The best free email clients for Windows. Mail programs

The mail client is designed for processing correspondence from electronic mailboxes.

There is a great variety of software that can do this: multifunctional mail clients that combine the functions of a postal courier and a search agent.

Or simple utilities that allow the user to receive, send and store electronic messages.

The most popular email utilities for Windows OS will be discussed in this publication.

Purpose and application

It's no secret that many PC users have several email accounts, which can easily be registered on the servers of large search services.

They can be accessed through the resources on which they are registered.

If several addresses are registered on different sites, for example, Mail.ru; Yandex; Google; Yahoo, etc., then the login and authorization process must be completed for everyone.

In order to be able to work with correspondence from all mailboxes simultaneously, without much time and Internet traffic, mail clients were invented.

Before the "seven", all versions of Windows were equipped with the Outlook Express email program.

Later versions of the operating system introduced the Mail application, which allowed you to collect all your mail in one mailbox using a Microsoft account.

Basic functionality of email clients

As mentioned above, mail clients differ in their capabilities. But there are basic functions inherent in absolutely all such programs:

  • receiving correspondence;
  • sorting and grouping messages into folders;
  • creating email messages in the built-in text editor;
  • automation in the preparation of outgoing messages;
  • the ability to receive and send attached files in an email message.

In addition to the basic functionality, almost every email client has a lot of additional features: connecting RSS feeds, organizing a full-fledged organizer, the ability to send mass letters, etc.

The top five most popular email processing programs include the following mail clients:

  • The Bat;
  • eM Client;
  • Becky Internet Mail;
  • Windows Live Mail.

Let's look at each of them in more detail. Where you can download the utility you like, look under the product description.

Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is a powerful software package that allows you to process mail, work with groups, connect news feeds, and has filters for incoming messages.

It can work with multiple accounts.

It works perfectly with all popular protocols (POP; SMTP; IMAP), and a flexible system of settings is provided by the built-in system of plugins.

The Thunderbird email client has gained particular popularity among domestic users for its convenient Russian-language interface.

The program is distributed under a free license.

The Bat

The second place in terms of frequency of use by PC users is occupied by The Bat mail client. It has a good set of functions, including:

  • Possibility of connecting an unlimited number of mailboxes, which can be received simultaneously.
  • Powerful incoming mail filtering system.
  • Possibility of selective downloading of letters from the server.
  • Support for importing messages from other email clients.
  • Built-in search for letters and respondents.
  • Multifunctional text editor

The Bat for Windows can encrypt messages using public key cryptography, so the user can be 100% sure that his messages will not be read by intruders.

eM Client

Most PC users highlight this particular program as the most functional and safe among similar ones.

Really, eM Client equipped with all the necessary functions for comfortable processing of correspondence: reading emails, sending messages, redirecting and sorting mail, etc.

This software package has a built-in full-fledged organizer, chat manager and many other quite interesting functions.

In addition, eM Client is Russified, supports the protocols of major mail servers and synchronizes perfectly with accounts created in Google, Yandex and iCloud services.

The only drawback of the program is that it is distributed on the basis of a paid license, although many users will be happy with the lightweight free version, which can be downloaded by following the link to the official website of the developer:

This time we will talk about a subject known to almost everyone who has used the Internet in one way or another, however, as my communication with many people has shown, unknown from one of its seemingly most obvious sides. The phenomenon of mass obscurity, or perhaps unconscious ignorance, exists, as it turns out, around ordinary email programs, otherwise called email clients.

So what do many people do when they want to check their email? That's right, open your favorite browser and go to the website of your email service, for example, Mail.ru, Yandex, Google or some other, it doesn’t matter. At the same time, all mail management is done through the web interface, often with page reloads, each time abundantly hung with banners and other distracting advertising or links. If there are several mailboxes and mail redirection to one of the mailboxes is not enabled, you have to go to each of the portals, log in and perform the same operations on each of them.

Is it so convenient to open the pages of your favorite email portals every day, log in and reload the pages several times in order to read or respond to mail? This is hardly convenient, especially since sometimes you can simply forget to do it. Is there an alternative to this? Of course, an alternative is to use email programs, or, as they are also called, email clients.

