Penguin Mail
Ranked 4 of 16 email clients by recommenders
Open-source Linux email client that people use as a daily driver and find polished; critics mainly object to the built-in AI chat window and the project's young age.
Open-source Linux email client that people use as a daily driver and find polished; critics mainly object to the built-in AI chat window and the project's young age.
27 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 13
- approval share
- 52%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not 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
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Polished, good-looking Linux app
“That's a very nice looking app - I like the look of it”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI” “I think this looks good, but I'm not on a Mac anymore.”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI” “A native Linux app that looks actually good?”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI” - Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI”
- Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI”
- Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI”
Used as a daily driver
“I use Penguin as my daily driver, and I made it exactly because of what I was missing on other mail clients”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI” “this is my daily driver, and I want to keep maintaining it for the foreseeable future”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Unwanted built-in AI chat
“I really don't see why they felt the need to stuff an AI chatbox in my emails”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI” “an embedded chat ai window is a huge turn off to me”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI” “they have a built-in assistant (which no one wants)”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI” - Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI”
Too young to trust
“A project with the complexity of an email client cannot be considered stable in a month.”
Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI” “it sounds risky to use a project this young”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI” GNOME and GTK UI criticized
“modern GNOME's hamburger-and-three-dots-buttons approach to menus is going to become a problem”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI” “Yet another GTK4/libadwaita, no thank you.”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI”
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 MailThis page | 14 | 13 | 52% | 1 | — | — |
| GNOME Evolution | 13 | 3 | 81% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
28 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Nice work! I appreciate the showcase video”
“it sounds risky to use a project this young”
“this is my daily driver, and I want to keep maintaining it for the foreseeable future”
“A native Linux app that looks actually good?”
“The vim keystrokes to go to the top or bottom of the current email list and/or the conversation thread items are sorely missed.”
“What you've created looks amazing!”
“Until the developer (support@penguin-mail.com) verifies this app with Google, you shouldn't use it.”
“I use Penguin as my daily driver, and I made it exactly because of what I was missing on other mail clients”
“This is looking super cool.”
“wow that looks super polished!”
“download source, let the agent search for backdoors and security problems for some hours and it would be fine for me”
“Nice UI but untrusted email messages is something I'd rather open in”
“you should use his vibeslopped TUI instead”
“they have a built-in assistant (which no one wants)”
“more half-baked attempts to reinvent the bicycle”
“I really don't see why they felt the need to stuff an AI chatbox in my emails”
“Yet another GTK4/libadwaita, no thank you.”
“I think this looks good, but I'm not on a Mac anymore.”
“But not with Supernote, or apparently Penguin Mail.”
“Interesting that they call out Fastmail as a supported provider, but don't support JMAP.”
“I'll stick with the web UI in that case.”
“This is major dealbreaker, if you have many aliases or domains.”
“modern GNOME's hamburger-and-three-dots-buttons approach to menus is going to become a problem”
“That's a very nice looking app - I like the look of it”
“an embedded chat ai window is a huge turn off to me”
“I was 100% interested until crossing "...with AI".”
“A project with the complexity of an email client cannot be considered stable in a month.”
“a lightweight, privacy-first alternative to Thunderbird or GNOME's built-in email”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.