Alrighty vs eM Client for Mac

Pick eM Client if you need a calendar, contacts and tasks in your mail app, POP or Exchange accounts, a phone app, or an Intel Mac. Pick Alrighty if your mail is iCloud, Gmail and Outlook, and you want junk stopped and search that finds what you remember. eM Client runs on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. Alrighty runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, with no phone app.

This page is for a Mac user choosing between the two. The facts about eM Client come from its own pricing, help, AI and release pages, as of November 2026. Alrighty is our app.

Alrighty vs eM Client at a glance

	Alrighty	eM Client
Macs	Apple silicon	Apple silicon and Intel
Other platforms	Windows, Linux	Windows, Android, iOS
Accounts	iCloud, Gmail, Outlook and Microsoft 365 only	IMAP, POP3, Exchange, Gmail, iCloud, Office 365, Outlook.com and others
Calendar, contacts, tasks	No	Yes
Price	14-day trial with no card, then Free plan or Pro	Free (2 accounts, home use); Personal $49.95/yr or $74.95 once
Where mail is kept and searched	Your computer; answers to questions use its server	Your device; AI search uses OpenAI
Unwanted mail	Stop mail, Clean up, Filters, phishing checks	Blacklist by address or domain, rules
AI	Your own AI off until you connect it; reply drafts and Clean up run when signed in	AI Add-on with OpenAI on the yearly plans; on or off by default not stated

Does eM Client run on a Mac with Apple silicon?

Yes. eM Client's release history lists "ARM and x64 support" in version 11.0.1054.0 on October 8, 2026, and the newest Mac build, 11.0.1389.0, came out on October 26, 2026. Its pages we read don't state a minimum macOS version.

Alrighty also runs on Apple silicon Macs. It doesn't run on Intel Macs. It downloads a search model of about 350 MB the first time it opens.

The bigger platform gap is the phone. eM Client's pricing page says its Android and iOS apps "do not need a license and are free to use." Alrighty runs on Windows and Linux as well as the Mac, but has no iPhone, Android or web app. If you read mail on your phone, you need a second app with Alrighty.

Is eM Client or Alrighty cheaper?

It depends on how many accounts you have and whether you use the app for work. eM Client's free plan is "Home use on 1 device" with 2 email accounts, and its plan table lists commercial use as none. Alrighty has a 14-day trial with no card, then a Free plan or Pro.

eM Client's paid plans, from its pricing page on November 8, 2026:

• Personal, yearly: $49.95 a year, for one person on up to 3 devices, with unlimited accounts and "AI Add-on included ($30.00 value)."
• Personal, one-time: $74.95. The page doesn't list the AI Add-on for this option.
• Business: priced per device, with a commercial license. One device shows as $59.95 a year or $89.95 once.

Paid plans have a "30-day free trial & 30-day money-back guarantee."

Alrighty's Free plan has a small monthly AI allowance and no sorting into groups. Pro adds both. Pro's price isn't published yet, so we can't compare it with eM Client's numbers. Alrighty shows no ads on any plan.

If you want to pay once and never subscribe, eM Client is the one that offers it.

Which accounts does each app support?

eM Client takes more kinds of accounts. Its FAQ says it "supports all standard mailing services that synchronize items through the IMAP protocol," plus POP3, and Exchange Web Services "for MS Exchange and Outlook.com accounts." It names Gmail, Apple iCloud, Office 365, Outlook.com and Microsoft Exchange.

Alrighty takes three providers. iCloud connects with an app-specific password. Gmail connects with Sign in with Google or an app password, through the Gmail API. Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live and Microsoft 365 connect with Sign in with Microsoft, through Microsoft Graph. It can't add Yahoo, AOL, Fastmail, a POP account, an on-premises Exchange server or any other IMAP provider.

So if one of your accounts is a company Exchange server or an old POP mailbox, Alrighty can't take it, and eM Client can.

Does eM Client have a calendar? Does Alrighty?

eM Client does, and Alrighty doesn't. eM Client lists "Calendar, Tasks & Notes" on its home page, and its FAQ says it syncs calendars, contacts and tasks over CalDAV, CardDAV, EWS and AirSync. It also turns "a date in a message" into an event.

Alrighty is mail only. You keep using Calendar or another app for your schedule. For many eM Client users this is the deciding row, so be sure before you switch.

How does each stop spam and unwanted mail?

eM Client blocks; Alrighty unsubscribes and blocks in one step. In eM Client you use Move to Junk, then blacklist the address or the whole domain. eM Client's own post on junk mail says the list now lives in Menu, Mail, Blacklist and Whitelist, and that spam filtering itself is done by your mail server. To unsubscribe, it says you can "reach out to the junk email sender or unsubscribe," which means doing it yourself, message by message.

