Time to ditch Outlook? 9 e-mail clients tested



Time to ditch Outlook? Outlook has been copping some heat lately, largely for attracting virus writers, while Thunderbird has been getting all of the good press. We examine the two products, and other e-mail clients available today, so you can see if replacing Outlook really is an option.


Contents
Avoiding e-mail worms
 Barca
 Calypso
 Eudora
 Lotus Notes
 Outlook
 Pegasus
 Pine
 The Bat
 Mozilla Thunderbird
 Specifications
 Final words
 Editor's choice
 About RMIT
If you are setting up a new office, updating or upgrading, or even trying to save some money, it can be worthwhile looking at your options for your e-mail client software.

Many people won't give much thought to e-mail client software, thinking "I use Outlook Express -- it came with Windows." or "I am a Mac user, I will use the standard Mail package". But a business cannot really afford such a laissez-faire attitude toward its computer operating system. What a business should be thinking is: what features do we need from our e-mail software? Do we need integrated e-mail/organiser software? How vulnerable is the software to malicious attacks? How much are we willing to pay for something different?

In this review you will find e-mail packages that run the gamut of options.

Some of the packages reviewed are more than simple electronic mail facilitators (such as Barca, the Bat, Outlook, Eudora, and Lotus Notes), and some are complete personal information manager's (PIM's) that include calendar, planner, and diary functions. Others are pure, plain-and-simple, e-mail clients. In fact, the programs we reviewed that are purely e-mail programs, are actually free.

"Wait a minute!" I hear you say. "Free software? What's the catch? Advertising, poor quality?" Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is often simple altruism (yes, it does exist). Pine and Pegasus, for example, are the products of university staff who have perceived a need at their local campus. Having arrived at a solution the creators apparently saw no reason why others shouldn't benefit from this work, and as such both programs are available for free download.

Equally, Mozilla Thunderbird is part of the Open Source project which operates from similar ideals. Open source programs are available to all for free distribution and even modification -- since the original source code is available. Pine and Pegasus are not open source in this sense. The fourth free product is Calypso and this is another kettle of fish. It was shareware, but became freeware when a later version became available. If you like this version you might like to pay for the next one.

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Talkback 13 comments

  1. What about Opera; another free browser with a built-in email client. I mean, if you are going to give top honors to a free client, then you should look at the other free client also. This review justified itself largely based on the failing security of Anonymous -- 20/02/05

    What about Opera; another free browser with a built-in email client. I mean, if you are going to give top honors to a free client, then you should look at the other free client also. This review justified itself largely based on the failing security of outlook, but if that's your main concern, don't get thunderbird no matter what. I mean, come on, IT'S OPEN SOURCE. It doesn't get any less secure than that. It doesn't have the market presense of outlook, but if it ever does look out -- there will then be incentive to use it as the vehicle for viruses, and it will be childs play since it's open source.

    Opera, with it's email client, is free, not open source, and actually attempts some things that are revolutionary. I don't think that it would win your shoot-out, since it tries to be different and takes a lot of getting used to. I don't even think that I like it the best of the ones that I try, but I respect it for what it is trying to do and the fact that it is much more secure than outlook.

    Just my 2 cents; I'm tired of hearing about Mozilla/Thunderbird when I have seen time and again that it is an inferior product to my current favorite.

    1. Open source is not less secure Anonymous -- 31/01/07

      Please. Open source may have no secrets, but most of the bugs that leave Outlook open to attack are because not enough people are looking at the code...
      If you think a MS server is more secure than a Linux one you're nuts. Both require work to keep up to date when bugs are found, but with open source anyone can provide the fix as opposed to waiting around for MS to admit and repair the problem.

  2. Big review and not a single word about Exchange compatibility??? Anonymous -- 22/02/05

    Big review and not a single word about Exchange compatibility???

  3. Have you guys heard of Novell? If security is the main concern, surely you need to look here. Of course the client is less than half the issue - the mail server is probably a bigger issue. I'm looking forward to the mailserver review. Anonymous -- 25/02/05

    Have you guys heard of Novell? If security is the main concern, surely you need to look here. Of course the client is less than half the issue - the mail server is probably a bigger issue. I'm looking forward to the mailserver review.

