Alrighty vs Apple Mail

Apple Mail is the right pick if you want a free mail app that comes with your Mac, also runs on your iPhone, and takes more kinds of account. Alrighty is the pick if your mail is in iCloud, Gmail or Outlook, and you want search that finds what you remember and one action that stops a sender for good. Many people can use both: Alrighty reads the same accounts, so Apple Mail on your iPhone still sees the same mail.

The facts about Apple Mail below come from Apple's own Mail guide for macOS 27, as of November 2026. Alrighty is our app.

How do Alrighty and Apple Mail compare?

	Alrighty	Apple Mail
Devices	Mac (Apple silicon), Windows, Linux	Mac, iPhone and iPad
Accounts	iCloud, Gmail, Outlook and Microsoft 365	iCloud, Gmail, Exchange, school, work "or other"
Price	14-day trial with no card, then Free or Pro	Comes with macOS
Where mail is kept and searched	Your provider, plus a copy and search index on your computer	Your provider; search relies on Spotlight on your Mac
Search	Matches meaning as well as words, with its own index; ask a question	Matches "what you mean, not just the words you type"
Unwanted mail	Stop mail, Clean up, Filters, phishing checks	Unsubscribe in the message, block up to 3,000 senders, categories, junk filter
AI	Reply drafts when signed in; your own AI is off until you connect it	Apple Intelligence summaries under each unread email, Smart Reply
Where AI runs	Alrighty's server, which asks OpenAI and other model companies	On your Mac, or Apple's Private Cloud Compute

Is Apple Mail free, and what does Alrighty cost?

Apple Mail comes with macOS and costs nothing extra. One privacy feature costs money: Hide My Email, which gives you a random address for sign-ups, "Requires iCloud+" (Apple).

Alrighty has a 14-day trial with no card. After the trial you keep a Free plan or move to Pro. The Free plan has a small monthly AI allowance and doesn't sort mail into groups. Pro has both. There are no ads on either plan.

Which accounts work in each app?

Apple Mail takes more kinds of account. Apple says you can add "iCloud, Gmail (Google), Exchange, school, work, or other" accounts (Apple). You start by typing any email address, so the list isn't limited to the providers Apple names.

Alrighty takes three providers. iCloud connects with an app-specific password (setup). Gmail connects with Sign in with Google or an app password. Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live and Microsoft 365 connect with Sign in with Microsoft. It can't add Yahoo, AOL, Fastmail or other IMAP accounts. If one of your accounts is in that list, Apple Mail is the better fit.

Both apps show every account in one inbox. In Apple Mail, you add the All Inboxes mailbox to your Favorites "to access all your inboxes for multiple accounts at once" (Apple). In Alrighty, the merged inbox is the default view.

Why does Apple Mail search miss emails, and how does Alrighty search?

Apple Mail search has improved on paper. Apple's guide says "Mail can provide search results based on what you mean, not just the words you type," and you can search "any or all mailboxes" with filters such as "from:" (Apple). What's new in macOS 27 lists "Expanded Search Results" as well (Apple).

The common complaint is that Mail misses an email you can see on screen. Mail relies on Spotlight, and Apple lists "A notification from Mail that indexing is incomplete" as a sign that Spotlight is still indexing (Apple). When the index is incomplete, results are too. Our guide to Apple Mail search not working walks through Apple's fixes in order, from Search all mailboxes to a rebuild.

Alrighty keeps its own search index on your computer, separate from Spotlight. Search matches meaning as well as words, so "when is my flight" finds the airline's confirmation even when the email never says "flight." One search covers every account. You can also ask a question in plain words and get the answer with the emails it came from. Search itself runs on your computer. Answering a question does not: the emails it reads go through Alrighty's server to OpenAI. The search model is about 350 MB, and Alrighty downloads it on first launch.

How do they handle newsletters and junk?

Apple Mail gives you several separate tools, each for one message or one sender at a time (Apple):

• Unsubscribe. On mailing-list mail, "you can easily unsubscribe from the list directly in Mail."
• Block Sender. "You can block up to 3,000 senders," and you manage the list in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Blocked Contacts. Mail can move blocked mail to the Trash.
• Junk filter. "The default settings catch most of the junk mail you receive," and it learns each time you mark a message as junk or not junk.
• Categories. Mail sorts mail into Primary, Transactions, Updates and Promotions, though this is "not available in all countries or regions" (Apple).

Alrighty puts this into one action. Stop mail unsubscribes every way the message offers (one-click, an email to the list, or the list's web page), archives the sender's mail, and moves new mail from them out as it arrives. It unsubscribes only from senders whose mail passed DMARC and wasn't marked spam, so a scammer never learns your address is live. Clean up lists the senders you likely don't want, such as scams, cold outreach and newsletters you never open, so you can stop them all at once instead of one message at a time. Filters catch a kind of mail that comes from a new sender each time, like cold sales pitches. A sure phishing message goes to Junk, and a likely one stays with a warning.