Alrighty treats unwanted mail as its first job:

• Stop mail. One action ends a sender's mail. It unsubscribes in every way the message offers (one-click, an email to the list, or the list's page), archives their mail, and moves their new mail out as it arrives. It unsubscribes only from senders whose mail passed DMARC, so a scammer never learns your address is live.
• 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.
• Filters. For mail that comes from a new sender each time, like cold sales, describe it in your words or set rules. New Inbox mail that fits moves to Archive. Mail from people you wrote to is never moved.
• Phishing checks. A sure phishing message goes to Junk. A likely one stays with a warning.

Alrighty doesn't screen first-time senders. A new sender's mail lands in your Inbox, and you stop the ones you don't want. Stopped mail goes to Archive, not Junk. For the steps in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail, see how to block a sender.

Which has better search?

Both let you search in plain words, but they work differently. eM Client's "natural language search" takes what you type "in a normal sentence" and "turns it into the right search terms," and it's part of the AI tools on its home page. Its AI help page says text for AI features goes to OpenAI.

Alrighty's search runs on your computer. It matches meaning as well as words, so "when is my flight" finds the airline's confirmation, and one search covers every account. You can also ask a question and get the answer with the emails it came from. That answer is the part that leaves your computer: the emails it reads go through Alrighty's server to OpenAI.

What AI does each have, and is it on by default?

eM Client sells AI as an add-on. Its AI page lists AI Assistant, Reply with AI, AI Writing Composer, AI Summarize, natural language search and AI rule creation. "The current Provider of AI for eM Client is OpenAI," and its home page says you can "connect your own custom AI provider." Some features run when you open a message: "when you open a message, its content is sent for analysis." It says this data "is not stored or logged by eM Client anywhere." You turn AI off in Menu, Settings, Artificial Intelligence, General. Its pages don't say whether AI starts on or off.

Alrighty has no single AI switch, so here is what runs when:

• Your own AI. Claude, ChatGPT's desktop app, Codex, Cursor, VS Code or a local model can read and search your mail through a server on your computer. It's off until you turn it on with Connect AI. That AI can also work in a window of its own while you watch, and nothing sends until you click Send.
• Suggested replies. When you're signed in, opening a reply starts a draft in your voice, written from up to 12 of your sent emails. It's always a draft. Ask for a change in your words, or click Shorten, Warmer or Formalize.
• Clean up. When you're signed in, it sorts senders in the background. For each sender it sends the address and up to 3 of their newest emails to Alrighty's server.

Signed out, nothing goes to Alrighty's server. Usage data goes to PostHog by default, never mail content, and Share usage data in Settings turns it off.

The difference in short: eM Client puts AI writing tools inside the app. Alrighty connects the AI you already pay for, such as Claude or ChatGPT, to your mail. Our page on the email app for Claude and ChatGPT covers that setup.

What does eM Client do better?

eM Client does more in one app. It has:

• A calendar, contacts, tasks and notes.
• POP3, Exchange and any IMAP account.
• Free iPhone and Android apps.
• A one-time license.
• Message encryption, listed on its home page.
• Imports from Outlook, Thunderbird and data files, per its FAQ.
• A long record. Its blog announced the Mac version in January 2019.

Alrighty is new, with no long track record. Its edge is narrow on purpose: unwanted mail that stops, search that finds what you mean, and your own AI in your mail with Send in your hands.

Which should you pick?

• iCloud, Gmail and Outlook, with junk stopped and better search: Alrighty.
• Claude or ChatGPT reading your mail, with nothing sent until you click Send: Alrighty.
• Calendar, contacts and tasks in your mail app: eM Client.
• POP, Exchange server or another IMAP provider: eM Client.
• A phone app, or an Intel Mac: eM Client.
• Pay once: eM Client.

If neither fits, our eM Client alternatives page compares seven more apps, and best email apps for Mac covers the wider field. See everything Alrighty does, or browse more comparisons.

Questions

Can I use eM Client's free plan for work?

No. The free plan is "Home use on 1 device" and its plan table lists commercial use as none. The Business plan, priced per device, includes a commercial license.

Does eM Client send my email to OpenAI?

Only for its AI features. eM Client says it "never retrieves and has no access to the content of your emails" (privacy policy). Its AI features send the text they work on, and the message you open for on-display features, to OpenAI unless you connect your own provider.

Will I lose mail if I move from eM Client to Alrighty?

Not from an iCloud, Gmail or Outlook account. That mail stays with Apple, Google or Microsoft, and Alrighty downloads its copy when you add the account. Mail from a POP account, which lives only on your computer, won't come across, because Alrighty can't add POP. Your eM Client calendar and tasks stay in eM Client.

Can I keep eM Client on my iPhone and use Alrighty on my Mac?

Yes. Both read the same accounts from your provider, so mail you archive or delete in one shows up that way in the other. eM Client's phone apps are free and need no license.