The Search for My New Email App of Choice: The Winner

A couple of weeks back I started my search for a new email app of choice. I had several options I was weighing:

  1. Notify
  2. Postbox
  3. MailPlane
  4. MailMate
  5. Mail.app

After spending some time with each app (and some somewhat wasted time with one of these apps since it has been discontinued), I’ve rendered my decision…

Postbox won.

In fact, nothing else even came close – Postbox won handily.

MailPlane was my second choice, as it is powerful and brigns the elements of the Gmail web interface to the desktop. But I’m not a huge fan of the Gmail interface, which makes it less appealing than Postbox. Postbox is amazingly robust and powerful, and is cross-platform so that both Mac and Windows users can install it.

Postbox allows for TextExpander support, is reasonably priced at under $10 USD, and even contains Evernote integration as part of its arsenal of features. The only downside I’ve experienced with Postbox is the occasional (and infamous) “spinning beach ball”, and I’ve been unable to figure out if it’s a problem with my own resources when I’m using the app or if it is something that is a direct result of Postbox. It’s a minor annoyance, but it’s something I’m willing to put up with considering how much better the overall experience is that I’ve had with Postbox so far.

After installing Mountain Lion, I gave Apple’s own Mail.app another go…and then quickly dismissed it once again. I don’t know what it is about Mail.app, but I just don’t find it enjoyable to use – or particularly robust either.

(As for MailMate, I barely touched it before realizing it wasn’t for me as it was too close to Mail.app in appearance and operation, something that Postbox isn’t.)

Now there are other options coming down the pipeline that I’ll give a look as I either get access to them or they arrive on the scene. The same goes for iOS mail apps, as I’m not fond of iOS Mail either (although replacing that is going to be much more difficult due to the way iOS itself works). But my new email app of choice is Postbox – and I’m glad I spent a bit of time searching for it because it delivers the goods.