If you want the most basic email app you can download apps like Gmail, Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail entirely for free but there's a revolution of people who want a better, bolder email app that is customised and controlled by a 3rd party and like all things we love it.
Email clients and apps come in many shapes & sizes. Getting a powerful email client can help you get more done even it layers over the top of Gmail and Outlook. Let's explore the best email clients for getting more done and mastering that inbox of yours.
Best 6 Email Apps for 2024: Quick Glance
Our hand-picked recommendations from our independent reviewing:
- 1. Superhuman - One of the best in-class email apps on the market.
- 2. Spark Mail - Smart inbox combined with killer features from Readdle.
- 3. Missive - Great for solo users, amazing for collaborative email.
- 4. Spike Mail - Conversational email is a new take on email
- 5. Hey Email - A productivity-focused email with a focused inbox system.
- 6. Skiff - A secure email app that you'll get a free @skiff email domain with.
Why we picked these email apps?
Here's the criteria we had when it came to picking the email apps on this list. It is really important to us that we brought together a list that expelled these key values:
- Reliable Company - We list and pick the best apps for the job but ones from reliable companies that we have either been working with a long-time, or ones that have a good standing or company ethos, this is important to us.
- Go Beyond Basics - For our list of email apps, we picked ones that go beyond the basic nature of email management and that deliver something different than what the provider email service would bring to the table.
- Security is Important - Email apps are always a personal choice. Remember these emails apps bring in your emails from Gmail and other providers. So you need to make sure they meet your own security focus.
What is a 3rd party email client?
Think of 3rd party email clients as a layer of skin over the core email. Many of them use an experience like Gmail, Outlook or Apple Mail to build from as a provider and then produce custom features, looks and speed to help the user fall in love with their app above defaults.
There's so many to choose from - how do we best pick from the selection. Let's explore the best email clients in the list below and help you find the perfect email app for you.
1. Superhuman
Most Expensive, Best All Round
- Pricing: $30 per month, per user
- Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android
Why is Superhuman one of the best email apps?
Think of Superhuman as the premium email app on the market. Priced at $30 per month it will be out of budget for many people, but for those who tackle lots of email and want a superb email app on mobile and desktop, this could well be your best bet out there.
Superhuman focuses itself as the fastest way to handle email and you can tell this with the speed and performance of all apps they have, it really produces good speed and the other key selling point is that Superhuman has a command bar that once learnt can shave time.
Pros
- Stunning design and performance
- Fast once you've learnt the command bar
- Inbox time saving features like inbox filter, snooze and more.
Cons
- Comes with pricey monthly or yearly subscription
- Takes time to learn and master the command bar experience
If you're in the market for a fast email app and you spend between 2-3 hours plus a day, we'd be inclined for you to take a look at Superhuman as your next email app. If you don't spend that long, probably worth exploring the other less expensive options.
2. Spark Mail
Perfect for teams and individuals & developed by Readdle
- Pricing: Free, with pricing starting from $4.99 per month
- Platforms: Windows, iOS, Mac, Android
Why Spark Mail is one of the best email apps?
Spark Mail is probably the best all-round email client on the market. If you've not got the budget for Superhuman then actually Spark Mail is a gem to consider. Developed by Readdle who are well-known developers amongst productivity apps with a great credibility.
Now with more recent AI features, Spark Mail presents a focused experience that combines filtering for your inbox, smart sorting, cross-platform availability and a free subscription. Unified inbox, sync between devices and smart inbox are all core and staple features. The prioritisation features are more part of the premium subscription.
Pros
- Well-rated with 15M+ users worldwide
- Features like Send Later, Snooze, Reminders are part of free.
- Good focused experience inside Spark Mail Premium
Cons
- Many features are locked in Spark Mail Premium
A superb all-rounder for someone looking to upgrade their Gmail basic use and someone looking to get a more unified view of their inbox with some features for inbox management.
3. Missive
Collaborate & handle email together
- Pricing: Free with $14 per month pricing
- Platforms: Mac, Windows, Android, iOS
Why Missive is one of the best email apps?
Missive is a great option for solo users but more so for team users who are growing and want to collaborate on email as they go out. Missive is what's called a "collaborative email" where you and a team can work together on email, comment and even assign tasks too.
Missive does a brilliant job at a few things - a fast and functional inbox, unbelievably good customisation in settings for how Missive looks and works, great team collaboration functions like comments, tasks, assignments and powerful integrations with plenty of apps even apps like Todoist, OpenAI and more.
Francesco from our team used Missive in the past and found it super helpful. It is one of the email apps that if you scaled your team, adding people isn't invasive and there's ways that you can assign people to certain emails and collaborate well together. Equally it can used as a solo email client for one user.
Pros
- Great for expanding teams looking to collaborate on email
- Comes with an easy-to-use design and insane customisation
- Comes with integrations for managing all comms in one location
- One of the top rated email apps out there and 3,000 teams using it
Cons
- $14 per month, per user pricing limits you to 6 months email history
- Shared accounts are additional cost past 2 in free and past 5 in starter
Missive has a lot to like and if you're serious about email and spend lots of time in their as a team replying to support tickets, or handling customer issues or maybe want to get your workflow sorted. Missive could be for you. As a solo user, it is cheaper than Superhuman but still very steep as a solo email application.
4. Spike Mail
A New Fresh Type of Email Collaboration
- Pricing: Free and starts from $6 per user, per monht
- Platforms: Web, iOS, Android, Windows, Mac
Why Spike Mail is one of the best email apps?
Spike Mail wants to replace Slack and your email app all at the same time. A combo of conversational like messaging as you would see in WhatApp messages and email like threads is a strange thing to get used to, but Spike is a new take on email management.
