MailMate
Ranked 16 of 16 email clients by recommenders
Praised for powerful search, sorting rules and Markdown message writing; one critic finds its yearly fee and vendor lock-in not worth it.
Praised for powerful search, sorting rules and Markdown message writing; one critic finds its yearly fee and vendor lock-in not worth it.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Powerful search and sorting rules
“The search features are very powerful. Or you can set up rules as complex as you want to tag/sort/move mail.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Mailmate” “Once you sync the mailbox, search is basically instant.”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Bugs Apple Loves” Writes messages in Markdown
“I highly recommend Mailmate which among other things lets you write messages in markdown”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Canceling "Hey"” Fast search once synced
“Once you sync the mailbox, search is basically instant.”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Bugs Apple Loves” Good despite some quirks
“has it's quirks but damn is it good”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Thunderbird for iOS”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Yearly fee for Markdown support
“40 USD/year just for markdown support + vendor lockin? Not sure I buy the value.”
Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “How Markdown Took over the World” Possible vendor lock-in
“40 USD/year just for markdown support + vendor lockin? Not sure I buy the value.”
Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “How Markdown Took over the World”
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 | — | — |
| MailMateThis page | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
5 of the 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“has it's quirks but damn is it good”
“I highly recommend Mailmate which among other things lets you write messages in markdown”
“The search features are very powerful. Or you can set up rules as complex as you want to tag/sort/move mail.”
“Once you sync the mailbox, search is basically instant.”
“40 USD/year just for markdown support + vendor lockin? Not sure I buy the value.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.