Thunderbird alternatives for Mac, free and paid

The best Thunderbird alternative for Mac is Alrighty if your accounts are iCloud, Gmail and Outlook and you want one inbox, search that finds what you mean, and one-click ways to stop unwanted mail. Apple Mail is the free choice that comes with your Mac. Mailspring is the free alternative for IMAP accounts such as Yahoo or Fastmail. Betterbird is Thunderbird with extra fixes. Canary and Spark are for people who also need an iPhone app.

Thunderbird is a good app. It's free, it's open source, and it keeps your mail on your computer. So before you switch, it helps to know exactly what you want that Thunderbird doesn't give you. This page starts there, then names what each alternative can't do, including the accounts it can't add. Most lists of Thunderbird alternatives skip that.

How we checked

We read each app's own pricing, help and privacy pages on November 3, 2026, and every fact links to its source. For Thunderbird we read Mozilla's privacy notice, release notes and Exchange page. For each alternative we noted what it costs, which accounts it takes, which computers it runs on, and where it keeps your mail and logins. Alrighty is our app, and it's listed first.

What Thunderbird does well

Thunderbird is "Free forever," open source, and lets you "manage all accounts separately or in a unified inbox" (Thunderbird). Mozilla's privacy notice says "your email messages, and your account's address book are stored and processed locally on your device," and that OAuth sign-in "occur[s] directly between Thunderbird and the respective service provider." It's also kept up to date: version 159.0 was released on October 27, 2026 (release notes).

If those are the things you care about most, any app you switch to should match them. Several on this list do.

Why people look for a Thunderbird alternative on a Mac

These are the reasons that come from Mozilla's own pages, not from opinion.

• No iPhone app. Thunderbird's mobile app is for Android, from Google Play and F-Droid. Its mobile page doesn't mention an iPhone app. If you read mail on an iPhone, you need a second app there.
• Telemetry. The privacy notice says "Thunderbird sends telemetry about your interactions with Thunderbird to us," such as "whether calendars and filters are being used, and how many email accounts a user has." The notice links to steps to turn it off.
• Exchange is still arriving. Thunderbird added Exchange through EWS in version 141. Mozilla's Exchange page says "Microsoft Graph will be available in the future" and "Calendar and address book will follow at a later date."
• Account setup contacts Mozilla. To find your server settings, "your email domain may be sent to Mozilla's configuration database" (privacy notice). Your full address isn't.
• No AI features. Thunderbird says it doesn't "secretly train AI with your private conversations," and its home page lists no AI features. Some people want exactly that. Others want an AI that can help with their mail.
• One app for three systems. Thunderbird is built for Windows, macOS and Linux. Some Mac users want an app made only for the Mac.

The alternatives at a glance

App	Price	Accounts it takes	Runs on	Where mail and logins are kept
Alrighty	14-day trial, then Free or Pro	iCloud, Gmail and Outlook only	Mac (Apple silicon), Windows, Linux	Your Mac
Apple Mail	Comes with macOS	iCloud, Gmail, Exchange, other	Mac	Your Mac
Mailspring	Free; Pro $8/mo or $85/yr	Gmail, iCloud, Office 365, Yahoo, IMAP	Mac, Windows, Linux	Your Mac, except Pro metadata
Betterbird	Donations; no price stated	Thunderbird's accounts	Mac, Windows, Linux	Not stated on its site
Canary Mail	Free; $36/yr or $100/yr	Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Exchange, IMAP	Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Android	Your device, except push on phones
Spark	Free; Plus $99/yr, Pro $199/yr	Google, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo, IMAP	Mac, iPhone, Windows, Android	Spark's servers for some features
eM Client	Free (2 accounts); $49.95/yr	Google, Microsoft, iCloud, Exchange	Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android	Your device, except push
Outlook	Free with ads	Microsoft 365, Gmail, iCloud, IMAP, POP	Mac	Not stated
MailMate	$10 per 3 months, or Free Mode	IMAP only	Mac	Not stated
Thunderbird	Free	Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Exchange	Mac, Windows, Linux, Android	Your device

Alrighty, Mailspring, Betterbird, Canary, Spark and eM Client also run on Windows. Alrighty, Mailspring and Betterbird also run on Linux. Apple Mail and MailMate are Mac only.

Alrighty: best Thunderbird alternative for iCloud, Gmail and Outlook

Alrighty is a mail app that puts iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts in one inbox. Like Thunderbird, it keeps your copy of your mail on your Mac. Your mail stays with Apple, Google and Microsoft, and Alrighty keeps its copy and its search index on your Mac. Your sign-ins stay on your Mac too, encrypted with a key from your system's keychain. No Alrighty server holds them.

Each account connects the way its provider prefers: Gmail with Sign in with Google, Outlook and Microsoft 365 with Sign in with Microsoft, and iCloud with an app-specific password.

