But it is 100% more polished, at least from the versions of Thunderbolt I used to use. It is paid software and is professionally developed. I've used for over 8 years.... and it's very solid. It feels like a power-user email app from the olden days of IMAP. You could use the free trial period to see if it fixes your formatting issue.
I use it with a Gmail email address and it works very well. There is even an option to use Gmail keyboard shortcuts in the Postbox app - so I often have both Gmail web view/Google Calendar open and Postbox. I switch to the web when I need things like search that google does well, and Postbox when I need to process through lots of mail. I also use Postbox when I'm on location with slow or no internet.
posted by sol at 11:36 AM on July 22, 2020
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posted by sol at 6:20 AM on July 22, 2020