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The Best Email Clients to Manage Multiple Accounts in 2024

The Best Email Clients to Manage Multiple Accounts in 2024
The Best Email Clients to Manage Multiple Accounts in 2024

How many email accounts do you already have? There might be one per project, one for personal use, one for random stuff…

You might just end up spending more time on email than you expected with this organization system if you're not using the right tools to manage it. And the right tool in this situation is an email client that supports multiple email accounts.

Having multiple email accounts is a more organized way of handling your correspondence. So, in this guide, we will review seven top email clients for you to choose from.

What Is an Email Client and Why Consider Email Management Software in the First Place?

An email client is a web browser or desktop interface that helps you manage the emails you send or receive. Email clients also function as personal information managers, offering tools for taking notes, calendaring, and managing tasks, emails, and contacts. They are a type of email apps that facilitates inbox management. Popular email clients include Mailbird, Thunderbird, Mailspring,Office 365 Outlook, and others.

There are pros and cons to having multiple email addresses, but email clients take away most of the burden the disadvantages bring to the table.

Advantages of Using an Email Client

Firstly, if you have several projects, separating information about each by means of a different email address is convenient, but having to check each inbox is not. A single email client eliminates the need to check various inboxes, switch between them constantly, and waste precious effort on remembering to do that regularly. You have a holistic picture of all your emailing and the sources of recent messages. It's all in one interface.

Secondly, you might be using multiple accounts for security reasons, to protect your personal information. If you have a disposable inbox for correspondence that is potentially 99% junk mail, adding it to an email client won't let you completely forget about it. And also, if you create an account for newsletters, adding it to an email manager will make sure you check it from time to time so it doesn't end up collecting dust.

Feeling convinced? Let's go over five of the best email clients that support multiple accounts and see if they all have fitting functionality.

Five Email Clients for Multi-Account Management

Mailbird

Mailbird for unified email management
Mailbird for unified email management

Mailbird is a desktop email client for Windows that unifies your multiple email accounts from many different providers into one place. As far as email clients go, Mailbird is the definition of software that is consistent with its multi-account support functionality throughout the whole interface.

Platform: Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11

Features
  • Unified Inbox. All your accounts from the different email services you connect to this feature will be in one single interface. If you have a couple of work accounts, you can promptly decide how to handle them without having to click between tabs or apps, or loading your other inbox. The color indicators help mark each account for you to better understand which sender requires an urgent reply.
  • Filters (rules). Set your own preferences by applying filters to the email messages you want to move, mark, or archive automatically. You can also set rules for certain messages to land in a particular folder. For example, if the subject line says "receipt," have your app chuck them into the Receipts folder automatically.
  • Native calendar. The calendar has two columns. The left one shows the menu and the accounts you added to the client. The right one gives a clear picture of how busy you are. You can also choose to view the calendar in the sidebar, alongside your inbox.

    Native Calendar of unified email management
    Native Calendar of unified email management
  • Advanced search. A manual search for that one particular message or even attachment can feast on your time. Mailbird's advanced search functionality helps you avoid this hurdle. You can use an email address, a folder name, or even just a phrase as your search query. What's more, you can look through all your email accounts if you have a unified inbox connected.
  • Signatures. A stylish ending to your email improves its overall impression. In Mailbird you can create a customized signature that will automatically appear at the end of your messages. You can add it to a particular account or all your accounts, and the app will insert it for you when you send an email.
  • Email Tracking. This feature resembles the "message was read" option in a messenger. You can see if your email was opened by the recipient and even who exactly opened it.
  • Snooze. Some emails can wait until the right time to deal with them. Or maybe you need time to figure out the appropriate answer. Enable the "snooze" feature, and the email will pop up again later when you want to be reminded about it.
Pros

First and foremost, Mailbird was designed to handle multiple email accounts. It's not simply an app where you can connect all accounts; you can do the same in Gmail. Instead, you can view and manage all your emails from different accounts in one inbox or view one account at a time.

You can also organize everything into neat folders by project or topic and search for the required information across all accounts.

Multiple third-party integrated apps like live messengers, virtual meeting apps, project management tools, and many others turn your email client into a productivity hub. And you can view these integrations, along with some of Mailbird's native features, in the sidebar.

Cons

So far, Mailbird is available for Windows only.

Prices

There are a free trial and three payment plans at Mailbird, starting from $2.28 per month for a personal plan.

Front

Front email management app
Front email management app

Looking for something unusual? Front is a cloud-based email client for teams that unites your many accounts into one and has great features that mimic team collaboration tools.

Platform: Mac, Windows 10 and older, iOS, Android, web browser access available

Features
  • Shared inbox. While a unified email inbox is when you can see multiple accounts in one place, a shared one is when multiple people can see the same inbox. It's handy if you have a marketing team that needs access to the department email or you work with a virtual assistant.
  • Rules. There are three types of rules in Front: team, individual, and company. Each helps automate repetitive tasks with different degrees of access.
  • Tags. This option allows you to track the topic in discussions and sort the messages accordingly. Team tags are available to everyone.
  • Inbox analytics. This is a special feature that clarifies the performance level of your personal emailing or that of your team. You can have an overview of all the activity through a built-in analytical platform.
  • Inbox conversations. Simply put, it is a chat app inside an email message. You can instantly discuss the topic and make quick decisions.
Pros

Front is a great tool for teamwork. The common inbox is easily shared between team members so you don't need to forward emails. The productivity of each team member is tracked through analytics, and various types of reports are available. The app has many useful third-party integrations that boost efficiency even more.

