Top 5 Email Clients for Windows

Since the late 20th century, electronic mail has been saving us precious time by shrinking distances and delivering messages in real time. As a consequence, in the present day you can’t survive the social side of internet without an email address.  The newsletters, the Facebook and Twitter accounts, the virtual letters and cards we send to our acquaintances, the updates we get from our co-workers, all of these would be practically impossible without a tiny virtual mailbox of our own. In fact, it’s a bit inappropriate to call it “tiny,” since nowadays almost all email hosts offer unlimited storage space for attachments.

However, the real problem comes when you hold more than one email account. Logging in to different mail host web pages wastes precious time and can be really annoying if you are forced to do it on a regular basis. This is where email clients come in handy: they gather all your email accounts in one place and make all your mailboxes easier to access. You may then wondered which are the top five email clients picked by Windows users?
Bellow you can find market share chart of popular email clients as of June 2011, presented by campaignmonitor.com.

Most popular email clients

When it comes to Windows, there are few wise choices available to you:

Mozilla Thunderbird

Reviews and testimonials prove Thunderbird is the most powerful open source email client. It is developed by Mozilla, which is also the maker of the well loved web browser, Mozilla Firefox. Thunderbird is included by default in Linux distributions, and it makes a perfect email client for Windows as well. Both Firefox and Thunderbird are free (open source) software. One of the best features of Thunderbird is the Lightning extension. Once installed, the extension will add a series of extra features such as a calendar and other task management tools. Mozilla Thunderbird also comes in a portable version (Thunderbird Portable), so you will be able to access your email accounts anywhere using your portable device.

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Gmail

Gmail is one of the most powerful email hosts that made Google servers famous for their stability and reliability. Apart from the online email host, the Google mail suite also includes a stand-alone Windows application which does a great job with gathering all your email accounts in one place. Threaded conversations are probably the most important feature that makes Gmail so easy to use. What’s more, Gmail also has a very well implemented system of tags and labels. You can tag important threads or flag those that are urgent or you need to remember. Labels will also help you manage multiple inboxes. Google also has top notch spam filters, which are known to outsmart those of other email clients.
Postbox

Postbox somehow resembles Mozilla Thunderbird, since they are basically built on the same code. It is widely used on Macintosh operating systems, but its Windows version works perfect as well. Since Thunderbird and Postbox codes are very similar, the two mail clients also share common features and tools. Some Thunderbird extensions (add-ons) can be found in Postbox as well: Lightning, Javascript Debugger, DOM Inspector.
As it has a very powerful interface, Postbox allows you to compose emails and start a search at the same time. A multi tasking email client is definitely a must have for any businessman or busy internet user!

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Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is one of the oldest email clients. It has been around since 1990, once the popularity of the Microsoft Office suite started to increase among business owners. Although Microsoft Outlook is mainly used as a business tool, it is also ideal for individual purposes. It is very easy to use thanks to its very friendly interface. Moreover, the integrated Windows Desktop Search tool allows you to perform a quick search through your documents and emails without opening additional windows or click your way through a dozen of menus. You can use the Calendar to plan events or type down important things you need to remember. What’s more, you can even set reminders! However, a disadvantage would be that Microsoft Outlook comes at a price of approximately $400.
Windows Live Mail

Windows Live Mail is the electronic mail host developed by Microsoft. The Windows Live Mail application comes separately and can be downloaded as an executable file from the Microsoft website. It is completely free of charge. The Windows Live Mail application aims to bring together email accounts, contacts, scheduled events on Calendar, blogs and even RSS feeds. It is also very secure. Microsoft has developed strong spam filters to keep you safe from online threats, so any suspicious email will go straight to the Spam folder. However, the spam filter can get a little paranoid at times, so you don’t have to panic and think that a sender has been compromised just because his message appears in the Spam folder. There is room for improvement, but Windows Live Mail is still a neat email client!

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In conclusion
Windows is the most popular, affordable and easy to use operating system. These top five email clients will help you boost its performance and productivity. So, if you’re thinking about switching to a unique, effective email hub to gather your messages in a single place, then you should consider one of the options above. Don’t worry about paid software: if you don’t fancy spending money on an email client, there are lots of free applications that have equal or even better performance than paid ones.
The best way for you to decide which one suits you best would be to download, install and try them all. You will eventually make a decision based on your personal experience. For example, some businessmen might use Outlook because it is the only software provided at their work place, and not because they are 101% satisfied with its functionality. So don’t fall for statistics. Try them for yourself and see how well you are getting along with them. It is only up to you to decide. As for statistics – the most preferred email client and host is definitely Gmail.