BlueMail alternatives for Mac and every device

The best BlueMail alternative on a Mac is Alrighty if your mail is iCloud, Gmail and Outlook and you want junk stopped, search that finds things, and your logins kept on your Mac. Canary Mail is the closest match to BlueMail across Mac, iPhone, Windows and Android. Spark is the same app on every device if you accept its servers. Thunderbird and Mailspring are free and run on Linux, like BlueMail. Apple Mail is free and built in, and Spike turns email into chat.

Most BlueMail alternative lists are written for Android and by directories that rank on reviews. None of them reads BlueMail's privacy policy, which is the reason many people leave. So we start there, then list the Mac apps first.

How we checked

We read each app's own pricing, help, store and privacy pages on November 4, 2026, and every fact links to its source. For each app we noted what it costs, where it runs, which accounts it takes, and where it keeps your mail and your logins. Alrighty is our app, and it's listed first.

What BlueMail does with your mail

BlueMail's privacy policy opens with its promise: "we do not store your emails on our servers, apart from the optional features you choose to use, and we do not sell your data." The details depend on the device and the features you use.

• On a Mac, Windows or Linux, it says "We do not process your credentials or OAuth tokens." Its Mac App Store listing says it connects "directly to your mail server provider without the need for an email proxy."
• On a phone with instant push, "we will process either the OAuth token or encrypted credentials," and "our servers will momentarily process portions of each incoming email message." It says its push proxy passes them on within a few seconds and then deletes them.
• The spam filter runs on its servers, which "momentarily process information about the sender of incoming email messages."
• GemAI, its AI, sends "the relevant email" to BlueMail's servers and then "to a generative AI service provider for a response." It says it won't keep the email or the answer. The policy names its service providers as "Amazon Web Services, Google, DigitalOcean, OpenAI and Stripe."
• Ads. "The free versions of our Android and iOS apps display ads served by Google's advertising services." To show them, Google's software collects your device's advertising identifier, your IP address and how you interact with the ads.
• Shared features such as Convos, comments and group pages are stored on its servers.

So on a Mac, BlueMail mostly connects straight to your provider. Its servers come in with push on your phone, the spam filter, GemAI and the shared features. The free phone apps show Google ads. The policy we read shows no date.

BlueMail on a Mac today

BlueMail is free on the Mac App Store and needs macOS 12 or later. Version 1.143.64 came out on October 26, 2026. It takes "IMAP, SMTP, Exchange ActiveSync, EWS and POP3" accounts. Its desktop page says the Mac app is a universal binary for Apple silicon and Intel, and it also runs on Windows and Linux.

Its pricing page lists Personal as "Free forever" with unlimited email accounts. GemAI comes with Plus, which has a 7-day free trial. Plus is $3 a month, billed yearly.

BlueMail alternatives at a glance

App	Price	Runs on	Accounts	Where your mail and logins are kept
Alrighty	14-day trial, then Free or Pro	Mac (Apple silicon), Windows, Linux	iCloud, Gmail, Outlook only	Your computer
Canary Mail	Free; $36/yr or $100/yr	Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Android	Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Exchange, IMAP	Your device, except push on phones
Spark	Free; Plus $99/yr, Pro $199/yr	Mac, iPhone, Windows, Android	Google, Outlook, iCloud, Exchange, Yahoo, IMAP	Spark's servers for some features
Thunderbird	Free	Mac, Windows, Linux, Android	Not listed on its home page	Your device
Mailspring	Free; Pro $8/mo or $85/yr	Mac, Windows, Linux	Gmail, iCloud, Office 365, Yahoo, IMAP	Your Mac, except Pro metadata
Apple Mail	Comes with macOS	Mac	iCloud, Gmail, Exchange, other	Your Mac
Spike	Free; Pro $7.99/mo or $71.99/yr	Mac, iPhone, iPad, web	Gmail, Outlook, IMAP	Spike's servers, encrypted
BlueMail	Free; Plus price not shown	Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, Android	IMAP, Exchange, POP3	Your device on desktop; push via its servers

Alrighty: best BlueMail alternative on a Mac

Alrighty is a desktop mail app for Mac, Windows and Linux that puts iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts in one inbox, as BlueMail's unified inbox does. Gmail connects with Sign in with Google or an app password, Outlook and Microsoft 365 with Sign in with Microsoft, and iCloud with an app-specific password.