• Stop mail. One click ends a sender's mail for good. Alrighty unsubscribes in every way the message offers, moves their mail out of your inbox, and keeps their new mail out. You don't have to build a filter for it.
• 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.
• Phishing checks. A message that is surely phishing goes to Junk. A likely one stays in your inbox with a warning.
• Search that finds what you mean. Search 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. One search covers every account.
• The AI you choose. Claude, ChatGPT's desktop app, Codex, Cursor or a local model can read and search your mail, and can work in a window you watch. Nothing sends until you click Send. Suggested replies are drafts in your voice, and you send them.

Where your mail goes. Your own AI is off until you turn it on with Connect AI. When you're signed in, opening a reply starts a suggested draft, and Clean up sorts senders in the background. AI features send only the emails they need to Alrighty's server, which passes them to an AI model (OpenAI's for answers and replies).

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

What it can't do. This matters if you use Thunderbird with an IMAP account. Alrighty takes iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts only. It can't add Yahoo, AOL, Fastmail, a work IMAP server or a POP account. There's no iPhone app. It's a new app, with no long track record yet.

Pick it if your accounts are iCloud, Gmail and Outlook, you use a Mac with Apple silicon, and you want less junk and better search than you have now.

Apple Mail: best free Thunderbird alternative on a Mac

Apple Mail comes with macOS. You add "iCloud, Gmail (Google), Exchange, school, work, or other" accounts (Apple). It can unsubscribe you from mailing lists "directly in Mail," it has a junk filter that learns as you mark mail, and you can block up to 3,000 senders (Apple). Rules, much like Thunderbird's filters, "help you manage incoming email messages and automate tasks" (Apple).

AI. On macOS 27, Apple Intelligence can summarize mail and suggest replies. "A short summary automatically appears under each unread email in your inbox," and you can turn summaries off (Apple). Apple says these features are "not available in all languages or regions."

What it can't do. There's no Windows or Linux version. Its search depends on your Mac's Spotlight index and can miss mail you can see. Our Apple Mail search guide has the fixes. If Apple Mail is what you're leaving, see our Apple Mail alternatives.

Pick it if you want free and built in, and you use only Apple devices.

Mailspring: best free alternative for IMAP accounts

Mailspring supports "Gmail, iCloud, Office 365, FastMail, Outlook.com, Yahoo!, and IMAP/SMTP" (Mailspring). Like Thunderbird, it connects straight to your provider: "your email goes straight from your mail provider to your machine, not through our servers." It has "Lightning-fast search across all accounts." It's free on Mac, Windows and Linux. Pro is $8 a month or $85 a year, and adds read receipts, link tracking, send later, follow-up reminders and templates (pricing).

What to know. Pro features contact Mailspring's servers, and the stored metadata "may contain encoded recipient email addresses" (data collection). Its FAQ says "Mailspring supports IMAP only; POP3 support is not planned," and Exchange Web Services and ActiveSync aren't supported, though Microsoft 365 is. Gmail accounts with Google's Advanced Protection can't connect. It needs macOS 13 or later (release notes). We found no AI, unsubscribe or blocking tools on its pages.

Pick it if you have Yahoo, Fastmail or other IMAP accounts and want a free app that also runs on Windows and Linux.

Betterbird: best if you like Thunderbird but want fixes

Betterbird is "a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird" (Betterbird). Its site says it adds features and bug fixes that Thunderbird doesn't have, or doesn't have yet. Its newest version, 153.6.0esr-bb12, was released on October 27, 2026. Downloads include Mac builds for Intel and Apple silicon, plus Windows and Linux (downloads). The site asks for donations and states no price.

What to know. The download page says "Mac builds are not notarised." To open it on current macOS, you run a Terminal command that the page gives. Betterbird is English only unless you add a language pack. Because it's Thunderbird underneath, it has no iPhone app either.

Pick it if you want to keep Thunderbird's way of working, and you're happy to run a Terminal command to install it.

Canary Mail: best if you also need an iPhone app

Canary runs on "Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows, and Android" (Canary). Its free plan lists "Unlimited Mail Accounts" and a unified inbox, and paid plans are $36 or $100 a year (pricing). It works with Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Exchange and IMAP accounts (Canary), and offers 1-Click Unsubscribe.

Where your mail goes. Canary's privacy policy says your data is "stored on your device and is never transferred to our servers." The exception is push on iPhone and Android, where "Canary will temporarily store your email address, credentials, sender, subject line" on its server.

What to know. Its AI Copilot is on the paid Growth plan and up, not the free plan. Phishing and ransomware protection are on Pro+ only.

Pick it if you want one app on your Mac, iPhone and Windows PC with your mail kept on your devices.

Spark: best for every device, if you accept its servers

Spark works with IMAP, iCloud, Exchange, Outlook, Yahoo and Google accounts (Spark), and its free plan includes unlimited accounts (pricing). It runs on Mac, iPhone, Windows and Android. Plus is $99 a year and Pro is $199 a year. Its Gatekeeper screens new senders so you can "accept or block any future contact" (Gatekeeper).

