First released in 2007, eM Client now claims to be “the best email client for Windows and Mac” – a rather grandiose claim to say the least, given the range of competition from other email clients including Windows’ own Outlook. In this eM Client review I’ll give a basic walkthough of it, answer some FAQ’s, compare it to alternatives and finally recommend whether you should use it or not.
Installing eM Client
eM Client is super-easy to install, though the install package is a bit bigger than you may expect at 108MB. After downloading the installer (only download it from emclient.com — nowhere else), the installation process literally only took about 1 minute for me:
Adding an email account to eM Client
After installing eM Client, you’ll have to add an email address of some kind to it. For the purposes of this review, I tried it with my Gmail account, though you can use it with any email you have access to (the process of getting it setup will of course just be different if it’s an email account hosted on your own server, for example, vs a Gmail or hotmail email account).
For a Gmail account, it only took 1 or 2 minutes to get it setup — super fast. I just entered my Gmail email, and then eM Client opened my browser to Gmail and asked me to login and give eM Client full permissions to my Gmail:
Once you click “Allow” for all of this, you can start using your Gmail account with Em Client. It will then start downloading all your existing emails, which can go on for a long time. But you can send/receive emails immediately.
eM Client themes
There are loads of different themes that eM Client comes with in addition to the default theme. When you install it and use it for the first time, you’ll be presented with an option to choose a different theme:
The default “Modern” one works just fine for me.
The eM Client interface
Here’s what eM Client looks like with the default theme:
Quite simple and clean. When you use eM Client you also get desktop notifications when a new email comes in, like this:
The interface for sending emails is also about what you’d expect:
When should you use eM Client?
If you just have a free email account (@gmail.com or @hotmail.com) and are fine with doing emails in a web browser, you may not need to use an email client like eM Client. Gmail is already an excellent product, and their email interface (which is excellent) is free to use for @gmail.com emails. It’s when you’re using an official or work email account (like [email protected]) when you may want to use something like eM Client, because Gmail’s email interface won’t be available to you unless you pay, and most decent email clients (Microsoft Outlook, PostBox, MailBird and so on) are paid tools. Many people also prefer to use desktop software for emails over a web browser.
Is eM Client safe? Does it respect your privacy?
eM Client appears to be 100% safe, as I have not heard of any security breaches with their software, or any security/privacy issues that would be cause for concern.
What platforms is eM Client available on?
eM Client is available on Windows and Mac. It’s desktop software and not available on mobile devices of any kind (iOS or Android).
Are there any discount coupons for eM Client?
If you purchase an eM Client license, there’s an option to enter a discount coupon:
However, at the time of writing, I have not found any working coupon codes. All the codes I found on spammy coupon sites (‘EMCLIENTFIVE’ is one, for example) didn’t work.
How is eM Client’s support?
There is a very good knowledgebase on the eM Client website, and you can expect reasonable support from eM Client if you have a Pro license (their support is managed by Kayako Help Desk Software – you can register here).
How does eM Client compare to other email clients?
I’d categorize the 3 primary competitors to eM Client as the following:
- Microsoft Outlook (the big dog)
- MailBird
- Mozilla Thunderbird
eM Client vs Outlook: Outlook is available on mobile, unlike eM Client, and is more widely used. However, eM Client has some additional features over Outlook such as instant chat, custom themes and backup. If you want to have a chat interface (like what Skype has) sometimes instead of email, get eM Client.
eM Client vs MailBird: eM Client has a better search feature than Mailbird and allows customizing the layout, but otherwise MailBird is also a fine email client. eM Client is also cheaper overall, with their Pro for individuals license costing a one-off $49.95, and MailBird costing $69 for individual users.
eM Client vs Thunderbird: The best thing about Thunderbird is it’s completely free and open-source. If you want a desktop email client that you don’t have to pay for, you should get it. Compared to eM Client, it doesn’t have different built-in themes, backup or a bunch of other features (such as snooze incoming emails, watch for replies or all attachments view). Definitely worth downloading and trying, and only paying for an email client like eM Client if it has some specific features you need.
How does eM Client stack up overall?
eM Client is an excellent email client in my opinion, and definitely worth checking out. I don’t know if they should really be saying they are objectively “the best” email client, but they are definitely one of the best.
