K-9 Mail
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 5 of 16 email clients by recommenders
Free Android email client that works with IMAP and PGP and is still maintained. One critic worries it will decline over time.
Free Android email client that works with IMAP and PGP and is still maintained. One critic worries it will decline over time.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 93%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 13 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works with IMAP and Gmail
“I've not had issues plugging Gmail into Thunderbird, aquamail, k-9 mail”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Android: Balancing Openness and Choice with Safety” “K-9 Mail via IMAP to access it to avoid connecting them there”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Google is silently linking your phone number across all signed-in accounts” Maintained and no cloud calls
“they've ensured that k9mail is still maintained seems like an objective win”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Help Keep Thunderbird Alive” “The only Android mail client not making random calls to cloud servers”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft Mishandling Example.com” Long-time users happy, no complaints
“I have been using K9 for a long time on Android. No complaints.”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Thunderbird for iOS” “K-9 Mail works fine for me.”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Thunderbird for iOS” “being pretty happy with it”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Blender 5.2 LTS”
Other email clients people recommend
The four most recommended other email clients, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mozilla Thunderbird | 210 | 155 | 58% | 13 | 20 yrs12 owners | — |
| Microsoft Outlook | 117 | 403 | 23% | 12 | 20 yrs8 owners | — |
| Apple Mail | 57 | 88 | 39% | 12 | 10 yrs9 owners | — |
| Penguin Mail | 14 | 13 | 52% | 1 | — | — |
| K-9 MailThis page | 13 | 1 | 93% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
14 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I only run a few FOSS apps like K9, IronFox, Signal, Home Assistant.”
“Android k9 mail makes pgp/gpg public key handling fairly trivial.”
“K-9 Mail via IMAP to access it to avoid connecting them there”
“I have been using K9 for a long time on Android. No complaints.”
“I use k9/thunderbird for private mail”
“K-9 Mail works fine for me.”
“being pretty happy with it”
“with e.g. K9 as email client”
“I'm about to switch back to K-9 email client which I haven't used in probably a decade just so my email will work again”
“I have K9 on my smartphone, and it shows me when there is email”
“Not if you liked k9 and wanted it to not get turned into trash. It's just a matter of time.”
“they've ensured that k9mail is still maintained seems like an objective win”
“I've not had issues plugging Gmail into Thunderbird, aquamail, k-9 mail”
“The only Android mail client not making random calls to cloud servers”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.