Postbox alternatives now that Postbox has ended
Postbox is no longer sold or developed. These Postbox alternatives for Mac are mapped to the Postbox features you used, from Quick Bar to Topics.
By Emmett Miller
Postbox is no longer sold, developed or supported, so the best Postbox alternative depends on the Postbox features you relied on. Alrighty is the pick if your accounts are iCloud, Gmail and Outlook and you want one inbox on your Mac, with junk stopped and search that finds things. eM Client is the replacement Postbox itself points to, and it imports your Postbox accounts and rules. Thunderbird is free and comes from the same Mozilla code Postbox used. MailMate is for keyboard-driven IMAP power users. Apple Mail is free and built in.
Most Postbox alternative lists are written by a mail app that ranks itself first. None of them quotes what Postbox actually said when it closed, or matches Postbox's power features (the Quick Bar, Topics, Responses, Domain Fencing) to the apps that have them now. This page does both.
How we checked
We read Postbox's own site, blog and help center, and each other app's own product, pricing and privacy pages, on November 4, 2026. Every fact about another product links to its source. For each app we noted which Postbox features it has, what it costs, which accounts it takes, and where it keeps your mail. "Not stated" means the vendor's pages we read don't say; it does not mean the app can't. Alrighty is our app, and it's listed first.
What happened to Postbox?
eM Client bought Postbox in October 2024 and ended it. Postbox's announcement, dated October 22, 2024, says: "If you love using Postbox, you can continue using it. However, Postbox will no longer be sold or developed."
Its FAQ adds the dates:
- Support ran until December 22, 2024. "Postbox, Inc. will cease operations on December 22, 2024."
- The help center was to stay online until December 22, 2025. We could still open it in November 2026.
- "Your Postbox Lifetime License is valid for the Postbox product and will never expire," and you can keep using it "provided your operating system and email providers remain compatible."
- "Can I still buy Postbox? No, Postbox is no longer for sale."
The discount for Postbox users moving to eM Client ended on January 31, 2025.
Can you keep using Postbox?
You can, but each year it gets riskier. Postbox's system requirements list "macOS 10.13 through 15," so no newer macOS is listed. The last entry in its release notes is 7.0.65, a "Maintenance release for Postbox EOL." The entries before it are sign-in fixes, such as "Fixed an issue with Yahoo account authentication" and "Fixed an issue that could cause some Microsoft accounts to fail during account authentication."
That's the pattern to watch. Providers change how apps sign in, and an app that no one updates stops connecting. When Gmail, Microsoft or Yahoo next changes its sign-in, no Postbox fix will follow.
Each Postbox feature, and who has it
Postbox's features page is still up. These are the features it listed as its own, and where you'll find each one now.
| Postbox feature | Alrighty | eM Client | Thunderbird | MailMate | Apple Mail |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quick Bar: move, copy, tag by typing | No | Quick Actions | Not stated | Extensive keyboard control | Not stated |
| Topics (tags) | Groups you describe | Not stated | Tags | Tagging | Not stated |
| Filters and rules | Filters, by rule or described | AI rule creation | Filters | Not stated | Rules |
| Account Groups and a unified view | One inbox for all accounts | Not stated | Unified inbox | Not stated | All accounts |
| Reminders and pinning | No | Snooze and Pin | Not stated | Not stated | Follow-up nudge after 3 days |
| Smart Folders | No | Not stated | Not stated | Smart mailboxes | Not stated |
| Responses (canned replies) | No; suggested replies with AI instead | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| One-click unsubscribe | Stop mail | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Unsubscribe banner |
| Fast search, including attachments | Search by meaning, on your Mac | Natural language search | Not stated | Advanced search conditions | Search by meaning |
| Encryption (OpenPGP) | No | PGP | Not stated on its home page | OpenPGP and S/MIME | Not stated |
| Domain Fencing | No | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
Domain Fencing warned you before you sent work mail from a personal account. None of the apps here describes the same thing on the pages we read.