Here is a partial list of the advantages that using email programs provides compared to using webmail directly on email service sites.

  • To check mail, you do not need to open any pages in the browser - the mail program can itself check and download mail to your computer at a set frequency to make it accessible even when there is no Internet connection.
  • It is easy to make sure that the email program itself does not need to be specially loaded after turning on the computer - just add its shortcut to autorun.
  • The mail program can check mail on any number of mail services and put all new messages into one or different inboxes, as you wish.
  • To sort mail by topic, you can create any number of folders, and also “ask” your email program to automatically sort mail into these folders immediately after downloading.
  • When viewing mail, messages can easily and very quickly be sorted by any of their attributes (date of receipt, sender, message size, etc.), and the time to open any of the letters is negligible - the letters are on the hard drive. This is especially true if the letter contains attachments.
  • It is also quite quick and easy to search among letters by some keyword, subject, date, sender or recipient.
  • When writing new letters, which takes place in the window of a fairly functional editor, it is easy to interrupt this process by saving the draft literally in a second, in the drafts folder, in order to return to editing later (when working through a browser, you can also create drafts, but there this will also happen through reboots pages and is only possible with an Internet connection).
  • Internet traffic is significantly saved when viewing and reading mail.

This is just a short list of the main benefits; there are many others. It is also worth reminding that using an email program does not at all interfere with logging into your favorite email server using a browser at any time and reading mail through it or using other additional services of the portal.

What to choose? At the moment, a very large number of both paid and free email programs have been created, and the reliability and functionality of many of the free ones more than cover all the conceivable and unimaginable needs of ordinary users.

For example, for many years now I have been quite satisfied with the free email program created and actively developed by the Mozilla Foundation, which is very respected throughout the world. This is an email client Mozilla Thunderbird(the name consists of 2 words: “Thunder” and “Bird”, which can be translated as “Thunderbird”): http://mozilla-russia.org/products/thunderbird/

I will not describe now all the advantages of Thunderbird; you can read about them on the website of the Russian team of this community. It’s better to tell you where the same rake lies, which any novice user of an email program, no matter what, can almost certainly step on.

Usually people do not delete their mail from the server, rightly believing that it may well be useful to them in the future. However, they do not put it into folders specially created for this purpose, leaving it directly in the Inbox. And in vain, by the way. This advice is just for such a case.

In all email programs that I have ever dealt with, the option is disabled by default in the account being created. “Leave copies of messages on the server”(circled in red in the screenshot below). That is, in this case, as soon as you download mail into your mail program, it is deleted from the server without the possibility of recovery. It's unlikely that everyone will like it. Especially for those who would like to download it at the same time, for example, at work and at home. To avoid this, you must immediately configure this option correctly when creating your account. Thunderbird's settings in this sense are quite flexible: you can configure the program to automatically delete messages after some time, or you can choose to delete only what is deleted in the program itself.

The second important point is that it is better to immediately think about where the mail client will store its mail database. By default, this is usually somewhere deep inside the user's profile on the system drive. But, as we know, the system disk is at high risk due to the possibility of infection with a virus or other similar misfortune, so it is better not to store data on it. When creating an account, you should immediately create a special folder on the disk with data, and then designate it as a local directory for storing mail messages (circled in blue in the screenshot above). It is also useful in the future not to bypass this folder when creating backups of your data.

And a few more practical points. Publications periodically appear in the press about various cases of theft or loss of laptops, accompanied by leaks of personal or corporate secrets. You shouldn’t forget about this possibility either, and if you don’t want anyone other than you to read your mail, it makes sense to place your entire mail database on an encrypted disk that can be connected and disconnected as needed. Many paid and free solutions have also been created for these purposes. Among the free ones, the best program is probably TrueCrypt.

By the way, those who like to lead a mobile lifestyle may be pleased to have a mobile version of Thunderbird, which does not require installation on a computer and can work directly from a flash drive.

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An email client is a program for using email.

How does the email client work?

