Thunderbird
Cross-platform email client supporting multiple identities, chat, and strong filtering. Extend functionality with add-ons like RSS/Atom feed readers and PGP support.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Country of Origin
United States
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- BSD
- AppImageHub
- Snapcraft
- Flathub
- PortableApps.com
- F-Droid
- Haiku
- Homebrew
- Chocolatey
Features
Thunderbird News & Activities
Recent News
- POX published news article about Thunderbird
Thunderbird 138 adds in-notification email controls, enhanced high-contrast mode, and moreMozilla has rolled out Thunderbird 138, delivering several significant upgrades to its free, open-s...
- Fla published news article about Betterbird
Betterbird releases version 128.10.0esr-bb26 with key usability fixesBetterbird has launched version 128.10.0esr-bb26, which is based on Thunderbird 128.10.0esr, introd...
- Maoholguin published news article about Thunderbird
Mozilla launches Thundermail, its open-source Gmail alternative & Thunderbird Pro servicesMozilla has unveiled plans to transform its Thunderbird email client into a comprehensive communica...
Recent activities
- Kezxo updated Thunderbird
- 3766215 reviewed Thunderbird
Thunderbird is extremely cludgy and messy. It is not friendly when using Office 365 for business due to requiring use of 3rd party paid service. It is heavy and just does not handle large email accounts well as it starts to crawl. It is fine for light weight use, but is far from a business class app.
- mrcat rated Thunderbird
- mrcat liked Thunderbird
tintin_yuan added Thunderbird as alternative to QQ Mail
What is Thunderbird?
Thunderbird Videos
Thunderbird information
Developed by
Mozilla Licensing
Open Source (MPL-2.0) and Free product.Rating
Average rating of 4.1Alternatives
84 alternatives listedNews
25 news article related to ThunderbirdSupported Languages
Comments and Reviews
I have tried several email clients including Outlook, Em Client, Claws Mail, Zimbra Desktop, Mailbird... and went back to Thunderbird every single time.
Thunderbird is simply still the most customizable email client out there that delivers a solid, stable performance for the unbeatable price of free.
Supports an unlimited number of mailboxes, calendards, has full-text email search, can show you an unified inbox, you can easily compose HTML messages, read RSS feeds, use extensions etc. It's really a Swiss army knife.
The only real alternative is Claws Mail if you rather prefer a fast, lightweight client.
If you only use 1-2 mailboxes (or don't mind paying) and use Windows, Em Client is a decent alternative, too, with a steady release period.
Good to know: Thunderbird is not an abandoned project, it's maintained by the community and bugfixes, minor feature updates are being released periodically.
Thunderbird has always been my favourite email client. But update after updates, Thunderbird gets worse and worse.
On each update, disabled extensions increase, and lot of them are no more updated, or, when they are updated, doesn't work as they should.
Some features asked for years by many users are still not made (like mail summary in list, as you can see in Apple Mail, and most of other email clients). Can't use maildir (beta / unsafe) instead of mbox.
I'm really fed up fighting with Thunderbird on each update with features like "dark mode" I don't really need or could wait for (as they disabled themes support which was useful for "dark mode" or "accessibility").
Looks like Mozilla is trying to kill Thunderbird !
Thunderbird is extremely cludgy and messy. It is not friendly when using Office 365 for business due to requiring use of 3rd party paid service. It is heavy and just does not handle large email accounts well as it starts to crawl. It is fine for light weight use, but is far from a business class app.
Free and better alternative to Windows Mail
It is a very good and reliable e-mail client with support of Chats with Jabber or Matrix.
I use this App since 20 years and because of it is free and open source in a modification of a portable version. It is also very customizable with many many addons.
The new version is really practical, while being nice to look at.
I'm on the fence with Thunderbird. My experience is on-and-off as I move between macOS, Win, Linux. It has definitely come a long way with UI improvements, especially the editor. Of course I cannot overlook the fact that it is FOSS.
But I am still a little confused fully syncing with Outlook.com, including the calendar. Having to rely on extensions from the outset is a little disappointing. Plus, a person like me would like a dummies guide to get it done without having to search it up on external sites.
I'm curious about how things will look regarding Microsoft's upcoming plan to change the authentication method. Oh and including Microsoft 365 accounts.
Nevertheless, it has all the basic features you want in an app to maintain a calendar and to-do list. I have found Thunderbird to be more stable than Evolution.
EDIT: Not going to improve the score just yet, but wanted to add another disadvantage: the default sort of messages. Messages in your Inbox are sorted by date where the latest email is at the bottom of the list. You can change the sort, but if you have lots of folders to organise your inbox, there's no global setting. You have set the sort per folder.