Postbox alternatives at a glance
| App | Price | Runs on | Accounts | Where your mail is kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alrighty | 14-day trial with no card, then Free or Pro | Mac (Apple silicon), Windows, Linux | iCloud, Gmail, Outlook only | Your computer |
| eM Client | Free for home use; $49.95 a year or $74.95 once | Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android | Gmail, Exchange, iCloud, Outlook and more | Your device |
| Thunderbird | Free | Mac, Windows, Linux, Android | Not listed on its home page | Your device |
| MailMate | $10 every 3 months | Mac | IMAP only | Not stated |
| Apple Mail | Comes with macOS | Mac, iPhone, iPad | iCloud, Gmail, Exchange and other | Your Mac |
Alrighty: best Postbox alternative for iCloud, Gmail and Outlook
Alrighty is a mail app for Mac, Windows and Linux that puts iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts in one inbox. It is not a Postbox clone. Postbox gave you tools to file mail faster. Alrighty tries to keep the mail you'd file from arriving at all.
- Stop mail, in place of the Unsubscribe link. Postbox showed an Unsubscribe link when a message offered one. Stop mail ends a sender's mail in one action: it unsubscribes 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. Postbox's Subscription View grouped those senders. Clean up also tells you which ones to drop.
- Filters, without the filter editor. Some mail comes from a new sender each time, like cold sales. Describe that kind of mail in your words or set rules, and new Inbox mail that fits moves to Archive. Rules match on your Mac. Mail from people you wrote to is never moved.
- Groups, in place of Topics. On Pro, you name a group and describe it in a sentence, and Alrighty's AI files new Inbox mail that fits into it.
- Search that finds what you remember. It runs on your Mac and matches meaning as well as words: "when is my flight" finds the airline's confirmation. Ask a question and get the answer with the emails it came from.
- Your own AI. 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 iCloud, Google or Microsoft, and Alrighty keeps its copy and its search index on your Mac. Your passwords and sign-ins stay there too, encrypted with a key from your system's keychain. Alrighty's AI features (answers, suggested replies, sorting into groups, Clean up, described filters) send only the emails they need to its server, which asks an AI model. Signed out, nothing goes to Alrighty's server.
Price. A 14-day trial with no card, then a Free plan or Pro. There's no one-time purchase like Postbox's lifetime license.
What it can't do. Postbox took POP3 and IMAP accounts from any provider it could reach, and its release notes fix sign-in for Yahoo and GoDaddy. Alrighty can't add those: it takes iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts only, with no POP or other IMAP. It has no Quick Bar, no reminders or pins, no smart folders, no canned responses, no encryption and no Domain Fencing. It has no iPhone app and no calendar. It's a new app with no long track record.
Pick it if your Postbox accounts were iCloud, Gmail and Outlook, and you'd rather have the junk stopped than file it faster.
eM Client: the replacement Postbox points to
eM Client bought Postbox and built a way across. Its migration page says: "With Postbox installed, you will be able to select it here." You pick the accounts to bring over, and "You can also import compatible settings and rules." Later imports are in Menu, File, Import.
- Postbox features it has. Its home page lists Inbox Categories, Quick Actions, Snooze & Pin, Watch for replies, message encryption, and a calendar, tasks and notes. Postbox's FAQ adds PGP, delayed sending and undo send.
- AI, if you want it. Reply with AI, AI Summarize, natural language search and AI rule creation, through eM Client's AI Add-on or "your own custom AI provider."
- Accounts. Postbox's FAQ says eM Client supports "Gmail, Exchange, iCloud, and Outlook." It runs on Windows, macOS, iPhone and Android.
Price. Free is "Home use on 1 device" with 2 email accounts. Personal is $49.95 a year, with the AI Add-on included, or $74.95 once with lifetime upgrades and no AI Add-on. Business is $25.10 a device a year for 10 devices (pricing). Paid plans have a 30-day free trial.
Where your mail goes. eM Client's privacy policy says it "never retrieves and has no access to the content of your emails." Its AI features send the message you're working on to the AI provider.
What it can't do. The free plan is for home use only, with 2 accounts. The one-time purchase leaves out the AI Add-on. Our eM Client alternatives page covers what people miss in it.
Pick it if you want the move done for you, with your Postbox accounts and rules imported, on Mac and Windows.
Thunderbird: best free alternative, closest to how Postbox worked
Thunderbird is the free, open-source app Postbox grew from. Postbox's own release notes record "Incorporated Mozilla Firefox security updates" and work to make a Thunderbird add-on run in Postbox. So menus, folders and filters will feel familiar.