If it is a personal mailbox in which received and sent letters are collected, then the mail client is your personal manager who constantly goes and checks the storage for fresh correspondence and analyzes the information received from there

It can correctly process HTML letters, sort senders into groups, store recipients' addresses in lists, work with attachments, and instantly sound an alarm when new mail is received.

Emails are always sent using the SMTP protocol, or its secure encrypted version SECURE SMTP. You can receive correspondence via POP3 or IMAP.

POP3 is a simple protocol for receiving letters from a server and storing copies on a computer; it is not particularly demanding of a good Internet connection. IMAP is a complex protocol that is sensitive to connection breaks; its main idea is to read the headers of letters, and only then the content itself, as needed. IMAP involves working with letters using constant synchronization of your computer and server.

How to choose an email client

It's good if you have the only one. But difficulties arise if you have dozens of mailboxes that need to be constantly monitored and answered, switching between addresses every minute. To solve the problem of collecting letters from a large number of services, email clients have been invented, modern versions of which have a wide range of useful functions, such as organizers, mass mailings, RSS feeds, etc.

The main options of each email program:

  • Grouping correspondence into folders
  • Sorting by different parameters
  • Working with different types of attachments
  • Receiving and sending letters online
  • Editing and viewing letters, including html format
  • Rating of email clients

Thunderbird

  • POP3, IMAP, SMTP.
  • Tab system and address book.
  • Full HTML support.
  • Migration assistant.
  • Flexible setup.

One of the most beautiful and high-quality developments from the Mozilla Foundation. It gained particular popularity in Russia for the reverent attitude of the developers for localizing the client into more than forty languages ​​of the world. It has high-quality protection and powerful tools for filtering spam content. Functionality can be added from the extension store

The Bat

  • Reliability and speed.
  • Technologies for additional protection of correspondence.
  • Automatic sorting.
  • Incoming email filtering system.
  • Selective upload from the server.
  • Built-in search.

Long-lived and pioneer of the world of email clients. Fast and streamlined work, but simplified functionality and errors when reading modern HTML emails. A big plus is the presence of a module for encrypting correspondence using the SSL\TLS protocol. Public key cryptographic technologies and storage of letters on the hard drive ensure the security of the contents of correspondence

SeaMonkey

  • Portable version.
  • Built-in web browser.
  • A huge number of personal settings.
  • Stable work.
  • Localization into 24 languages.
  • Built-in useful tools.
  • IRC instant messaging client.

A client that stands out from the crowd with its flexibility to suit the needs of any client: from an individual home user to a large business organization. Universal and simple appearance, many controls for each parameter, built-in spam filter. Large share of users: large companies and institutions

Opera Mail

  • Import all emails from the server.
  • Quick reading.
  • Simultaneous synchronization of several mailboxes.
  • Offline viewing mode.
  • Significant traffic savings.

Another client created by a large company called Opera Software. The functionality stands out from its competitors due to its obvious traffic savings, which is a priority area of ​​development for the company. High speed, convenient interface familiar to many, labels for letters and chronological sorting

Koma-Mail

  • Protocols POP3, SMTP, IMAP, Hotmail, WebDAV.
  • Secure connections via SSL.
  • RSS feeds.
  • Built-in HTML editor.
  • Antispam filter.
  • Automatic folder protection.
  • Unlimited amount .

The best program for portable work and running from a flash drive. The application has a built-in calendar, color tags and localization into 19 languages.

eM Client

  • A complete organizer.
  • Russification.
  • Paid/free versions.
  • Chat manager.

The program has built-in support for the main email servers: Yandex, Google, iCloud. Based on functionality, it is divided into paid and free versions with limited access. Considered one of the most secure programs for personal computers

Microsoft Outlook

  • Brand reliability.
  • Classic business application.
  • Integration into all popular services.
  • Organizer.
  • Rules for filtering by templates.
  • VBA support.

