What are the best Outlook al­ter­na­tives?

Whether for personal or pro­fes­sion­al use, many people are on the lookout for free or more cost-effective al­ter­na­tives to Outlook. Here we take a look at some in­ter­est­ing solutions, along with their ad­van­tages and dis­ad­van­tages.

Overview of Outlook al­ter­na­tives

What to look for in an Outlook al­ter­na­tive

When it comes to email clients, Outlook is hard to miss. In order for an al­ter­na­tive to come anywhere close to the Microsoft solution, it should at least have the following basic features:

• The ability to process emails and schedule ap­point­ments and tasks
• Be in­ex­pen­sive, or ideally free
• Be available for many different desktop and mobile devices and/or as a web ap­pli­ca­tion
• Have extensive security features such as en­cryp­tion and spam filters
• Have a user-friendly, tidy interface
• Offer easy in­te­gra­tion of other programs such as cloud storage
• Provide suf­fi­cient storage space

Postbox

The Outlook al­ter­na­tive Postbox was created by former Mozilla employees and was orig­i­nal­ly based on Thun­der­bird. Since then, the software has evolved into an in­de­pen­dent and powerful mail client. The design of the interface is similar to that of other solutions and is intuitive to use. Users who prefer a different look can simply adjust themes or create their own designs.

The most important info at a glance:

• Easy to use thanks to many shortcuts
• Provides help with drafting emails
• HTML editor for emails

For a more pro­duc­tive workflow, Postbox uses various shortcuts. For example, users can access the Quick Bar via hotkey in order to quickly move or cat­e­go­rize messages. When composing an email, you can insert a signature via Quick Bar without using the mouse.

Writing emails in Postbox has several other ad­van­tages. The software comes with numerous templates and text blocks to help you write pro­fes­sion­al cover letters and replies. You can also create your own templates and add place­hold­ers for the recipient’s name, which the program will then au­to­mat­i­cal­ly add.

Thun­der­bird

The Mozilla mail client Thun­der­bird is certainly one of the most fre­quent­ly used Outlook al­ter­na­tives among both private users and companies. The open-source solution is also available free of charge. The basic version of the program is rather stream­lined and provides you with the most commonly used basic functions.

The most important info at a glance:

• Free open-source solution
• Available for Windows, Mac and Linux
• En­cryp­tion available
• Ad­min­is­tra­tion of RSS feeds possible

A big plus is that there are numerous add-ons available. This means that the software can be expanded with modules for date and task ad­min­is­tra­tion, amongst other things. If you want to update your version of Thun­der­bird, you also need to update any add-ons you use or wait until the cor­re­spond­ing versions are available.

SeaMonkey

SeaMonkey is an all-round solution for office com­mu­ni­ca­tion. It includes an HTML editor as well as a browser, email and chat client. Users define how emails should be organized and there are also further features such as flexible sorting and visual high­light­ing available. The en­cryp­tion takes place according to S/MIME. To use SSL/TLS en­cryp­tion, you need to first activate it manually.

The most important info at a glance:

• Available for Windows, Mac and Linux
• Read receipts
• Digital signature
• In­te­gra­tion in LDAP directory services
• Cus­tomiz­able spam filter
• Ad­min­is­tra­tion of several accounts possible

For a non-com­mer­cial open-source project, SeaMonkey users get an enor­mous­ly com­pre­hen­sive Outlook al­ter­na­tive that goes far beyond what is expected of an email client. SeaMonkey is basically lots of different Mozilla projects bundled together.

Spike

Spike combines the features of a classic email client with those of modern messaging services. As soon as you link a private mailbox to the app, annoying elements such as subject lines or sig­na­tures become a thing of the past, while basic mail client func­tion­al­i­ty—such as the central inbox, calendar or contact man­age­ment—are in­te­grat­ed into the modern messenger en­vi­ron­ment. It’s no co­in­ci­dence that the man­u­fac­tur­er describes Spike as a “con­ver­sa­tion­al email app”. Audio and video calls are also possible via the software.

The most important info at a glance:

• Available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android as well as web ap­pli­ca­tions
• Col­lab­o­ra­tion features such as group chats
• Connects to cloud services such as Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive
• In­te­grat­ed file manager

Spike also relies on modern standards when it comes to security. With a single click, any type of com­mu­ni­ca­tion including attached files can be encrypted (AES-256). This ensures your messages are optimally protected against unau­tho­rized access. Re­cip­i­ents who do not use the app can also decrypt the messages they receive with a single click. Spike is free for private users albeit with certain re­stric­tions. To integrate business email accounts, you’ll need to pay a monthly fee.

eM Client

eM Client is an Outlook al­ter­na­tive for private and business use. The free program for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android offers standard func­tion­al­i­ty for ap­point­ments and contact man­age­ment, as well as an in­te­grat­ed instant messenger. However, free use is only available for private users. With the free version, you’ll have to forego some important features though. To use the client com­mer­cial­ly or for more than two accounts, you need to purchase the Pro license.

The most important info at a glance:

• Available for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android
• RSS reader
• In­te­grat­ed Instant messenger
• Automatic updates

The program supports all major basic services, including Gmail, Exchange, iCloud and Outlook. It also supports the following email tech­nolo­gies: POP3, SMTP, IMAP, EWS and AirSync. Ad­di­tion­al features such as trans­la­tion ca­pa­bil­i­ties and the extremely fast full-text search feature make every day work easier. SSL/TLS standards ensure secure com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and PGP and S/MIME are used for en­cryp­tion.

