Best Third Party Mail Program For Mac Users?

Best Third Party Mail Program For Mac Users? 4,8/5 891 reviews

Mac OS Best third-party email apps for Mac OS X. By Deepanker. Updated on December 3, 2017. The best thing about this email client is that you can customize most of the things as per your own wish. Inky is another good email client for Mac users to replace existing mail app. This email client is also available on. A recent surge of worthy new email clients offers Mac users some of the best choices they’ve ever had for managing their mail. Almost all modern mail services (Outlook, Gmail etc.) have incredibly feature rich web-based front ends. So let’s jump right in and find out more about 5 best email clients for Windows 10. Mozilla Thunderbird. Probably the most standout feature of Mailbird is that it lets you add and use a whole bunch of third party social services. There's no simple way of switching on a Windows 7 mode in Windows 10. Instead, you can install third-party software, manually tweak settings, and edit the registry. A recent surge of worthy new email clients offers Mac users some of the best choices they’ve ever had for managing their mail. With a panoply of clever features and new ideas, these contenders.

Who Needs Remote Access Software?

Ever been in a meeting in another company's office and realized that the PowerPoint presentation you were planning to dazzle them with is back at home on your computer? Or tried to help your parents, who live halfway across the country, figure out why their computer just won't open a file? These are exactly the scenarios that remote access utilities are made to handle.

Remote access apps let you either access your home or office computer from another location, or allow others to have access to some or all of your files, as if they were actually sitting in front of your PC instead of somewhere else entirely. Some are tailor-made for personal use, while others, with their complex security protocols and granular menus, are better suited for a more corporate environment. Many even let you access a remote PC from your phone or handheld device. Here, we break down exactly what a remote access app does, and why one may make a lot of sense for your increasingly mobile life.

What Is Remote Access Software?

Remote access software lets one computer view or control another computer, not merely across a network, but from anywhere in the world. You might use it to log into your customers' computers and show them how to run a program, or sort out their technical troubles. Or you can even use it to invite friends or clients to view your desktop while you run a demo for them. You can use the screen as a temporary whiteboard, drawing lines and circles that help friends or clients understand what you're doing on your machine or theirs.

Remote access apps also let you transfer files between two machines without using email or file-sharing services. You can use remote access to print a file stored on someone else's machine on a printer connected to your own machine. Your tech-challenged relatives can use remote access software to give you access to their machine so you can repair their mistakes or clear out malware. It's far, far easier to grab the wheel yourself than it is to try and talk someone through the process of troubleshooting their PC. And your high-tech colleagues can use it to collaborate on complex projects in real-time, complete with chat via text or, with some apps, voice.

Not Just for Help Desks

Corporate help desks are major users of remote access software, but these apps can be useful for anyone. I personally use it for three reasons: First, I can give tech support to friends by logging in to their machine, without going out to make a house call. Second, while on the road, I can connect to my home or office machine and find and view an ancient file that I haven't stored on a file-sharing service like Dropbox or Google Drive. Third, I can invite friends or colleagues to join me in editing documents in a more straightforward way, with easier communication than other online collaboration methods, such as the real-time editing features in Office 365 or Google Docs. You may have very different reasons for wanting a remote access than I do, but there's no doubt that they are quite handy.

I looked at five remote access apps that work easily between any machines running either Windows or macOS anywhere in the world. In addition to these third-party apps, Microsoft provides its free Microsoft Remote Desktop software that lets you access Windows PCs from other Windows machines, mobile devices, or a Mac, but not from Windows to a Mac. Microsoft's app lets you access any Windows version going back to Windows 7, except for 'Starter' and 'Home' versions, for which you'll need a third-party app. Apple offers its $79.99 Apple Remote Desktop app for accessing other Macs only—but that only connects to Macs running OS X versions 10.8 Mountain Lion or later.

I use Microsoft Remote Desktop from my Mac laptop when I want to run a program on a Windows desktop in another room in the same house, but only a full-fledged third-party remote access app lets me take full control of any machine anywhere—if the machine's owner wants to let me in.

Security Concerns

One of the first questions you may ask yourself when considering using remote access software is whether or not this is secure. If you've been using a PC for a while, you may remember pcAnywhere, which used to be the remote access software that was almost everyone's first choice. Symantec bought pcAnywhere from its original developer and eventually, after some major security breaches, stopped supporting it in 2014 and recommended that customers stop using it.

Some other remote access vendors have reported security breaches, but these seem to have been triggered by users who chose the same passwords for their remote access software that they used at hack websites—always a bad idea. Some remote access apps let you use relatively weak security if you choose, but they all encourage you to choose strong security, and our Editors' Choice products, GoToMyPC and TeamViewer, won't let you make an end-run around their security precautions.