• Stop mail. BlueMail's spam filter checks senders on its servers. Alrighty's Stop mail ends a sender's mail in one click: it unsubscribes in every way the message offers, archives their mail, and moves their new mail out as it arrives.
• Clean up. It lists the senders you probably don't want, such as scams, cold outreach and newsletters you never open, so you can stop them all at once. A sure phishing message goes to Junk, and a likely one stays with a warning. Phishing checks run on your Mac.
• Search that finds what you remember. It runs on your Mac and matches what you mean as well as the words: "when is my flight" finds the airline's confirmation. Ask a question and get the answer with the emails it came from.
• The AI you choose. Claude, ChatGPT's desktop app, Codex, Cursor or a local model can read and search your mail, and work in a window you watch. Nothing sends until you click Send.

Where your mail goes. Your mail stays with Apple, Google and Microsoft, and Alrighty keeps its copy and its search index on your Mac. Your passwords and sign-ins stay on your Mac, encrypted with a key from your system's keychain. No Alrighty server holds them. Like GemAI, Alrighty's own AI features send the emails they need to its server, which passes them to an AI model (OpenAI's for answers and replies). Clean up sends up to 3 of each sender's newest emails to its server, which asks a model to sort them. There are no ads, on any plan.

Price. A 14-day trial with no card, then a Free plan or Pro. See everything Alrighty does.

What it can't do. BlueMail runs on iPhone and Android, and takes POP and Exchange accounts. Alrighty has no iPhone or Android app, takes iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts only, and has no calendar. It's a new app with no long track record.

Pick it if you used BlueMail on a Mac for iCloud, Gmail and Outlook and want less junk and better search, with your logins kept on your Mac.

Canary Mail: closest to BlueMail across devices

Canary runs on "Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows, and Android" (Canary), close to BlueMail's reach without Linux. Its free plan lists "Unlimited Mail Accounts" and a unified inbox on up to 2 devices (pricing). Paid plans are $36 or $100 a year, with no monthly billing. It has 1-Click Unsubscribe and blocks tracking pixels.

Where your mail goes. Canary's privacy policy says your account details and mail are "stored on your device and is never transferred to our servers." For push on phones, "Canary will temporarily store your email address, credentials, sender, subject line" on its server, much like BlueMail's push.

What it can't do. AI Copilot and phishing protection are on paid plans. There's no Linux app.

Pick it if you want BlueMail's spread across Mac, Windows and phones, with less on the vendor's servers.

Spark: best for the same app on every device

Spark runs on Mac, iPhone, Windows and Android, and its free plan includes unlimited accounts and a calendar (pricing). Plus is $99 a year and Pro is $199 a year, with AI on the paid plans.

Where your mail goes. BlueMail limits its server use on a Mac. Spark's privacy page doesn't split it by device. Spark says some features "require our server-side email processing to work," and "Spark requires the server-side processing to send you push notifications." For AOL, Exchange and custom IMAP accounts, it stores your login and encrypts the password in its database (Spark).

Pick it if you want one polished app on every device and accept Spark's servers. See our Spark alternatives for apps that skip them.

Thunderbird: best free, open-source alternative

Thunderbird is an "email, calendar, and contacts app for Windows, Linux, and macOS," with Thunderbird Mobile on Android, and it's "Free forever" (Thunderbird). Like BlueMail, it has a unified inbox and runs on Linux.

Where your mail goes. Its privacy notice says your messages "are stored and processed locally on your device." It sends telemetry about how you use the app, and you can turn that off.

What it can't do. No iPhone app is listed on its download page, and it advertises no AI.

Pick it if you want free and open source on a Mac, Linux or Android, with a calendar. Our Thunderbird alternatives page covers the next options.