A classic application included with Microsoft Office. Can be purchased as part of an Office 365 subscription for a monthly fee. The program is one of the most popular corporate email clients for large companies; it is no less in demand among ordinary users. Supports work with all possible protocols, sound alerts based on templates, division into work and personal flows, flexible filtering rules and synchronization with third-party applications. A huge advantage is the support for VBA macros, with which you can completely optimize your activities

There are a lot of email programs, they differ in manufacturers, costs, functions and much more. What is an email program?

Mail program(email client, mail client, mail client, mailer) - software installed on the user’s computer and designed to receive, write, send and store email messages from one or more users (in the case of, for example, several accounts on one computer) or several accounts of one user.

The main functions of email clients are receiving messages, allowing them to be viewed, sorting messages, automating the creation of reply messages and maintaining an address book.

Large mail programs, so-called. "all in one" such as Mozilla Thunderbird, The Bat! and Microsoft Outlook, today combine the work of MSA, MDA and MRA in one application. Simpler mail users (MUAs), such as Mutt, are also mail programs.

Unlike a mail server, an email client usually sends a message not directly to the recipient's corresponding server, but to the same mail server, which acts as a relay. This is usually the mail server of the provider or company. Mail is most often sent using the SMTP protocol.

An email client receives mail from one or more mail servers, often the same server used for sending. Reception of mail is usually carried out using the POP or IMAP protocols.

Also, the functions of the email client may include: sorting, storing messages, searching through the message archive, maintaining an address book, filtering received messages according to various criteria, converting formats, encryption, organizing interfaces with office programs and other functions.

The most common email programs used under different operating systems in 2014:

1 Microsoft Outlook-- personal information manager with the functions of an email client and Groupware from Microsoft.

In addition to the functions of an email client for working with email, Microsoft Outlook is a full-fledged organizer that provides the functions of a calendar, task scheduler, notebook and contact manager. In addition, Outlook allows you to track your work with Microsoft Office documents to automatically compile a work diary.

Outlook can be used as a separate application or act as a client for the Microsoft Exchange Server mail server, which provides additional functions for collaboration between users of the same organization: shared mailboxes, task folders, calendars, conferences, planning and booking time for general meetings, coordination documents. Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server are a platform for organizing document flow, as they are provided with a system for developing custom plug-ins and scripts, with the help of which it is possible to program additional document flow functions (and not only document flow) that are not provided in the standard package.

2 The Bat!-- a program for working with e-mail for Windows OS. Developed by the Moldovan company Ritlabs. The Bat! popular among Russian users, users from the former USSR republics and some European countries. The main task of the program is to protect correspondence from monitoring by third parties.

It has many capabilities for sorting letters, and also has a system for connecting additional extension modules (plugins) designed to protect against spam and viruses. As a rule, plugins can be downloaded from the website of the developers of such modules. The program has a built-in mail manager for POP3 servers.

The program has many tools to ensure the security of correspondence. Among them:

  • - mailbox password protection
  • - mail database encryption
  • - encryption and signing of letters using S/MIME and OpenPGP
  • - blocking suspicious images
  • - ignoring scripts and executable codes

In The Bat! You can set up automatic sorting of letters according to specified parameters. The program is able to re-sort letters by sender, recipient, subject, letter text, tags, letter size, priority, date and other parameters. Available actions include moving, copying, exporting, printing letters, deleting, auto-replying, creating a reminder, launching an external application. It is possible to create general sorting rules that are valid for several mailboxes.

Virtual folders make it easier to manage the flow of emails. In The Bat! It is possible to create virtual folders and, using filters, configure the display of the necessary letters. Virtual folders do not contain letters, but links to them. Thus, using them allows you to avoid wasting space by creating copies of letters.

Three levels of letter design templates are available: for an individual contact, for letters created in a specific folder, and for letters created in a specific mailbox. In The Bat! There are also quick templates that allow you to insert fragments of pre-typed text into a letter. Quick templates can be common to all boxes.

Also in The Bat! It is possible to backup letters (in a general backup file or in a separate one for each mailbox) or folders, address book and settings at the user’s request or automatically according to a schedule. It is possible to protect the backup copy with a password and add comments.

You can set administrative and user access rights for each mailbox. The administrator can limit the rights of a regular user in setting up the program and accessing mailboxes.