Thunderbird is an "email, calendar, and contacts app for Windows, Linux, and macOS," and it's "Free forever" (Thunderbird). It lets you "Filter and organize the way you like" and "Manage all accounts separately or in a unified inbox," which covers Postbox's Account Groups. Its home page quotes a user who loves "the tag feature," the nearest thing to Postbox's Topics.
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. It advertises no AI, and there's no iPhone app on its download page. Postbox's polish, such as the Quick Bar and Responses with placeholders, isn't described on its home page. Our Thunderbird alternatives page covers why some people leave it.
Pick it if you want free, a calendar, and the closest thing to Postbox's Mozilla base, on Mac, Windows or Linux.
MailMate: best for Postbox's keyboard power users
MailMate is the Mac app for people who used Postbox's Quick Bar and filters every day. It's "an IMAP email client for macOS featuring extensive keyboard control, Markdown integrated email composition, advanced search conditions," "equally advanced smart mailboxes," "OpenPGP and S/MIME," and tagging (MailMate).
Price. "$10 every 3 months" in Paid Mode (pricing). There's a Free Mode with all features, but outgoing mail shows "MailMate Free Mode" as the mail client, and it's not meant for business use.
What it can't do. It's IMAP only and Mac only, so POP accounts are out, and it advertises no AI. Its download page calls the public release "The more than 4 year old public release"; new work ships as betas.
Pick it if you want smart mailboxes, tags, encryption and the keyboard for everything, and your accounts all speak IMAP.
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 sorts mail into Primary, Transactions, Updates and Promotions, has rules, lets you unsubscribe "directly in Mail," and blocks up to 3,000 senders (Apple). If you don't hear back on a message in 3 days, it can bring the sent email back to the top of your inbox (Apple).
What it can't do. No Windows app, and none of Postbox's composing tools such as Responses and Clips. Its search depends on Spotlight and can miss mail you can see; our Apple Mail search guide has the fixes.
Pick it if you used Postbox mostly to read mail, and you want free and built in.
Before you leave Postbox
- Mail on the server moves itself. If your accounts are IMAP, Exchange, Gmail or Outlook, your mail lives with the provider. Add the account in the new app and it appears.
- Mail in local folders doesn't. Postbox could keep mail only on your Mac, in Local Folders or POP3 accounts, as its release notes show. eM Client's importer reads Postbox directly. For another app, move those folders into an IMAP account in Postbox first, while Postbox still connects.
- Write down what doesn't import. Responses, signatures, Topics and Domain Fencing settings are Postbox's own. Copy the text of the ones you use.
For the wider field, see our best email apps for Mac.
How to choose
- iCloud, Gmail and Outlook in one inbox on a Mac, junk stopped, search that finds things: Alrighty.
- The move done for you, with accounts and rules imported, on Mac and Windows: eM Client.
- Free, open source, the same Mozilla roots, with a calendar: Thunderbird.
- Keyboard, smart mailboxes, tags and encryption, IMAP only: MailMate.
- Free and built in: Apple Mail.
Questions
Is Postbox discontinued?
Yes. Postbox was acquired by eM Client in October 2024, and its announcement says it "will no longer be sold or developed." Support ended on December 22, 2024. Postbox, Inc. ceased operations the same day.
Does Postbox still work?
Your license never expires, and Postbox says you can keep using it while your system and mail providers stay compatible. Its requirements list macOS 10.13 through 15, and it gets no more fixes, so a change to how Gmail, Microsoft or Yahoo signs in can stop it connecting.
What did Postbox recommend instead?
eM Client, the company that bought it. eM Client has a built-in importer that finds Postbox on your Mac and brings over your accounts, plus compatible settings and rules.
Can I import my Postbox mail into Thunderbird or Apple Mail?
Mail kept on an IMAP, Exchange, Gmail or Outlook server appears when you add the account to the new app. Mail kept only on your Mac, in local folders or POP accounts, is harder: eM Client imports from Postbox directly, and for other apps you can move those folders into an IMAP account in Postbox first.
Is there a free Postbox alternative for Mac?
Thunderbird and Apple Mail are free. eM Client has a free plan for home use with 2 accounts. Alrighty has a Free plan after its 14-day trial.