What Remote Access Software Offers

We tested remote access software by installing each app or service on four machines: desktops running Windows 10 and Windows 7, a laptop running Windows 7, and a Mac laptop running macOS. We also installed each vendor's iOS-based mobile-access app for connecting to a Windows or Mac machine, though I wouldn't want to try running my desktop machine from a phone or small-screen tablet unless I were desperate.

All the remote access apps we tested provide the same basic features. They offer remote access to another machine that has the app's server software already installed; remote access can take the form of full control over the other system or mere passive viewing. All feature a shared clipboard (in some cases optional), so that text or images that you copy to the clipboard on one machine can be pasted into the other. All have a text-based chat feature. Each app provides file-transfer features via a standard two-pane file manager interface.

GoToMyPC and LogMeIn add the ability to drag and drop files between the local desktop and the viewer window that displays the desktop of the remote machine, but this feature works only when connecting to and from Windows computers. TeamViewer has a FileBox window into which you can drag files that will be accessible to both machines. LogMeIn, TeamViewer, and VNC Connect include whiteboard features for drawing lines in the viewer. For more on each remote access apps individual features, see the individual reviews, which are linked to below.

Which Remote Access App Fits You Best?

We focused on remote access software designed mostly for one-to-one connections, though it's possible with all these apps for more than one user to log in to a remote machine. If you're looking for advanced conferencing features like a whiteboard, you should probably look elsewhere, though LogMeIn includes a whiteboard feature that makes it work well as a basic collaboration app.

The vendors of some of the remote access apps we tested also offer a specialized video conferencing app that uses an interface similar to the remote access versions. For example, GoToMeeting is a conferencing version of GoToMyPC; Splashtop Business Access offers Splashtop Classroom; and TeamViewer offers Blizz.

Security features differ markedly among these apps. Some make it possible to provide access in a straightforward way if you choose to do so. Others require you type in passwords more than once and provide email verification before you can do anything useful. All let you customize security to varying degrees, and you should take a close look at the options that you'll feel comfortable using.

If you're a complete hermit who never leaves the room, you don't need remote access software. But if you often find yourself as the de facto IT tech for family and colleagues, or if you need to connect to other computers for your business, or if you need to connect to your own computers while you're on the road, then you'll need remote access software. Check out our reviews to find the one that best suits your needs.

Best Remote Access Software Featured in This Roundup:

  • RemotePC Review


    MSRP: $6.95

    Pros: Effortless, simple interface with a flat learning curve. Fast performance. Easy file transfers between local and remote desktops. Inexpensive.

    Cons: Can't display more than one remote monitor in the same window.

    Bottom Line: RemotePC is one of the best low-frills remote-access apps, offering identical features on PCs and Macs, fast performance, and a minimal, but intuitive, interface.

    Read Review

  • TeamViewer Review


    MSRP: $50.00

    Pros: Comprehensive feature set. Multi-level security. Elegantly designed viewing window. Multi-monitor support. Combines remote access and online meetings in one app. Free version for non-commercial use.

    Cons: Expensive. Some options are difficult to find. Security features can be annoying.

    Bottom Line: TeamViewer combines remote access and shared meeting features in a single secure app, and it hides most of its complexity under an elegant interface. It's our top pick for remote access software for enterprise and corporate use.

    Read Review

  • LogMeIn Review


    MSRP: $249.99

    Pros: Clear, simple interface. Easy access to most features through a web browser. Comes with 1TB of cloud storage for file-sharing or simple storage.

    Cons: Mac version lacks some features. Interface could be more intuitive.

    Bottom Line: LogMeIn is a solid, straightforward remote access and file-sharing software that's suitable for personal or corporate use.

    Read Review

  • GoToMyPC Review


    MSRP: $12.00

    Pros: Straightforward interface. Runs mostly from the browser. Drag-and-drop file transfers. Desktop icons for remote computers. Smooth multi-monitor support. Option for direct connections within a network or across the internet.

    Cons: Distracting testing-server message during computer bootup. Slightly reduced features when using a Mac system.

    Bottom Line: GoToMyPC is a mature, easy-to-use remote access software with the best available balance between features and ease of use. Unless you need support for Linux or enterprise-level operating systems, this is the app you want.

    Read Review

  • VNC Connect Review


    MSRP: $40.00

    Pros: Multi-platform support. Relatively simple interface. Fairly inexpensive subscription plans, including a free plan for personal use.