3 Mozilla Thunderbird-- a free, cross-platform, freely distributed program for working with email and newsgroups, and, when installing the Lightning extension, with a calendar. It is part of the Mozilla project. Supports protocols: SMTP, POP3, IMAP, NNTP, RSS. Official builds are provided for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux (i386), and the set of capabilities is the same on all platforms. There are also third-party builds for FreeBSD, Solaris, OpenSolaris, OS/2.

Thunderbird's interface, like the Mozilla Firefox web browser, is based on XUL technology developed by the Mozilla Foundation. As a result, the user interface on all platforms looks the same as that of applications developed for that specific platform. Like Firefox, Thunderbird supports visual themes. By default, the program interface is similar to the interface of the Outlook Express email client familiar to Windows users.

Thunderbird automatically detects unwanted correspondence. You can also manually specify which emails are spam by “training” the program in this way. In addition, Thunderbird can store mail both in separate folders for each mailbox, and in a common one for everyone.

A letter can be displayed in several folders specified by the user based on filters. In this case, the letter actually remains the only one and does not take up extra space, as would be the case if copies of one letter were stored in different folders.

4 Opera Mail(formerly M2) is an email and news client that was previously built into the Opera browser and is now a separate email program. Its interface is slightly different from other email clients in order to provide better integration with Opera. It has spam filters (automatic and learning - Bayesian, after the author of the theorem named after Thomas Bayes)), support for the POP3, IMAP, SMTP and ESMTP protocols, news groups, RSS, Atom and NNTP news feeds.

Opera Mail uses one database that stores the contents of all letters and sorts them automatically according to several parameters, for example, by type: just letters and letters with attached files. This provides quick access to letters. The contents of the letter can be viewed below the inbox list and in a separate window. Also, the Bayesian filter is used to automatically sort messages according to various parameters. All messages located in the database are accessible through the menu item Read mail/Received view. Opera Mail has a traffic minimization feature that gives the user access to only the first lines of the letter, and not the entire letter, thereby reducing traffic consumption. Also, one of the main innovations with the release of the Opera 9.64 browser is the preview of news feeds. With its help, a page is generated containing the current information in the newsletter, and the user can view or subscribe to the newsletter using a special button. One of the disadvantages of the email client since its inception has been the inability to use formatting when writing a letter. This flaw has been corrected in Opera 10. Also in version 10 of the browser there was a built-in spell checker.

Opera Mail also has a contact manager and a simple IRC client that allows the user to connect to multiple servers at the same time. Private communication and file transfer between users is possible. In chats, it is possible to change the appearance by editing the CSS file (examples).

Opera 12.17 is the latest version of the browser that has a built-in email client. Opera Mail is now a separate application.

5 Windows Mail(English Windows Mail) is a program for working with e-mail and news groups, supplied with the Windows Vista operating system.

Unlike its predecessor, Outlook Express, Windows Mail is not considered a component of Internet Explorer. As a result, the program will not be available for previous operating systems in the same way that Internet Explorer 7 was made available for Windows XP.

Privacy and security capabilities are provided by support for SSL/TLS standards to protect traffic, as well as S/MIME for encrypting and signing letters; third-party software can also be used for this. Microsoft SmartScreen technology, as well as third-party programs, are used to protect against spam. Windows Mail also contains built-in anti-phishing tools and the ability to integrate external anti-virus modules.

  • On May 30, 2007, Microsoft released for the first time a beta version of a new email client - Windows Live Mail - something like an improved version of Windows Mail, for the Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems, which is intended to replace it. Subsequently, the Windows Live Mail client was included in the Windows Live Essentials software package.
  • 6 IBM Notes(also IBM Notes/Domino, former name - Lotus Notes) - a software product, a platform for automating the collaborative activities of work groups (Groupware), containing e-mail tools, personal and group electronic calendars, instant messaging services and an application execution environment business interaction.

The product was first released in 1989 by the American company Lotus Development, which was absorbed by IBM in 1995.

