The best email clients, according to hackers
16 email clients were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 6 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended email clients with the badge. Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Works with Exchange and Microsoft 365
Free email client for GNOME and Linux that works with Exchange and Microsoft 365 and has fast search. Some report past bugs and uncertainty about whether they are fixed.
Long-time users happy, no complaints
Free Android email client that works with IMAP and PGP and is still maintained. One critic worries it will decline over time.
Better than Thunderbird
Thunderbird fork that people recommend for better stability, easier setup and extra features. Caveat: one critic worries that forks like it may stop being maintained.
All 16 email clients, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mozilla Thunderbird | 210 | 155 | 58% | 13 | 20 yrs12 owners | — |
| 2 | Microsoft Outlook | 117 | 403 | 23% | 12 | 20 yrs8 owners | — |
| 3 | Apple Mail | 57 | 88 | 39% | 12 | 10 yrs9 owners | — |
| 4 | Penguin Mail | 14 | 13 | 52% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 5 | GNOME Evolution | 13 | 3 | 81% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Tied 5 | K-9 Mail | 13 | 1 | 93% | 6 | — | Approved |
| 7 | Betterbird | 12 | 1 | 92% | 4 | — | Approved |
| 8 | FairEmail | 11 | 1 | 92% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Tied 9 | mu4e | 10 | 2 | 83% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Tied 9 | Eudora | 10 | 4 | 71% | 5 | — | Approved |
| 11 | Claws Mail | 9 | 2 | 82% | 7 | — | — |
| 12 | Mimestream | 8 | 3 | 73% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 13 | Marco email client | 6 | 2 | 75% | 7 | — | — |
| Tied 13 | Superhuman | 6 | 7 | 46% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 13 | BAREmail | 6 | 1 | 86% | 1 | — | — |
| 16 | MailMate | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same email client in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to email clients that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.