    Cons: Separate server and viewer apps make setup confusing. No drag-and-drop file transfer between viewer app and desktop. No sending one-time invitation emails from the remote machine.

    Bottom Line: VNC Connect is solid, secure, and simple to use, once you get the hang of it. It has fewer features than other corporate-level remote access software, but it's also a lot less expensive.

    Read Review

  • Splashtop Business Access Review


    MSRP: $60.00

    Pros: Low cost. Easy-to-understand security options. No-password access to a remote session.

    Cons: Minimal feature set. Clunky visual design.

    Bottom Line: Splashtop Business Access is a low-cost alternative to better-designed and more feature-rich remote-access apps.

    Read Review

Email apps are highly personal. Everyone manages their email differently. Which makes finding the best iPhone email app difficult. For some, it’s a to-do list. For others, it’s a temporary holding place until emails are processed into a task management system. One thing is for sure: everyone with an iOS device probably uses email.

After looking at the wide range of third-party apps, Outlook is the best iPhone email app, and it’s the one we recommend as your first choice when moving away from the built-in iOS client.

With a focused inbox option, snooze options, a built-in calendar, and a wide range of support for various email systems, it’s simply the best.

Get Your Email Under Control: Check out our free guide for getting your email inbox calm and under control. Download it here.

History

Email apps are a funny thing in reality. Like web browsers, we’ve been using them forever, but an email client in 2016 looks nothing like an email client in 1999. The technology might be the same, but the experience is a lot different. I have an interesting history with email, and it’s probably similar to many of you. My first email address was an AOL account when I was in middle school. I used that until I moved onto a Comcast.net account when we upgraded to broadband in 2001.

I used that until 2003, when I switched to a company called Mailblocks. They were purchased by AOL for their at-the-time innovative spam technology. I then migrated to Gmail (1 GB!!!) where I stayed until largely moving to .Mac/MobileMe/iCloud in 2007. One thing is common among my history: I used webmail until moving to .Mac for personal email.

I bet a lot of OS X and iOS users have a similar history. We didn’t start using a native mail client until moving to Mac and/or iOS. While web-based mail users are common on the desktop, I don’t really know anyone who uses Safari to access their email on iOS. Email apps have many features that Mobile Safari doesn’t, such as push notifications and integration with the system share sheet.

Survey

A lot of our app picks aren’t used by everyone. Not everyone uses a VPN app, delivery tracker, or a run tracker. Email, on the other hand, is used by just about everyone. As such, there are many opinions on email services, apps, and processing methods.

With that being said, we decided to do something we haven’t done before. We asked our readers to fill out a survey on what they wanted in a third party email app. The results were incredibility interesting to see. These were the most common features readers look for when shopping for an iOS mail app:

  • Design
  • Support for multiple account types
  • Universal support for the iPhone and iPad

The Case for Mail.app

Prior to iOS 9, this would have been a very different article. Mail.app on iOS has gotten a lot better. In fact, the main thing missing is support for the share sheet (with the actual message contents) and support for snoozing messages. A lot of the people who took our survey simply didn’t use a third-party app. With the inability to change the default client in iOS, a case can be made that Mail.app is the best iPhone email client. The fundamentals of email are all the same: Compose, send, read, reply, and organize. Third-party apps make themselves indispensable because of the details.

The Best iPhone Email App: Criteria

When looking for the best iPhone email apps, we looked at design, ease of use, account support (Gmail, iCloud, Exchange, Office365, Yahoo, IMAP, etc.), Apple Watch support, push notifications, universal device support, integration with other apps, and whether it offers a snooze feature. While not everyone needs all of these features, we felt like this was a good guide to help us as we examined the market.

The Best iPhone Email App: Outlook

After much debate and testing, we chose Outlook for iOS as the best iPhone email app.

A few years ago, I’d never have guessed that Microsoft would make an iOS app that I considered the best in any category. Outlook for iOS is not necessarily a new product, but rather a rebranded one. The original name was Acompli, but Microsoft purchased it in 2014 and has been hard at work with updates.

The question is, what makes Outlook for iOS the best?

Outlook’s design is very clean, but still unique. That’s fine; I’m not looking for something to mimic Mail.app exactly. Do I want it to be a complete departure from the normal look and feel of iOS? No, but I want a unique experience.

Outlook has 5 icons across the bottom: Mail, Calendars, Files, People, and Settings. The way it’s laid out makes it feel like a complete communications/file management ecosystem. You are only one tap away from getting what you need. It uses a light theme with black and blue text throughout. I know some people like darker themes, but I feel like the design is very easy on the eyes. I don’t ever feel like the UI is distracting; it melts away and allows me to focus on what I need to see.

