This review came about because I, like many other Mac users, downloaded Mail when setting up my Mac, I thought it did a great job, I sat …

And he started losing mail.

Not much, I didn’t even know I was losing anything until I lost a big deal because I didn’t reply to an email on time. This sent me running to my webmail to find that the offending email, plus two other messages, had been left by Mail comfortably inside a warm server. It’s a good product without a doubt, but I lost faith in Mail overnight (I’m that kind of person), and that sent me searching for a different email client. One free, since I like to save as much money as I can for food and beer.

I also thought that if you were looking for a new email client, others might as well. Hope this saves you some time and effort that you could usefully spend elsewhere. Here they are, in no particular order of importance of effectiveness.

Gyazmail

New and developed from the ground up for Mac OSX, it is nice and fast to retrieve email. It is fully featured to the nth degree and offers POP / IMAP and SMTP support, message templates, and much more. Except spam filtering. You use Spamsieve for this, and while this is probably the best spam filter out there, it’s free to try, but it will cost you thirty dollars if you want the real deal. So for me I will pass, which is a shame because otherwise it ticks all the boxes.

Postbox Express

The free little sister to the amazing Postbox, this is a new girl on the block with a real promise. Lightning fast search and retrieval, actionable search results, intuitive conversation views, tabbed email browsing, lightning fast archiving, and easy tagging for all your messages. It integrates address book, ical exchange and iphoto. All in all a very worthy newcomer.

Opera

Not just an email client, but also an ultra-fast web browser, all in one package. Your email function is well supported by a sleek user interface, with a nice “quick reply” feature that allows you to reply without opening a full compose window. POP / IMAP and RSS are supported, but unfortunately secure message encryption is not. However, it is still a powerful complete package.

Thunderbird

One of the largest beasts in the jungle that excels in its ability to communicate across platforms. Fully featured, TB has by far the easiest setup wizard and account wizard out there. Developed by the Mozilla team and originally intended to be included in the Firefox browser (to rival Opera), it proved to be feature-rich for a mere plug-in. Its Windows ancestry doesn’t help its user interface, which is not that pretty.

Mailsmith

It was a paid application, but now it is free. Fairly basic in what it offers, and again you need Spamsieve to ensure a spam free life. Nice and fast interface, but it seems like the developer is moving away from iIMAP support.

SeaMonkey

Like Opera, SM is a combined web browser and mail client, and although the browser is very good, the email client suffers because it does not offer an index-based search function, and trust me, the mail filter does not. desired when running takes over your RAM. and he clings to her tightly. Otherwise it looks good and would be fine for a non-advanced user.

Gnumail

If it came down to looks, this app would win hands down, definitely the best user interface out there for a country mile, and the functionality is fine if you only manage one or two accounts at home. He is not hungry for a ram and has all the security he needs. However, look elsewhere if you run multiple accounts that bring in hundreds of emails every day. At best sitting at home or on a laptop waiting to get mail from the postman. Gmail Browser If you use Gmail, it is a real “must”. A standalone barebones browser that does nothing more than give you access to all your Gmail accounts in one area. Just open it up and leave it. Very good application.

The honorable mention goes to …

Growl and GrowlMail plugins

If you haven’t downloaded Growl yet, you should. Once installed, you will be informed when your browser download is complete, you have received a new email, a new IM message, iTunes has just started playing a tune, and even if your laptop battery is running low. Really comforting to know that it is quietly running in the background.

You’ll love the way notifications quietly appear and disappear. If you decide to stick with Apple Mail, these two are a must.

Well there it is, they’re all free to download and use, and the perfect way to pass the time while making up your mind. I hope this short review helps you choose the right one for you.