Spike is what they call a "unified team collaboration tool" which in less fancy terms means they want you to do everything in here that relates to collaboration. So Spike handles your email, chats, notes and meetings now - this allows you to better manage things without jumping between applications. Before we move on, let's explain that in terms of features.
So in Spike, everything looks like a chat app but you can send emails, chat with team members if they use Spike too (in real-time), create notes and documents that you can (with team) collaborate on in real-time, same goes with meeting notes, and even do video and voice calls too. Spike basically don't want you to ever leave.
Pros
- Priority inbox with new AI features too
- Not leaving means Spike, less context-switching
- Groups, email, video meetings, docs, voice messages and calendar in one
Cons
- Overwhelming and not as beneficial for solo users
- Chat like function isn't for everyone sending emails externally
Think of Spike as the all-in-one team communication tool, it wants to handle everything Slack, email and other tools do like Google Docs in one base. It will likely save your team money per month as one subscription, one experience - but sometimes with these tools you miss out on specialist qualities. Worth exploring for small-medium sized teams.
5. Hey Email
Best Productivity Focused Email
- Pricing: $99 per year, no free
- Platforms: iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux
Why Hey Email is one of the best email apps?
Hey wants to change the way you think of email. Focusing more on quality than quantity and too right. The developers 37Signals have been well known for their brilliance with project management software Basecamp, and this email app is no exception.
Hey Email have re-thought many systems like first-time senders being instantly blocked until you approve them, the "Imbox" that focuses on those core people who passed the check, and a feed for each of the types of emails you get like newsletter, file-based & more
Hey also gives you a @hey domain email which allows you a clean fresh start and worries are gone as they'll re-route that forever, even if you leave Hey. A lot of people like Hey for the focus on productivity and re-thinking handling your personal email inbox everyday.
Pros
- Emails can be re-directed to your new Hey email address
- System is productivity-centric meaning a change in thinking
- Features like Imbox and other feeds really handle overwhelm well
Cons
- Does take time to learn the ways of Hey
- First-time screeners means new emailers will get paused here
Hey Email is priced at $99 per year, so not crazy amounts, but still an investment - well worth it if email is your productivity bottleneck, you get overwhelmed and need a new system to learn implement and live by for better inbox management.
6. Skiff Email
A Secure Focused Email Client
- Pricing: Free with $3 per month and beyond
- Platforms: iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux
Why Skiff Email is one of the best email apps?
Like Hey Email and Spike, you get your own inbox domain with Skiff. So when you land in Skiff you can start emailing from @skiff. First things first with Skiff is that security is the key behind it meaning your emails are secure, but what does secure mean and why?
Skiff handles your emails using end-to-end encryption meaning your external mail is encrypted with your keys on receipt, making it a private email client. This is much like ProtonMail which has been out for many years, however, Skiff combines this with calendar, drive storage and a document creator too called pages.
Skiff is well-designed and so functional to use. Whilst there isn't millions of features like we see in tools like Missive inside of Skiff Mail - it is designed well, works well for basic email handling and the most important element - security you might want.
Pros
- Fast and beautifully designed Skiff is available on most devices too
- Privacy focused and with E2E email encryption
- Comes with @skiff email address perfect for starting new
Cons
- Requires more research to meet your security requirements
Skiff Mail is a clean looking experience with a very well experienced team behind it, this application combined with calendar, drive and pages is actually not badly priced too.
What Email Client Should I Pick?
Okay, now's time for help to be shared, here's our biggest recommendations.
Best All Round Email Client
All round, everyday use, we have to say Spark Mail. A brilliant, well designed and feature-full application that is developed by Readdle, what more.
Best Security Focused Email Client
Skiff and ProtonMail both offer decent encryption that people want to see specially with email clients that send emails externally and use backends like Gmail.
Best Email Client for Team Collaboration
Think Missive and Spike Mail battle this one out. Spike Mail better for all round team collaboration, but if it is just email, Missive wins this one.
In the hunt for more email apps and clients, explore our collection on Tool Finder.
How to Pick the Perfect Email Application
There are a set of features that you need to be aware of when picking an email app.
Take these in mind when looking for your perfect email applications, we've shared a few tools to get elements of these right below. They will navigate which tool is actually best for you and narrow down that decision for your improvement.
- Budget - You don't want to break the bank. Tools like Superhuman and Polymail are very much high-cost email tools, whereas tools like Hey Email sit in the middle, and Spark Mail offering good free plans. Consider this and remember if you use email a lot/work for yourself - this could be an investment into your use of it.
- Look - People who use email a lot will not always like Gmail's look and feel. The ads and the clunkier look compared to these more modern selections might be a turn off for those who like aesthetic email apps. Skiff is a good example of a nice-looking email.
- Function - Finding features like advanced snooze, clean inbox, reminders, integrations are all things that basic Gmail might not be able to do as well as it could but you're willing to pay for. Tools like Spark offer advanced dashboards for seeing what's on and better email management abilities to consider.
- Productivity - Some email tools like Gated and Hey have their email philosophies around how people should handle them. The likes of Hey has their own system for important emails called "Imbox" and helps people to be more productive around email. Still consider these, but see how they sit with you before jumping in. Or Spike is another example of a type of email tool that changes your approach to email with a conversational focus.
- Best 6 Email Apps for 2024: Quick Glance
- Why we picked these email apps?
- What is a 3rd party email client?
- 1. Superhuman
- 2. Spark Mail
- 3. Missive
- 4. Spike Mail
- 5. Hey Email
- 6. Skiff Email
- What Email Client Should I Pick?
- How to Pick the Perfect Email Application
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Go Further with More Tools & Productivity Lists on Tool Finder
Francesco D'Alessio
Francesco D'Alessio
Francesco D'Alessio
Francesco D'Alessio
Francesco D'Alessio
Francesco D'Alessio
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