Cons
  • Based on reviews of the app, a lot of Front users agree that it can be challenging to get used to the "shared inbox" interface.
  • The app does not have calendar integration, which makes time planning rather inconvenient. One cannot start a conversation with the whole team at once. It's required to add the people to the chat one by one.
Pricing

Four plans are available: Starter, Plus, Prime, and Enterprise. The first three have a free trial option. The price varies from $9 to $79 per user per month.

Mailspring

Mailspring for multiple email address management
Mailspring for multiple email address management

Mailspring is one of the best email clients for Linux, which is a platform that's not frequently mentioned in terms of productivity apps. It's also a good alternative to Mac email software.

Platform: Linux, Mac, Windows 10 and older

Features
  • Unified inbox. All the email messages come into a united center for further communication. Mailspring works well with all the major email providers.
  • Advanced search. You can search through all the content across all connected accounts with Gmail-like queries.
  • Translations. The software comes with the ability to translate English language messages into Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, French, and German. It is also localized into nine languages.
  • Signatures. The app has a special signature editor, which allows for creating customized endings to your messages.
Pros

The Mailspring app integrates well with one of the world's most popular email providers - Gmail. Another advantage is that the app does not require much battery power and is very memory-efficient, so you can use it wherever there's no access to a plug socket to charge your laptop.

Cons
  • Some SaaS products require you to create a user ID, and Mailspring is one of those. Otherwise, you won't be able to use the app.
  • While it is highly recommended by Linux users, its efficiency for Windows can be questioned since it does not support Microsoft Exchange.
  • Also, Mailspring does not have an address book.
Pricing

The basic version with many handy features is free. The Pro version with additional insights, detailed contact profiles, link tracking, and much more costs $8 per month.

Loop

Loop email manager
Loop email manager

Loop pushes the boundaries of what is considered an email client. It's an email manager configured as a live online hub with an emphasis on chat-style communication.

Platform: Android, iOS, macOS, Windows 10 and older, web access available

Features
  • Shared inbox. The app was first created for business back in 2014. So it also provides opportunities for team collaboration. It is possible to assign an email to a colleague, see the email ownership, and hence distribute the workload efficiently.
  • Formal and informal chats. One can use official language in case of need or add some funny emojis or GIFs to the side-chat discussion.
  • Email and attachment search. The app has a search tool that looks through messages or attachments instantly.
  • Email synchronization. Loop downloads the last two weeks' emails first. But one can opt to sync the email inboxes with messages received one to three years ago.
Pros

Loop is a very productive tool for team collaboration, especially if your company has lots of customer emails incoming daily. It is possible to integrate a Virtual Assistant that will help share the work and take some mundane tasks away. Moreover, you can deal with anything in real-time mode and send an email directly to the necessary chat.

Cons
  • Collaboration features work well only if the whole team is on board.
  • The app does not synchronize contacts on the Mac platform automatically.
  • And it also does not have a calendar integration.
Pricing

Loop has three pricing plans: Studio, Business, and Enterprise. The company is based in the UK, so the cost is calculated in GBP starting with 7-Pounds per user per month.

Thunderbird

Thunderbird free email management app
Thunderbird free email management app

Mozilla Thunderbird is a free email client that is actively used on Mac and other platforms. It is also open-source.

Platform: macOS, Windows 10 and older, Linux, web access available

Features
  • Smart folders. Thunderbird has Unified Inbox, Sent, and Archive folders to keep everything organized.
  • Quick filter toolbar. You can filter messages by people, tags, or other conditions and find what you need quickly.
  • Anti-phishing functionality. Thunderbird informs you whether the link you are going to click will take you to a different website than the one mentioned. Also, the app will warn you if your personal information is being compromised.
  • Large file management. Make use of the online storage option for transferring gigabytes of information conveniently.
Pros

The app is free and localized in many languages. It supports all the major platforms and is even available online. It is constantly being updated by its community of developers, and it detects scams very efficiently.

Cons
  • The open-source nature of the app might evolve into security issues.
  • The app lacks some useful productivity integrations.
  • It might not be enough for large business emailing.
Pricing

It's free.

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook email client
Microsoft Outlook email client

Microsoft Outlook is one of the oldest web and desktop email clients, but it is still widely used because of its reliability. What users love the most about Outlook is the fact that its email, calendar, and contact management systems are all seamlessly integrated.