What Alrighty doesn't do: it doesn't screen first-time senders. A new sender's first email lands in your Inbox, and you stop the ones you don't want. Stopped mail goes to Archive, not Junk. Clean up also sends each sender's address and up to 3 of their newest emails to Alrighty's server, where an AI model sorts them. Apple's tools work in the app. If you only want to block a few senders, see how to block a sender in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail.

Does Apple Intelligence or Alrighty's AI read my mail?

Both apps have AI that reads your mail, and they send it to different places.

Apple Mail. With Apple Intelligence on, "A short summary automatically appears under each unread email in your inbox," and you can turn summaries off in Mail > Settings > Viewing. Smart Reply suggests replies, and "Apple Intelligence drafts a reply in the email" (Apple). Priority Messages shows your most urgent emails (Apple). Apple says its models can "run entirely on device," and larger requests go to Private Cloud Compute, where the data "is not stored or made accessible to Apple" (Apple). Apple Intelligence "is not available in all languages or regions."

Alrighty. There's no single AI switch. When you're signed in, opening a reply starts a suggested draft in your voice, written from up to 12 of the emails you sent before and the conversation itself. It's always a draft, and you send it. You can ask for a change in your own words, or click Shorten, Warmer or Formalize. Clean up also sorts senders in the background. These features send the emails they need through Alrighty's server to OpenAI and other model companies. Signed out, nothing goes to Alrighty's server.

Your own AI. This is the part Apple Mail has no answer for. Alrighty runs a local MCP server, so Claude, ChatGPT's desktop app, Codex, Cursor or a local model can read and search your mail. It's off until you turn it on with Connect AI (setup). The AI can also work in a window you watch: open mail, write replies, file messages. Nothing sends until you click Send. To get an AI into Apple Mail itself, see our page on Apple Mail MCP servers.

What does Apple Mail do better than Alrighty?

• It's on your iPhone and iPad. Apple's setup page covers adding the same accounts on iPhone and iPad. Alrighty has no iPhone, iPad or web app.
• It takes more accounts. Apple Mail adds Exchange, school, work "or other" accounts. Alrighty can't add Yahoo, AOL, Fastmail or other IMAP accounts.
• It costs nothing. Alrighty has a Free plan, but Pro is paid.
• Its AI can stay on your Mac. Apple Intelligence runs on device first. Alrighty's reply drafts and Clean up always go to its server.
• It has a long track record. Alrighty is new.

Both hide your computer's address from images in an email. Apple's Mail Privacy Protection downloads remote content "privately in the background" (Apple). Alrighty loads images through a proxy with no cookies. In both, the sender can still tell the mail was opened.

Can I use Alrighty and Apple Mail together?

Yes. Your mail stays with iCloud, Google or Microsoft, and both apps read it from there. A message you archive or delete in Alrighty shows up the same way in Apple Mail on your iPhone, because the change happens in your account. Many people keep Apple Mail on the phone and use Alrighty on their computer. If you're weighing other Mac apps too, see our Apple Mail alternatives.

Which should you pick?

• Search and junk are why you're unhappy with Mail, and your accounts are iCloud, Gmail or Outlook: Alrighty.
• You want Claude or ChatGPT to read and work in your mail: Alrighty.
• You want one free app on your Mac and iPhone: Apple Mail.
• You have an account outside iCloud, Gmail and Outlook, or a Mac without Apple silicon: Apple Mail.
• You want AI that runs on your device first: Apple Mail with Apple Intelligence.

See every feature on the features page, or browse more comparisons.

Questions

Is Alrighty a replacement for Apple Mail?

With iCloud, Gmail or Outlook accounts, yes. On a Mac, it needs Apple silicon. It reads, searches, writes and files mail across all of them in one inbox. It can't replace Apple Mail on your iPhone, and it can't add Yahoo, Fastmail or other IMAP accounts.

Does Alrighty work with my iCloud email?

Yes. You connect iCloud with an app-specific password that you make at Apple's account site. Alrighty keeps that password on your computer, encrypted with a key from your system's keychain, and no Alrighty server holds it.

Does Apple Mail have a way to unsubscribe from everything at once?

Apple's guide describes unsubscribing "directly in Mail" one mailing list at a time, and blocking one sender at a time. It doesn't describe a list of all your subscriptions. Alrighty's Clean up lists the senders you likely don't want so you can stop them together.

Will my Apple Mail rules and blocked senders carry over to Alrighty?

No. Apple Mail rules live in Mail, and blocked senders live in System Settings on your Mac. Alrighty uses its own Stop mail and Filters, so you set those up again in Alrighty.