  4. Wish you have put Netscape mail in your review. Anonymous -- 08/03/05

    Wish you have put Netscape mail in your review.

  5. Time to ditch thunderbird? Rob -- 30/09/05

    Yet another review praising thunderbird.

    Im just getting too frustrated with how badly thunderbird handles mail after a few months of use - It slows down exactly like ye 'ol Outlook. I've had enough of waiting for folders to reindex, accounts to compact and especially finding my lost email whenever thunderbird feels fit to randomly change my home directory. Why should i wait 5 minutes to sloooooowly move 10,000 junk emails to the bin? Im not asking it to calculate the trajectory of a nasa flight to mars and back!?

    I've been checking the net for email package review sites, low and behold, every reviewer bends over for mozilla - its free this and free that, pffft... I wonder if ANY used thunderbird long enough in a work environment for its arteries to harden with the sludge of months worth of email, spam, attachments et al? I bet not - Im going elsewhere.

    Opera has done a fine job so far. Its fast (so far) thats all i want.

    1. I've used Thunderbird for two years now Anonymous -- 31/01/07

      I haven't noticed any of those problems.
      Could be because I archive my old mail and delete the junk though.

  6. Re: Time to ditch thunderbird Glenn Sanford -- 17/11/05

    Thunderbird 1.5 RC1 Rocks... I can now delete huge groups of e-mails with a single highlight. Also Autoreply and Autoforward were two features that weren't well handled and needed. It's now part of Thunderbird...

    1. Thunderbird is average John Cislowski -- 03/01/06

      Thunderbird is far from perfect and is a rather immature product. However it behaves itself well with IMAP which most clients fail pitifully at, including outlook.

      On this it gets my vote, till someone with a better overall product fixes their imap support.

      Also a solid mention should go to the Opera browser mail client it is quite adapt and the best in any browser.

  7. Barca 2.1 Anonymous -- 07/05/06

    Forget Outlook. This is the best, most complete and reliable mail client there is. With its rock solid .mbx data file structure (unlike the dreaded .pst of Outlook), a great interface, reliable spam filtering, superb mail filtering, focus box for fast searching, this program just keeps on getting better and better.

    1. Barca Anonymous -- 02/08/06

      As someone just managing to keep his head above water re email volumes, I agree Barca is probably the best program going. My main frustration is that it's planner and calendar add-ons are not inter-connected (so you have to key in appointments twice) and also the calendar doesn't print-out appointments -- which means I have had to buy yet another add-on software (Calendarscope).
      It's now 2006, I have been using email since the early 1990s, and am still waiting for someone to develop a comprehensive, professional email system. Why is this so hard when the world is now reliant on email?

  8. Barca 2.1 Anonymous -- 07/05/06

    Forget Outlook. This is the best, most complete and reliable mail client there is. With its rock solid .mbx data file structure (unlike the dreaded .pst of Outlook), a great interface, reliable spam filtering, superb mail filtering, focus box for fast searching, this program just keeps on getting better and better.

  9. Thunderbird gets the bird Brian Collins -- 12/09/06

    I agree - yet another ridiculous praise for Thunderbird. Why do computer geeks like this thing? (Because they want an underdog, and only because it's not Microsoft). Seriously! I'm a professional business user and I tried it for about 3 months. As much as I wanted something other than Outlook, I noticed that the whole time I kept trying to find downloadable 'extensions' to get it to do what it SHOULD do out of the box (so to speak). I was endlessly wrestling with the beta-like software - and I'm in the tech industry! I suppose if you don't care what fonts your e-mail uses, or about email signatures, and would rather use plain text (courier) for all your e-mails, by all means, this pile o' crap is for you!

    Over the past month I've been trying all kinds of e-mail/calendar/task "PIM" softwares, and most recently I've come upon Barca by poco systems which seems to do a great job. But as much as I hate to say it, I'm finding myself, once again, awaiting Outlook 2007. I wonder if this is the case for many others out there.

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