Platforms: Windows 10 and older, Mac, iOS, Android, Web

Features
  • Quick steps tool. You can add automated pathways for the management of certain emails and contacts with this tool. For example, if you want to automate the "Move to New Folder" option, you choose a desired folder and assign it any keyboard shortcut (e.g., ctrl+shift+1). Then, select the desired emails, hit the shortcut, and they will be all moved to the chosen folder.
  • Advanced filters. Microsoft Outlook comes with powerful filters and allows users to easily organize, thread, label, and find messages. The search filter is very advanced and can be used to locate any message in any folder.
  • Can be programmed to perform different tasks. The client is intelligent, and users can program it to perform specific tasks automatically or even use add-ons to teach the email client new "tricks."
  • Anti-phishing filters. Microsoft Outlook features effective phishing filters that automatically move an email to the junk folder. Users can set the filtering level to determine how aggressive the filters should be.
Pros

One of the oldest, most reliable email clients that is packed with advanced features including quick steps tool, advanced filters, and anti-phishing filters. The client can be programmed to perform different tasks.

Cons
  • It doesn't have a dedicated feature such as a unified inbox, making it a headache to set up multiple email accounts.
  • Microsoft Outlook is known for its unexpected downtimes, making the program unreachable and almost impossible to use at times.
  • The web version can't be used without an Internet connection.
Pricing

Users can sign up for a limited free version or they can purchase a Microsoft license ($69.99 per year for one user or $99.99 per year for up to six users).

Comparison of the Five Email Apps

App Name

Platforms

Features

Pros

Cons

Pricing

Mailbird

Windows

- Unified Inbox

- Filters (rules)

- Native calendar

- Advanced search (email and images)

- Signatures

- Email Tracking

- Snooze

- Clear design

- Convenient management of multiple email accounts

- Unified calendar

- Multiple integrations with productivity apps

- Regular updates and new features

- Easy to use

- Windows only

Starting from $2.28 per month for personal use

Front

Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, web

- Shared inbox

- Rules

- Tags

- Inbox analytics

- Inbox conversations

- Team collaboration abilities

- Enhanced analytics

- Multiple third-party integrations

- Ease of assigning emails

- No option to start a discussion with all of the team

- Inconvenient shared inbox interface

- Lacks calendar

Price varies from $9 to $79 per user per month

Mailspring

Linux, Mac, Windows

- Unified inbox

- Advanced search

- Translations

- Signatures

- Power-efficient

- Great Gmail integration

- Requires Mailspring ID

- No address book

- Lacks support for Microsoft Exchange

The basic version is free; Pro version costs $8 per month

Loop

Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, web

- Shared inbox

- Formal and informal chats

- Email and attachment search

- Email synchronization

- Great for team collaboration

- Virtual Assistant

- Ability to send email to a native chat

- Collaboration features work only if the whole team uses Loop

- Lacks calendar

- Doesn't synchronize with contacts on Mac

Starting at £7 per user per month

Thunderbird

Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, web

- Smart Folders

- Unified inbox

- Quick filter toolbar

- Anti-phishing features

- Large File Management

- Localized in many languages

- Supports all major platforms

- Efficient scam filtering

- Security concerns (open-source app)

- Not enough for large business communication

- Lack of productivity integrations

Free

Microsoft Outlook

Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Web

- Quick steps tool

- Advanced filters

- Can be programmed to perform certain tasks

- Anti-phishing filters

- Reliable performance

- Security features

- Programmable automation rules

- No unified inbox

- Usually reliable, but also has downtimes

- The web app can't be used offline

Conclusion

Out of the many email clients available, we reviewed the top five with some sort of functionality that assists in managing more than one email account. In our opinion, Mailbird is the best apple mail client for windows. Reason for being the best is that Mailbird has two options for managing multiple accounts:

  • You can either connect all your email addresses from different email services to the app and have them appear in a sidebar for easy access,
  • Or you can go a step further and connect a few or all of your email accounts - personal or work-related - to a Unified Inbox.

Connecting the unified inbox means you can view all your emails and all your folders from different accounts in one place. You can still view each account separately, but enabling the unified functionality translates into the use of other features, such as filters, folders, email search, and even attachment search.

Mailbird is also priced the lowest out of the four paid email clients (sans Thunderbird, which is free) and has a trial period of 14 days so you can check out all the functionality.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Outlook an email client?

Yes, Office 365 Outlook is an email client. Its functionality also resembles a personal information manager, notepad, scheduler, and contact and task manager. It is one of the many email apps like Mailbird, Thunderbird, Mailspring, and others, that facilitate inbox management.

Which is the best free email client?

Some of the best free email clients are Thunderbird and Outlook. However, which one is best for you depends on personal preferences in features, security, and storage capacity. You can also try out paid software - most email apps, such as Mailbird have free trial periods.

Is Gmail an email client?

Yes, Gmail is a type of email client called webmail, and it works online. It is also an email service, meaning you can register a Gmail address and use the webmail app to send, receive, and overall manage your emails. You can also connect your Gmail address to an email client.

Which is the best email client for Windows 10?

The best email client for Windows 10 is one that fully satisfies your personal or work-related email needs, such as features or storage capacity. If you have several addresses, go for email clients that offer support of multiple email accounts.