Claws Mail
A fast, keyboard-driven email client that loads a hundred thousand message folder without thinking about it.
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6 more ways to get Claws Mail
Other download sites
Run by third parties, not by The Claws Mail Team. Prefer the official page above when it works.
Package managers
- winget
winget install --id ClawsMail.ClawsMail - Chocolatey
choco install claws-mail - Homebrew
brew install claws-mail - Flathub
flatpak install flathub org.claws_mail.Claws-Mail
About Claws Mail
Claws Mail is a GTK client built for speed and for people who process a lot of mail. It handles IMAP, POP3, NNTP and local mailboxes, filters aggressively, and keeps memory use low even with very large folders. Everything is reachable from the keyboard.
Most extras are plugins that ship with it: PGP signing and encryption, spam filtering, RSS, vCalendar, HTML rendering and more. It composes in plain text by default, which is a feature to its users and a limitation to everyone else.
Strengths
- Opens and searches enormous mail folders without stalling
- Plugins for PGP, spam filtering, RSS and calendars ship with it
- Fully keyboard driven, with filtering that goes as deep as you need
- Windows installers alongside the Linux and BSD packages
Limitations
- Composes plain text by default; HTML mail sending is deliberately limited
- The interface is functional and looks like it was designed in 2004
- No built-in calendar, only a vCalendar plugin
- macOS support depends on third-party packaging
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree and open source under the GPL 3.0 or later.
- License
- GPL-3.0-or-later
- Developer
- The Claws Mail Team
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Handling a large mail archive quickly on a slow machine
- Categories
- Email clients
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Selected from the TechWalrus downloads catalog (Email); facts checked against the developer's own pages, 2 sources on file.
Alternatives to Claws Mail
Compare allSoftware that can replace Claws Mail for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
Thunderbird
Mozilla’s desktop mail client, with calendar, contacts and a unified inbox, funded by donations rather than ads.
Thunderbird adds full HTML composing, a built-in calendar, tasks and an add-on ecosystem with OpenPGP, at the cost of a denser and heavier interface.
Betterbird
A Thunderbird fork that ships extra fixes and features, and can run side by side on the same profile.
Betterbird is a Thunderbird fork for Windows, macOS and Linux with extra fixes and a portable Windows build, run by a small volunteer project.
Evolution
GNOME's mail, calendar, contacts and tasks suite, and the usual answer for Exchange on Linux.
Evolution adds a real calendar, contacts, tasks and an Exchange plugin, but runs only on Linux and is heavier and slower to start.
KMail
KDE's email client with IMAP, filtering and OpenPGP support.
KMail integrates OpenPGP and S/MIME and shares calendar with Kontact, but is Linux only in practice and depends on the Akonadi storage service.
Geary
GNOME email client built around conversation threads.
Geary groups mail into conversations with fast full-text search, but is Linux only and deliberately minimal, with no encryption, rules engine or calendar.
Mailspring
A desktop mail client with a unified inbox, snooze and send later, whose paid tier adds read receipts.
Mailspring offers a modern Electron interface with snooze, send later and templates, but uses more resources than a native client and has read receipts on a paid tier.
NeoMutt
A fork of Mutt that gathered decades of scattered patches into one maintained terminal mail client.
NeoMutt moves to a terminal interface on macOS and Linux with Notmuch tags and compressed folders, but has no Windows build and requires writing a configuration file.
aerc
A terminal email client with vim-style keys, an embedded terminal for composing, and first-class support for git email workflows.
aerc is a terminal client with vim-style keys and a git patch workflow, supporting IMAP, Maildir, Notmuch and JMAP, but has no Windows build.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
isync
Fast IMAP to Maildir mirroring, usually invoked as mbsync.
OfflineIMAP
Synchronises IMAP accounts into local Maildir folders.
MailStore Home
Free Windows email archiver for IMAP, Exchange and PST files.
