The best email clients to manage your emails

When it comes to choosing an email client, you need to take into account several different things, above all functionality, security and accessibility. Although the vast majority of users now tend to use webmail accounts, desktop email clients are still a practical alternative for when you need to manage several accounts at once, plus they also offer the possibility of creating emails that have professional multimedia layouts.

We’re going to focus our analysis on the five most popular clients: Eudora, Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, Pando  and Incredimail.

Eudora

Eudora is one of the most popular e-mail clients both for Windows and Mac.

Eudora is one of the most traditional email clients for the Windows platform. It features support for multiple mail accounts, powerful filters, customized text layouts, drag and drop support, IMAP support, and options for automating processes. It also has a wide range of plug-ins available, which can seriously enhance the usefulness of the program.

The application’s interface is simple and accessible. The only negative for this email client could be the strong resemblance it bears to Outlook.

Outlook Express

Perhaps the most well-known email client in the world, Outlook Express is freely distributed along with the Internet Explorer web browser.

Among the features in version 6 are the administration of multiple accounts and identities, its HTML compatibility, the address book and the directory services. It also allows you to synchronize accounts without the need for a connection. Its interface is very accessible and it’s easy to find the latest version in practically any language on the official web site.

Without a doubt the biggest flaw is the program’s poor security. It is still highly vulnerable to worms and other types of threat that circulate in emails.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is the new email client from Mozilla, and is perhaps Outlook’s most serious competitor.

It has an extremely simple and intuitive interface that presents an easy and practical application in which everything is designed to work with and complement Firefox, the Mozilla web browser.

Although it may not offer as many bells and whistles as some other clients, it has some interesting features, such as support for themes, powerful mail filters, and the ability to use plug-ins to add new functionality.

Mozilla Thunderbird also has some flaws which, although they don’t occur too frequently and normally have a solution, can cause headaches at times. Following a crash, for example, email accounts may disappear, along with some messages. Plus, over very slow connections, it may not be possible to download large attachments.

Pando

How many times have you wished you could send large files via email? Well, Pando  lets you do just that. Using this client, you can send files of up to 1 GB in size.

Thanks to its attractive and simple interface, resembling that of a P2P file-sharing program and complete with a Wizard and permanent online support, you can send enormous files easily.
Pando  also comes with its very own multimedia player.

However, since it is primarily designed for sending large files, Pando  has hardly any of the extra features that you’d expect to find in a regular email client.

IncrediMail

Incredimail has turned managing email accounts into an artistic experience thanks to the graphical characteristics of its interface. And, best of all, it does so without sacrificing functionality.

When writing messages you can choose from a large number of effects, including animations, backgrounds, electronic greetings cards, sounds, special fonts, and even animated text. For these features the program comes with two extra applications: Incredimal Gallery and Letter Creator. This second program lets you turn a regular old email into a letter designed in the program’s own word processor.

Incredimail also includes all the features common to most email clients, such as multiple account handling and an address book. Plus, it has some very original new mail alerts.

The downside to this client is without a doubt its vulnerability to harmful software. According to some more advanced users, this app has some security holes within its multimedia features.

As you can see from this analysis, there aren’t any really huge differences between the most popular email clients, apart from perhaps in the particular case of Pando  . As such it’s difficult to rate one over the others unless it’s in terms of each individual’s expectations.

For example, if you’re looking for a practical and secure email environment, you’d maybe be better off with Thunderbird. However, if you want to be able to create customized messages that include different types of text, graphics and multimedia content, Incredimail could well be the best choice for you.

What better way of communicating with your beloved relatives and friends than sending e-mails? In order to do this, the best and simple way to do so is by using an e-mail client capable of sending and receiving e-mails with great effectiveness and without too much inconvenient.Therefore, Outlook Express is the perfect easy-to-use e-mail client solution.

Outlook Express

Outlook Express is an email client, designed and developed by Microsoft. it comes along with Internet Explorer and stands as a lighter version of the other well known email client: Outlook (also from Microsoft). Also, with Outlook Express, you can import items, such as address book data, messages, and account settings from other programs, including other mail clients. Using the Outlook Express Import Wizard, you can easily import e-mail messages from a variety of popular Internet e-mail programs, such as Netscape Communicator and Eudora, as well as from Exchange Server and Outlook.

It includes several interesting features, such as simultaneous different email accounts and multiple IDs. Additionally, it supports HTML and address book and directories management. It is worth mentioning that this email client allows folders synchronization with no need of connection. Its interface is extremely accessible. Each time you start up Outlook Express, it automatically retrieves new e-mail messages and delivers them to your Inbox. And while Outlook Express is open, it periodically checks for new mail. It takes no more than a couple of mouse clicks to check your e-mail in any account—personal, Hotmail, work, and so on.

With Outlook Express we can access both POP3 and webmail email accounts (only for Yahoo! and Gmail. Hotmail and Windows Live Mail are still not available, same as for other email clients). Improved rules for incoming folder are another new release included in this version. With Outlook Express you can send your e-mail messages as soon as you write them, or you can compose a draft and return to it later to finish and send. And file size is just about the only limit on what you can enclose in a message—documents, pictures, even music and videos.

Regarding editing tools, Outlook Express allows far greater customization of emails, supporting styles, HTML, graphics and sound. This is very useful for corporate emails or simply for personalizing our emails. You can use multiple E-mail addresses, multiple accounts, and multiple identities in Outlook Express as well.

According to advanced users, this email has some security leaks (specifically, with preview feature). Therefore, Microsoft highly recommends its users to download and install the periodical updates of the software.

The application is not ambitious with regards to its features, but for average users and for email, it is useful.

Download Outlook Express