Starting with version 9.0.0, IBM rebranded the IBM Lotus Notes/Domino platform, changing the system logo and eliminating the term “Lotus” from the name.

The main functions included in the basic distribution of IBM Notes/Domino version 9 (when using the IBM Notes Client of the Standard type):

  • - execution environment for group activity automation applications (program code is executed on the client, server and in a web browser);
  • - cryptographic protection (encryption and electronic signature);
  • - email client;
  • - mail server;
  • - personal and group calendars, task planner;
  • - a set of office applications IBM Lotus Symphony (text editor, spreadsheets, presentation preparation - only in versions 8.0 and 8.5);
  • - client of the instant messaging environment (Instant messenger) IBM Sametime (the IBM Sametime server is a separate product);
  • - built-in web server;
  • - built-in web browser (does not support modern standards; it is recommended to use external applications to view web pages);
  • - LDAP directory server;
  • - IBM Notes application server;
  • - replication - synchronization between remotely remote database instances;
  • - data integration services DECS (Domino Enterprise connection services);
  • - a means of storing attached files outside of DAOS (Domino attachment and object services) databases;
  • - support for remote debugging of IBM Domino server applications.
  • 7 The Bee- a universal email client from the domestic software development group AV(T) Lab. The program is free. The main advantage of this program is its size and ability to work without installation from any media. The Bee executable file weighs only 450 kilobytes. If you need to use the SSL protocol, you will need two more library files, but even in this case the application will not take up more than 750 kilobytes of disk space. Despite this, to put it mildly, modest size, The Bee, in addition to working with email, provides the ability to communicate via ICQ, as well as read news.

As an email tool, The Bee provides the most essential standard features without any frills or bells and whistles. When creating messages to be sent by email, the program only supports file attachment among additional functions. You won’t see any emoticons, sound effects or other nice extras here. However, The Bee does not pretend to be the main email client in your system. Its main task is to provide quick and convenient access to e-mail, news conferences and ICQ services in any suitable place, when needed. And The Bee copes with this task perfectly.

For ordinary people who do not use email for commercial purposes, the capabilities of the web interface of email services are often sufficient. These provide basic functionality for working with mail and in most cases are presented in a user-friendly interface aimed at beginners. Some email services, such as Yandex.Mail, can even offer a choice of design themes. But when using email in a commercial environment, greater efficiency can be achieved due to the capabilities of a special type of software - email clients, programs that are installed in the operating system, receive data from the email server and present it to the user in its own interface. Such email programs, as a rule, are capable of providing multi-account work with email and can offer flexible settings, filtering, sorting and other capabilities for working with large volumes of correspondence. Many mailers, in addition to this, also provide organizational functions such as a calendar, scheduler, contact database, etc.

In this article, we will look at current offers on the market of email clients for the Windows 7, 8 or 10 operating system. Not all of the email clients discussed below are functional tools. The review also includes minimalistic products, such as email applications included in the latest versions of Windows. Let's start the review with them.

1. Mail app included in Windows 8.1

The Mail program, which appeared in Windows 8, then migrated to its upgrade version Windows 8.1, became one of the aspects of Microsoft’s global idea - to offer the user a new format of the operating system with the old familiar and new simple tools designed for the average person on board. The built-in Windows 8.1 mailer is a product in the Modern UI (Metro) interface style, and, as befits mail programs of this format, it contains only basic functionality and a minimum of settings. The Mail program, being initially focused not on functionality, but on the convenience of working with email on touch devices with small screens, can do little: it supports working with several mailboxes, provides receiving, sending mail, moving it inside the mailbox, and the ability to customize the display letters in the order they were received or by type of conversation and a couple of other little things.

The Windows 8.1 email client has not grown into anything more since the introduction of version 8 of the system. The reason for this is the short time of relevance of Windows 8/8.1 itself. The evolution of the email client has already taken place in the Windows 10 version.

2. Mail app included in Windows 10

The Windows 10 email client has been constantly changing since the official release of this version of the system, and users who did not disable updates could periodically find new options in the settings. However, the mail client on board Windows 10 differs little from the Windows 8.1 mailer. Significant differences include the choice of interface colors, background images, and greater capabilities when creating emails, in particular, text formatting and working with tables.

