Despite the fact that email is one of the oldest forms of communication, it remains among the most popular, with tens of billions of emails being sent on a daily basis. Email is used for just about everything, from casual chatting to professional messages to sending contracts and more. The world of business runs of email communication, and it’s one of the many reasons that so many people rely on reliable and feature-rich email clients on their personal workstations.

Open source software has grown in popularity over the last 10 years, and today there is a fantastic range of open source email clients that offer increased productivity, ease-of-use, and so much more.

Geary

Geary will be familiar to those that use the GNOME desktop environment, which is the default DE on Fedora, one of the leading Linux distributions. It boasts a sleek and modern interface that’s easy to use, and users won’t have to sit and tweak setting for half an hour before they have access to their email. It can be used with a variety of IMAP email services, including Hotmail and Gmail. The only downside is that Geary is only available on Linux, so Windows users will have to look for something else.

Kmail

KDE Plasma is the antithesis to GNOME in terms of Linux desktop environments, and it has gained a lot of international attention lately thanks to its inclusion in the Steam Deck. Plasma ships with a huge range of applications, and among those is Kontacts and Kmail. It fits seamlessly into the rest of the Plasma system and provides plenty of options to customise and make the user’s email experience truly personal, something that KDE is well-known for.

MailSpring

Next up is MailSpring, an email client that has grown in popularity on a range of platforms, including Windows, Mac, and Linux. It comes with the ability to manage and set themes; to merge emails; to add and manage contacts, and a number of other customisation options. MailSpring is a great choice for those who are on Windows or Mac and want access to a popular and open source email client that comes with lots of different features and is compatible with IMAP.

Thunderbird

Perhaps the very best of all the open source email clients, Thunderbirds is widely recognised within the community, and has seen a number improvements over the years, and the perfect way to email friends, family, colleagues, or check out the latest Canadian slots news. Thunderbirds is run by a group of community members and relies solely on donations. Based off the Firefox browser, Thunderbird has recently undergone a serious upgrade with modern aesthetics and a multitude of new features that really make it stand out from the competition. Not only is Thunderbird a competent email client, but it can also be used to manage contacts, calendars, notes, RSS feeds, chats, and more. Thunderbird is also cross-platform, meaning that it works on Linux distributions as well as Mac computers and Windows PCs.