What Thunderbird users should know. Spark works differently from Thunderbird. Its privacy page says some features "require our server-side email processing to work." For custom IMAP accounts, Spark stores your login and password on its servers, encrypted. If you chose Thunderbird to keep your mail off other companies' servers, read that page first. Our Spark alternatives list compares the apps that don't do this.

Pick it if you need one app on every device, including iPhone and Android.

eM Client: best one-time purchase

eM Client runs on "Windows, macOS, Android and iOS" (eM Client). It names Google Workspace, Office 365, Outlook and Exchange, and its privacy policy names iCloud. The free plan is for "Home use on 1 device" with 2 email accounts. Personal is $49.95 a year with unlimited accounts and its AI Add-on, or $74.95 once without the AI Add-on (pricing).

Where your mail goes. eM Client "never retrieves and has no access to the content of your emails" (privacy policy). For push notifications it uses your "encrypted login and password or a special authorization token."

AI. Its AI features use OpenAI (eM Client AI). Features that work on the message you're viewing send "the content of the message you're viewing" to the AI provider. You can turn them off in Settings > Artificial Intelligence.

What it can't do. The free plan stops at two accounts and is for home use only. The one-time licence doesn't include AI.

Pick it if you want to pay once, and you want the same app on your phone. Our eM Client alternatives compare it further.

Outlook for Mac: best when work runs on Microsoft 365

Outlook for Mac is "Compatible with Microsoft 365, Outlook.com (including Hotmail and MSN), Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, iCloud, IMAP, and POP accounts" (Mac App Store). It's free for personal accounts. A Microsoft 365 subscription removes the ads. Work and school accounts need "a license assigned by your IT administrator" (Microsoft). It needs macOS 14 or later.

What to know. The free app shows ads. Its App Store privacy label lists "User Content" among the data "linked to your identity." Microsoft's feature table lists "Search across all items" as "Under Investigation" (Microsoft). It names POP accounts, which Mailspring doesn't support. See our Outlook alternatives for Mac.

Pick it if your work account is Microsoft 365 and you want your calendar in the same app. Thunderbird's Exchange calendar isn't there yet.

MailMate: best for keyboard-driven IMAP power users

MailMate is "an IMAP email client for macOS" with "advanced search and smart mailboxes" and OpenPGP and S/MIME (MailMate). Paid Mode is "$10 every 3 months." If you stop paying, it switches to a Free Mode that keeps "access to all features," but a business that relies on MailMate is required to pay (pricing).

What to know. Its download page calls the current stable version "The more than 4 year old public release" (download). Newer builds are betas. It's IMAP only and Mac only.

Pick it if you liked Thunderbird's power and want a Mac-only IMAP app that you drive from the keyboard.

How to choose

• iCloud, Gmail and Outlook on an Apple silicon Mac, less junk, better search: Alrighty.
• Free and built into your Mac: Apple Mail.
• Yahoo, Fastmail or other IMAP accounts, free: Mailspring.
• Thunderbird itself, with extra fixes: Betterbird.
• An iPhone app as well, mail kept on your devices: Canary.
• Every device, and you accept a vendor's servers: Spark.
• Pay once: eM Client.
• Microsoft 365 at work, with its calendar: Outlook.
• IMAP power use from the keyboard: MailMate.
• Free, open source, with any IMAP account: stay with Thunderbird.

For more free picks, see the best free email apps for Mac. If you juggle several accounts, see the best email app for multiple accounts. If you came to Thunderbird from Postbox, see our Postbox alternatives.

For a side-by-side of the two apps, see Alrighty vs Thunderbird.

Questions

What is the best free Thunderbird alternative for Mac?

Apple Mail is free and comes with macOS. Mailspring is free on Mac, Windows and Linux and takes IMAP accounts such as Yahoo and Fastmail. Betterbird is a Thunderbird build that asks for donations. Alrighty has a Free plan after its 14-day trial, for iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts.

Which Thunderbird alternatives also run on Windows and Linux?

Alrighty, Mailspring and Betterbird run on Mac, Windows and Linux. Canary, Spark and eM Client run on Mac and Windows, and none lists Linux. Apple Mail and MailMate are Mac only.

Is there a Thunderbird app for iPhone?

Thunderbird's mobile app is for Android, from Google Play and F-Droid. Its mobile page doesn't mention an iPhone app. Canary, Spark and eM Client have iPhone apps.

Can I move my IMAP accounts from Thunderbird to another app?

An IMAP account keeps its mail on your provider's server, so a new app downloads it again when you sign in. Mailspring, Canary, Spark, eM Client, Outlook and MailMate take IMAP accounts. Alrighty takes only iCloud, Gmail and Outlook, so it can't add a Yahoo, Fastmail or work IMAP account.