Mailbird

Mailbird is an Outlook al­ter­na­tive that offers a free version, which is much more stream­lined. The email solution allows you to unify and manage your messages and contacts from multiple accounts into a single inbox. With lots of free themes, you can design the interface as you like.

The most important info at a glance:

• Available for Windows
• Drag-and-drop contact manager
• Powerful at­tach­ment search function
• Shortcut keys for various actions such as writing, replying, for­ward­ing, etc.

Mailbird provides in­ter­faces to numerous apps, enhancing your mailbox with useful features for or­ga­ni­za­tion, in­ter­ac­tion and teamwork. For example, you can integrate WhatsApp, Twitter, Google Calendar, Dropbox and Slack into your email client to transform it into a mul­ti­func­tion­al platform.

IONOS Hosted Microsoft Exchange

Another al­ter­na­tive to Outlook is IONOS Hosted Microsoft Exchange. Microsoft Exchange Server is a groupware system that enables access to contacts, ap­point­ments and email databases within a company, from anywhere in the world. In short, you can open Microsoft Office anywhere you want.

Exchange Server can be obtained directly from Microsoft, however, the hosted exchange solution from IONOS can prove con­sid­er­ably ben­e­fi­cial to a company’s IT de­part­ment. Among other things, it saves companies the cost of having to purchase a so­phis­ti­cat­ed IT in­fra­struc­ture, since the necessary server in­fra­struc­ture is provided by IONOS.

In addition to the desktop version of the Outlook software and the man­age­ment of mailboxes via Microsoft Exchange, the all-round solution from IONOS also provides you with your own email domain.

The most important info at a glance:

• Man­age­ment of inboxes via Microsoft Exchange
• Microsoft Outlook software
• Real-time syn­chro­niza­tion
• Mobile access to all data
• 50 GB mailbox storage for each user

The Microsoft Exchange plan minimizes costs as­so­ci­at­ed with acquiring a server structure and offers a number of ad­van­tages. There is less ad­min­is­tra­tion effort because the provider takes care of mailbox main­te­nance, con­tin­u­ous updates for the software and the updates for virus scanners and spam filters. All data is hosted on security servers with a specially secured in­fra­struc­ture. If you are looking for a pro­fes­sion­al email solution, the IONOS Microsoft Exchange option is a good Outlook al­ter­na­tive, even if it’s not available free of charge.

Google Workspace

The internet giant Google also offers its own Outlook al­ter­na­tive. Google Workspace is a com­pre­hen­sive office package, designed for pro­fes­sion­al use. In addition to Gmail, suite users also have access to col­lab­o­ra­tion tools, among other things. Gmail’s free email service is par­tic­u­lar­ly popular. If you opt for the fee-based Google Workspace, you’ll receive full access to each ap­pli­ca­tion’s range of features and also be able to secure a pro­fes­sion­al email domain for business com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

In contrast to its free email offer, Gmail offers ad-free access to work platforms and pro­fes­sion­al man­age­ment through Google Workspace. Admins can manage their employees’ accounts centrally and adapt them in­di­vid­u­al­ly to the company’s needs. This includes assigning roles.

The most important info at a glance:

• Part of a large office suite
• Software-as-a-service
• Plenty of storage space
• Web interface
• Mobile apps for iOS and Android
• GDPR compliant

Google Workspace can be operated entirely through a web interface. Just like with other Google products and services, the controls are very clear, and users can quickly access all the features. Since it’s a suite, all apps are closely connected. For example, you can easily move file at­tach­ments to cloud storage and edit them there with Google Docs. Sched­ul­ing ap­point­ments or holding online meetings also works with Gmail thanks to extensive in­te­gra­tion pos­si­bil­i­ties.

Spark

The email client Spark supports user workflow. It relies on in­tel­li­gent features that help to avoid dis­rup­tion and speed up important processes. The highlight of this Outlook al­ter­na­tive is its filter feature, which only shows no­ti­fi­ca­tions if the email sender is someone that the user knows. The filter can detect newslet­ters and sort them into their own category. The app also offers features to let you quickly react to incoming emails or put emails “on hold”. If you can’t reply to an email im­me­di­ate­ly, the app will remind you about it later.

Spark was created with teamwork in mind. The client lets users discuss emails together, allowing each member of the team to comment without others being able to see their comments. The del­e­ga­tion function is another in­no­v­a­tive feature where members can assign writing certain emails to others in their or­ga­ni­za­tion.

The most important info at a glance:

• Free version per­ma­nent­ly available
• In­no­v­a­tive features for teamwork
• In­tel­li­gent filters

Spark is available for Windows, macOS and mobile devices. The app is available free of charge and even comes with 5 GB of storage for teams. However, a paid license may be worth­while for larger teams as it includes more storage space and ad­di­tion­al benefits.

Mail­spring

The free Outlook al­ter­na­tive Mail­spring focuses on providing a mul­ti­lin­gual service. The software is available in over 60 languages (partially with machine trans­la­tion) and can also translate emails. In addition to English and German, Mail­spring currently trans­lates into four other languages. The tool also offers a spell checker for various languages.

The software provides all the features one would expect from an Outlook al­ter­na­tive. The search feature is rather im­pres­sive. Multiple email accounts can easily be in­te­grat­ed, and social media accounts can be added as well. Users can also add in­for­ma­tion from LinkedIn or Twitter to their contacts. Activity tracking is an in­ter­est­ing feature that shows users whether a sent email has already been read. However, the feature is only available in the paid version, which also includes other in­ter­est­ing tools.

The most important info at a glance:

• Focus on multiple languages
• Activity tracking
• Clean interface