3. Microsoft Outlook 2016

Native Windows email applications will never evolve into functional email clients, otherwise they will bury Outlook as part of the paid Microsoft Office software package. We will see everything that Microsoft is capable of as the creator of an email client in the current version of Microsoft Outlook 2016. In addition to a functional email client, Outlook also includes an RSS client, contacts, notes, a calendar, and a task scheduler. Among the functional advantages of the mail client module are developed systems for tagging, filtering and sorting correspondence, applying notification rules to new letters and automatically moving them to the desired folders, choosing the layout of the Outlook window for convenient presentation of mail, auto-archiving and other features.

Microsoft Outlook is an ideal product for the marketing industry. The mailer not only contains extensive tools for formatting text when creating emails; it essentially has a stripped-down version of Microsoft Word built into it. When creating letters, you can work with tables, autotext, shapes and express blocks, use Wordart and other functions of a text editor from Microsoft. The text of letters is pre-installed with a spell check, a built-in translator, a word count, and an intelligent search function.

4. Windows Live Mail

Another solution from Microsoft is a free client application for working with email services, part of the Windows Live software package. It appeared as a result of the separation of the Windows Mail email client on Windows Vista into a separate product. In terms of functionality, Windows Live Mail can be classified as something between Microsoft Outlook and the minimalistic email applications included in Windows 8.1 and 10. While Microsoft Outlook is a product aimed at the corporate user, Windows Live Mail is a product for the average person. It is created in the Ribbon interface format (with a toolbar divided into horizontally oriented tabs), provides, in addition to the email client, RSS client modules, databases with contacts, and a calendar with the ability to schedule events.

The functionality of the Windows Live email client is a stripped-down version of the capabilities of Microsoft Outlook. When working with mail, you can configure a convenient layout of the client window, apply filters, selections, sorting options, use the conversation type view of letters, create rules for automatic deletion of letters, moving them to the desired folders, forwarding to individual recipients, etc. The form for creating emails, compared to Microsoft Outlook, has a more meager arsenal, however, the necessary text formatting options are present, and among the insertion functions there is even the ability to create a photo album inside the letter.

5. The Bat!

Let's start our review of third-party email clients with the market leader - The Bat! , the most functional program of all presented in this article. The Bat! can offer the user a customizable interface, mail sorting, advanced search through the contents of the mailbox, an RSS client, a database with contacts, protection against viruses and spam, setting a password for accessing mail, checking spelling when creating letters and other features. One of the key features of this email client is templates, a more advanced analogue of the rules of conduct in Microsoft Outlook. Using The Bat! You can create template letters and set rules for the mailer.

The Bat! – an email program, a paid product, there is a monthly trial version to evaluate all the features.

6. Mozilla Thunderbird

Opera Mail consists of three modules - the mail section, the RSS client and the newsgroup client. For the mailer window, you can choose a convenient layout for presenting letters. Directly for working with electronic correspondence, Opera Mail can offer a tagging system, mail sorting, and the use of a contact database. The options for creating letters are minimal - text without formatting and attaching attachment files.

8. eM Client

The last participant in the review is the eM Client email client. Organizationally and functionally, it is similar to Windows Live, but, in addition to the modules of an email client, a calendar planner, a database with contacts, and an RSS client, it also provides a chat function. To the eM Client chat you can connect accounts of such services for exchanging text messages as: Jabber, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo!, GaduGadu, etc. Among the capabilities of the email client we will find a standard set of functions such as mail sorting, tagging, a developed search system, etc. filtering inside mailboxes. It is possible to work with rules for automatic deletion, forwarding, moving correspondence to the desired folders, etc. The eM Client interface is customizable: you can choose a design theme, adjust the window layout and the position of the sidebar on the right to your preferences.

While all previous participants in the review, except for the paid The Bat!, allow you to connect an unlimited number of mailboxes as part of the free use of programs, the freeness of eM Client is limited to only two connected mailboxes.

Have a great day!