From a usability perspective, Outlook really shines. It provides me with just enough options to make it my own, but not so many that I am overwhelmed or spend time tinkering.

I love the built-in calendar function. While I wouldn’t say it’s better than Fantastical 2, I’d probably give it the nod over the standard iOS calendar. I love being able to see email and my schedule in one app. The compose screen is simple to use as well. It allows me to change which account I am sending from, add files, photos, send calendar invites, or see my calendar availability (a feature from its acquisition of the Sunrise Calendar app).

One important aspect of all third-party email apps is which types of email services it supports. Outlook supports Office 365, Outlook.com, Exchange, Yahoo, iCloud, Google, and IMAP. (POP3 isn’t supported, so if you require it, you need to look elsewhere.)

Outlook has support for iPhones with 3D Touch features. From the 3D Touch menu, you can hop right to your calendar, create a new event, or start a new email. I find myself using the View Calendar function frequently. A Notification Center widget and watchOS app are included as well.

Outlook supports push notifications for new emails, or just “important ones” with a feature Outlook calls Focused Inbox.

Focused Inbox sorts your email so you see the important ones first. It does this by considering past emails from a particular sender and your address book. You can also reclassify emails as you go in order to help train it. The calendar feature can also notify you of upcoming appointments as well as send short emails letting the people in your meeting know you are running late.

The snooze/delay function of email was made popular by Mailbox, but has since become adopted by a handful of other apps. Outlook offers a feature that allows you to control which folder your snoozed emails are stored. Your options for snoozing are in a few hours, this evening, tomorrow morning, or a custom time. Outlook doesn’t offer the ability to customize these times, and I’d like to see that added in the future.

Like I mentioned earlier, I love the fact that Outlook has a built-in calendar. It also has native support for a number of file systems. It includes OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive. While this isn’t as important for attaching files (due to document providers), it does offer some advantages. There is a file screen that shows your most recent files for cloud document apps, as well as making saving attachments faster.

A recent update added third-party app integration through “add-ins.” Add-ins let you turn any email into a Trello card, save a message to Evernote, insert a GIF, translate messages, and more. These are currently only available to users with Office 365 email addresses, however.

Jun 22, 2016  MacRumors attracts a broad audience of both consumers and professionals interested in the latest technologies and products. We also boast an active community focused on purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac platforms. The best software I think: MyPaint - Fast-forward to today. MyPaint is a nimble, distraction-free, and easy tool for digital painters. It supports graphics tablets made by Wacom, and many similar devices. Its brush engine is versatile and configur. Good program for the wacom intuos 4 for mac.

Overall, Outlook is a great Mail.app replacement. I tried it originally, but went back to Mail.app with iOS 9. With recent updates, Outlook is a great alternative. I like it so much that I purchased an Office 365 home subscription so I can use Outlook 2016 on my Mac. While it lacks a lot of the features, it appears some of the Acompli team is now working on adding features from iOS to the Mac.

Best iPhone Email App: Runner Up

Spark from Readdle came out in 2015 to much fanfare. Scanner Pro and PDF Expert, also by Readdle, are some of the best apps in their respective categories. Spark seemed to come out of nowhere, and also didn’t seem like a category that Readdle would enter. After a semi-public beta period, Spark was released in May of 2015.

Spark is a close second in the best iPhone email app category. For me, though, some small things keep Outlook in front.

From a design perspective, Spark is heavy on blue. I’ve never been a dark theme person; I prefer a white background with black text. The actual emails are on a white background, but I’d prefer this to be app-wide. The design feels a bit more playful than Outlook, and that may appeal to some users; however, I prefer Outlook’s more minimal design.

Spark is incredibly easy to use. Of all the apps I tested, it reminds me the most of Mailbox (which I really liked and would probably still use if the iOS and Mac apps were still around).

Composing a new message puts the options at the top, which I’d rather see at the bottom since I am using a 6s Plus. It does allow you to easily swipe through signatures to pick a different one. Like Outlook, it supports a “Smart Inbox” to help you deal with the most important emails first. Spark also contains “quick replies” that you can customize. This allows you to quickly reply to messages that don’t need more than a “Sounds good” or “Thank you.”

Spark supports the usual email account types. Google, Exchange, Yahoo, iCloud, Outlook.com, and IMAP are all included. One unique aspect of Spark over others is that a lot of the actual processing happens on the device — it’s not Readdle’s servers that are parsing it. A few things are stored with Readdle, but it’s on AWS, and it’s minimal. They have a blog post that explains it in more detail.