Mailspring: best free app that skips the vendor's servers

Mailspring is free on Mac, Windows and Linux, and supports "Gmail, iCloud, Office 365, FastMail, Outlook.com, Yahoo!, and IMAP/SMTP" (Mailspring). It says "your email goes straight from your mail provider to your machine, not through our servers." Pro is $8 a month or $85 a year (pricing).

What it can't do. Its FAQ says "Mailspring supports IMAP only; POP3 support is not planned," and Exchange Web Services and ActiveSync aren't supported. BlueMail takes both. Pro features such as read receipts send metadata to Mailspring. It has no phone app.

Pick it if you used BlueMail on a desktop with IMAP accounts and want free and direct.

Apple Mail: best free alternative built into macOS

Apple Mail comes with macOS and adds "iCloud, Gmail (Google), Exchange, school, work, or other" accounts (Apple). It lets you unsubscribe "directly in Mail" and block up to 3,000 senders (Apple). Mail Privacy Protection hides your IP address from senders.

What it can't do. It's Apple only: no Windows, Linux or Android. Its search depends on Spotlight and can miss mail you can see; our Apple Mail search guide has the fixes.

Pick it if you only used BlueMail on Apple devices and want free and built in.

Spike: best if you want email to feel like chat

Spike "turns your existing email into chat-like conversations," with team chat, notes and calls (pricing). It's on the Mac App Store.

Price. The free plan "offers Spike's Smart Inbox with a single email address," with 10 Spike AI queries. More than one address needs Pro or Ultimate. The Mac App Store lists Pro at $7.99 a month or $71.99 a year, and Ultimate at $15.99 a month or $143.99 a year.

Where your mail goes. Spike stores message data on its servers: "Data is stored using the AES-256 algorithm, with a per-message private key." It "does not store passwords for accounts that support OAuth, such as Gmail," and encrypts passwords for accounts that don't (security). It says it "does not rent, sell, distribute or monetize on your data." Its App Store privacy label lists usage data that "may be used to track you."

Pick it if you liked BlueMail's people-centric view and want to go further, toward chat.

If you're on Android or Windows

BlueMail started on Android, and most searches for an alternative come from there. Of the apps above, Canary, Spark and Thunderbird have Android apps, and Canary, Spark, Thunderbird, Mailspring and Alrighty run on Windows. Apple Mail is Mac only. For a Mac that also has to cover several kinds of account, see our best email app for multiple accounts. For the full Mac field, see our best email apps for Mac.

We left out Edison Mail. Its Mac page still has a download button, but the Mac App Store listing it links to no longer loads, so we couldn't confirm you can install it on a Mac today. Edison is "Simple email from YipitData," and says "Our research business keeps Edison Mail free." It collects anonymized data from email receipts, with your permission, to make that research (Edison).

How to choose

• iCloud, Gmail and Outlook on a Mac, logins on your Mac, less junk: Alrighty.
• BlueMail's reach across Mac, Windows and phones: Canary Mail.
• One app on every device, servers accepted: Spark.
• Free, open source, with Linux and Android: Thunderbird.
• Free and direct on a desktop, for IMAP: Mailspring.
• Free and built in: Apple Mail.
• Email that feels like chat: Spike.

Questions

Is BlueMail safe to use?

BlueMail says it doesn't store your emails on its servers, apart from optional features, and doesn't sell your data. On Mac, Windows and Linux it says it doesn't process your credentials or tokens. On phones, instant push sends your token or encrypted credentials and parts of each new email through its servers, and the free phone apps show Google ads.

Does BlueMail have ads?

The free BlueMail apps for Android and iOS show ads from Google's advertising services, per its privacy policy. The policy names no ads in the Mac, Windows or Linux apps.

Does BlueMail's GemAI send my emails to an AI company?

Yes, when you use it. BlueMail's policy says the relevant email goes through its servers to a generative AI provider, and it lists OpenAI among its service providers. It says it doesn't keep the email or the answer.

Is there a BlueMail alternative for Linux?

Thunderbird and Mailspring both run on Linux and are free. Alrighty, Apple Mail, Canary and Spark don't run on Linux.

Is BlueMail free on Mac?

Yes. The Personal plan is "Free forever" with unlimited email accounts. GemAI needs the Plus plan.