What is the best email client for Ubuntu and Why?

I need an email client. What applications should I use? It is mostly for personal use but some for business also.,

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That’s soo personal.
I’d recommend you Google and try a couple yourself, then post what you have learned to get feedback and make your final decision.
With zero to go on, it is impossible for anyone to give you actual advise.

We ship with Geary for the email client.

Give it a try … that’s the only way really to see. Personal preference.

E.g. some people prefer Thunderbird. Others like evolution.

There is no “one best client”. It depends on the featureset you are looking for, which mail protocols you need, calendar support, etc.

This article covers some of the more common ones.

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Possibly, another useful commentary would be whether each email client can import/export from/to eml standard or not.
Ive been using Thunderbird for years, but that doesnt mean its the best, it was just an alternative to Outlook Email back in the day.

Depends of context.

If you need the same email client everywhere ( Linux/Win/Mac ) then only choice is Thunderbird.

Even if you don’t. :grin:

But in the end, it mostly depends on the features you need.

Geary has some traction for very basic use. The interface is more modern/tablet/webmail-like than Thunderbird, but Geary is limited in terms of features (e.g. no global/unified inbox, no calendar).
The lack of calendar is not a huge hurdle if using Gnome, since it has Google calendar integration. But I don’t think you can synchronize Budgie’s calendar (if I’m not mistaken).

Evolution isn’t too bad (maybe a bit too fully-featured for simple home use) but has no global inbox either. And it looks like 2005.

Mailspring seemed alright. Mix between old and new, with global inbox.

Thunderbird seems a bit outdated visually, but nothing you can’t change with Monterail theme or some css hacking.

Most other email clients on Linux seem to be out of the 90’s interface-wise.

Thunderbird 78.0 released last week has Calendar, PGP and more built in. It’s the first major release in years.
I’d go for Thunderbird, Mailspring and Evolution. Use them all for a few days and see which one you like (assuming the default app, Geary, is too limiting for you).

IMHO the only Evolution’s problem is that it doesn’t fit at its best on low resolution computers (like netbooks, for example). In my experience, global inbox is not just useless, is something that makes messy a mail client (and it’s the first thing I turn off, if possible, on webmail).
Yes, maybe its appearance is a bit outdated but it allows you having both imap and bop accounts together, setting up rules and filters, letting you natively signing and encrypting mail via GPG or S/MIME, configuring DS contacts, …; and it has a nice calendar that can be integrated with BigG and/or MS calendars to have synced your pc and your mobile.

In my experience, global inbox is not just useless, is something that makes messy a mail client (and it’s the first thing I turn off, if possible, on webmail).

You are obviously free not to use it. To each his/her own workflow.

But it’s a requirement for many users these days.
We all have a crap email (for newsletters, commercial registrations, online shopping, dumb stuff, etc…), usually Outlook, and a serious one (for friends, more private stuff, to apply for a job…), usually Gmail. Not 100% accurate of course, but I’ve seen the pattern with most people I know.

And you can’t call it messy. In Evolution it might be, since it’s a horrible hack to get a global inbox-like thing.
But in Thunderbird it’s absolutely neat. Completely integrated. You can even add a recipient or account column to make the distinction very visible. And you can still select each account separately. You can also pick which account to send the reply or emails from. It’s anything but messy.

First thing I activate. I don’t even consider the clients not having the feature. But when Thunderbird was said to be abandoned a couple of years ago I tried a few different alternatives and dismissed some quickly because the feature was missing (Geary). I also use Bluemail on Android because it does unified folders really well too, with different colors per account.

IMHO the only Evolution’s problem is that it doesn’t fit at its best on low resolution computers (like netbooks, for example).
Yes, maybe its appearance is a bit outdated but it allows you having both imap and bop accounts together, setting up rules and filters, letting you natively signing and encrypting mail via GPG or S/MIME, configuring DS contacts, …; and it has a nice calendar that can be integrated with BigG and/or MS calendars to have synced your pc and your mobile.

I said Evolution isn’t too bad. In my way of saying things, it means it’s good.
I just explained why I won’t use it and some limits people need to be aware of. But indeed if one needs a more professional Outlook substitute (with Exchange calendar integration), it’s the way to go. Especially for the calendar. Which is why it’s more of a pro mail client in my opinion. For most users, it’s like using Gimp to look at holiday pictures and crop them occasionally.
And it’s highlighted by your GPG mention, beside a few security paranoids, not many common users outside of corporations will set up GPG for personal emails.

Hi,

that’s the point: I use email mostly for job, plus a personal account that I use for plane and ferry tickets and so on. For “more personal” purposes I use, in webmail mode only, a couple of addresses on outlook and gmail, sort of “mail trashcan”, let’s say.
Using the outlook one for ebook and e-commerce bills, newspaper subscription and so on; gmail one is a real trashcan: if for any reason I must give my email address (demo subscriptions, mailing lists, fashion or cooking stuff, …), normally I use this one.
I know that is a personal way to manage emails but for my needs is the best I’ve found until now: keep strictly separated job and “official” personal accounts from “service” and “trash” ones :smiley:

About GPG, it isn’t paranoia: often I’m in the need of sharing with colleagues LDAP queries and similar things: nothing so personal but privacy exists and users whose data I share deserve it, so nothing best than GPG encryption. Obviously I don’t encrypt any other message but for job and “official” personal account I’m used to sign with S/MIME. And for this purpose (besides of a sort of bug that keeps old certificates when restoring data from tar.gzipped backup) Evolution is really the best.

I agree with you: it isn’t the “normal user” way to manage mail, but I also think that Evo isn’t so complicate to use as, for example, Outlook for Office365 (for windows users) is. Getting a full header (for checking suspect phishing mails, for example), on Outlook is horribly complicated, on Evo is just a click :smiley:

Have a nice day,
Silvia

Well Calendar is already in TB for years, as bundled-in extension. Now it’s no longer an extension but part of the core.

PGP requirements are built-in, but the whole thing’s not really there yet. Will be soon.