For example, things like snoozing emails actually happens on the device. From a security perspective, this is great. My main concern is that if the app somehow got closed on the device, the snoozed email wouldn’t show up on another app (a Mac app for example) until Spark was re-opened. Depending on how security-focused you are about your email, this is either great or terrible.

Spark originally launched as an iPhone-only app, but was recently updated to include native iPad support as well. In late-2016, Readdle completed the trifecta with a much-anticipated Mac app that is available for free in the App Store.

Like other apps in this category, Spark integrates with a number of third-party services. This includes Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, Readability, Pocket, Evernote, OneNote, and Instapaper. It does contain a built-in calendar, but it lacks anything but a “day view” with the ability to tap on other days in the month. The calendar is a part of a “Card” system that Spark offers to quickly access certain items (Mail folders, snoozed emails, etc).

Overall, Spark is an incredible app. Readdle came out of nowhere with one of the best email apps on the market. One question that I’ve always wondered is if it is sustainable as a free app. Although Outlook is also free, it makes sense because Microsoft is a large enterprise. With Readdle, they seem to depend on app sales.

Get Your Email Under Control: Check out our free guide for getting your email inbox calm and under control. Download it here.

Other Notable Apps

Airmail

Airmail is the newest entrant to the iOS mail scene. The Mac app has been well-regarded for some time, and it’s actually our favorite email client for OS X. If you want the best email client for the Apple ecosystem, and you wanted the same experience across OS X and iOS (settings sync via iCloud as well), then you should look at Airmail. It’s currently $4.99 on the App Store.

One area that Airmail excels is third-party app integration. It has support for 2Do, Drafts, Deliveries, 1Writer, OmniFocus, Fantastical, Wunderlist, and many more.

Dispatch

Dispatch is a fantastic app and has a lot of great integrations with other apps. However, it does lack true push notification support and Exchange accounts (and no plans to add it, so for a lot of people that will be a show-stopper. Otherwise, it’s a really great app that works on both iPhone and iPad. It’s currently $6.99 on the App Store.

Inbox/Gmail

Thunderbird Mail Program For Mac

There is a lot to like about Inbox for how it organizes your email. If you are a heavy Gmail web interface user, you might consider looking at Inbox or the official Gmail app. Since they only support Gmail accounts, it’s hard to recommend either as the best third-party email app.

Most of your college homework assignments can be done on an iPad, and most of the time, it’s more fun to do them on an iPad. Best program for school assignments mac cosmetics. Unless you’re a Computer Science major who needs to program in C++, Visual Basic, XCode, and Java, then you can probably get all your homework done on an iPad.

Newton

Newton is a fantastic mail app. In fact, if you loved Mailbox by Dropbox, it reminds me a lot of that app. I’ve actually been using it as my go-to-app for the past few weeks, and it’s been great. Recent additions added Exchange Global Address and GSuite directory contact looks ups. It supports the usual features (snoozing, push, etc.) that all other clients support, but with a great design.

It’s a free app, but it requires a $49.99 annual subscription to use after the 14-day free trial expires.

Boxer

Boxer is a really good app that includes a built-in calendar and a number of integrations with cloud services like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, etc., and supports the usual account types (Google, Exchange, iCloud, etc.). It has great swipe actions and solid bulk email management and was recently purchased by VMware, so it looks to be well-financed in the long term. It does lack the snooze feature that so many people use, however. Another negative is that it lacks push notifications for a number of account types.

InkyMail

InkyMail is one of the more unique email systems I looked at. The most unique feature is how it can sort your email in various ways. It can filter out any kind of newsletters, social notifications, and other types of fluff that can distract you from handling the more important emails. The app is free for basic use, but it requires a $5 per month subscription if you want Exchange support.

Mail Pilot

Mail Program For Mac

MailPilot is the most expensive app what we considered. At $10, it’s still a bargain for all that it does. Its focus is on turning emails into tasks. It supports snooze, easy navigation, and is extremely customizable (with great swipe actions). One large negative that will deter many users is that it lacks Exchange support (unless your Exchange server supports IMAP connections).

Conclusion

We’ve come a long way from a time when Apple didn’t allow apps on the App Store that duplicated functionality of the built-in iOS apps. While the iOS 10 Mail app is the best yet, there is still plenty of room for additional improvement. With a wealth of options from existing apps and newcomers, 2016 might be the year that a lot of users look to upgrade from the default client. Outlook is what we consider to be the best iPhone email overall app. With a smart inbox, great snoozing options, and a built-in calendar, it makes a great addition to your iOS toolkit.

Default Mail Program For Mac

Get Your Email Under Control: Check out our free guide for getting your email inbox calm and under control. Download it here.