What Email Program or Service Should I Use?

Let's first decide how you want to manage your email. Your first choice to make is whether you want to manage your email through your web browser, such as using Gmail orWhich program to choose for Yahoo Mail, or if you want a full featured email application like Mail (or Outlook on a PC).

You manage your web based email (known as IMAP) through a web site located at the service provider's address such as gmail.com. Usually you have to go to the web site to check your email or write a new one unless you use an add-on program such as Google Notifier.

To use your computer based email (known as POP3), you click on the program icon in the Dock or in your Applications folder. If your internet connection is always on, you can set your application to automatically look for new email for you. Most people just leave the program running so they get notified when they receive new email and can quickly switch to it when they need it.

Here are some Pros and Cons for each.

Web Based Email (IMAP). Pro: You can access your email from any computer, Easiest setup. Con: Doesn't have sophisticated email features, Doesn't integrate with other Apple applications like iPhoto and Address Book. Examples: Gmail (Google email), Yahoo.

Computer Based Email (POP3). Pro: Much more capability, drag and drop attachments, integration with other programs. For example, iPhoto can create an email and insert photos into it with this kind of email. Con: More steps to set up, email managed only at your Mac. Examples: email from your work (name@yourbusiness.com), email you set up with your ISP (name@yourISP.com).

My advice is to use a Computer based email program unless you often bounce from one computer to the next in the course of your day. I also advise you still create a web based email account as a backup plan when you find yourself without your Mac or your email is not working for one reason or another. Side note: You often can use both web based and computer based email on the same email account, but for the sake of simplicity, I suggest you pick one route for its strengths and stick with it.

If you decided to go with Web based email, I suggest selecting from these three options:

1. Gmail (Google email) for integration with other Google services like Googles Docs.
2. Yahoo for integration with iPhone "push" email services.
3. .Mac (Apple) email for intergration with the other .Mac services. Don't buy .Mac just for the email. The above ones are free.

If web based email is for you, you can skip to the Dig Deeper section for links to the services and start your new email service from Safari. Keep in mind, there are lots of programs to make these services even better, such as Gmail + Growl 2.0.

For Computer based email, the main two contenders are Mail from Apple, and Entourage which is a part of Microsoft Office. Both are quality programs, but I give the nod to Mail for its great searching ability and that Microsoft's database seems to get corrupted regularly and needs rebuilding. I recommend Entourage if you want to integrate with your company's Exchange server as seamlessly as possible (Exchange is the part of Outlook where you share address books, Calendars and book meeting rooms with the rest of the company).

If you took my recommendation to use Mail, click here to continue on to How Do I Set Up My Email in Apple Mail?

Are these the best programs for email? Let us know what you think  or ask further questions in the Comments section below!

DIG DEEPER

What is POP Mail
What is IMAP Mail

Web Based Email Providers
Gmail (Google Mail)
Yahoo Mail
.Mac Service

Computer Based Email Programs
Apple Mail
Entourage

Email/Web Hosts and Domain Registrars
1&1
BigBytes

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Your Comments:

Your definition of IMAP and POP, being "("Web Based Email") and "Computer Based Email", is not correct. Nor is classifying Gmail and Yahoo Mail as IMAP.

Just because a email services is web based, doesn't make it IMAP, Gmail and Yahoo Mail are not IMAP - they provide web based and POP3 only.

See this from Gmail:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=10339&topic=1556

"Gmail doesn't currently support IMAP access. As part of our ongoing commitment to give our users easy access to their email, we have introduced POP access. We look forward to announcing other new features as they become available."

.Mac is IMAP. From Apple: ".Mac accounts to use Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) by default. Accounts configured this way will store all messages on the mail server."

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25276

 Mabsey
 07/09/2007  at  05:00 AM

All email accounts are web-based. The difference between them is the means by which a mail program can view them. POP3 means that the email is taken out of you mailbox online and deposited in the mailbox on your computer, while IMAP duplicates the email and places it in your mailbox.

When looking at today's world, the email account is not that important, especially if you always use one computer. If you are switching around a lot, I would suggest using Gmail, since it's Google, so it is available everywhere very easily. If you only use one computer, it doesn't really matter, since you should use an email client for everything.

In the mentioning of the different options for email clients, Mail.app and Entourage are good, but I personally use Mozilla Thunderbird for the customization options. I found that Mail.app does not have adequate junk protections and is just too unorganized for me to use. Entourage, on the other hand, was just like a Windows program, constantly giving me warnings and having pop-up windows. Thunderbird was a good compromise between the two, and is free as well.

 Peter
 07/14/2007  at  05:39 AM

As a few others have mentioned, I feel the all around best solution is to setup an IMAP account online with whichever service you feel fit (although Gmail isn't IMAP) then use your choice of an email client on your own Mac. If you have a newer Intel mac, I'd advise against Entourage because of it's lack of being a Universal Binary application. (Meaning it therefore runs under Apple's Rosetta emulation software which can slow performance) I have to admit however, Entourage may prove the best client for a recent switcher from Outlook as they share a similar UI. Again, your top three choices for an email client on your local machine are 1) Apple's Mail (my favorite), 2) Microsoft's Entourage, & 3) Mozilla Thunderbird. Please be aware Apple's Mail & Mozilla's Thunderbird are free applications as Entourage is part of Microsoft Office which is not free. One final note, if you plan to buy Microsoft Office for Entourage or it's other features, please hold off a year for the new version in 2008 for Mac.

Happy Switching

 Kevin Schaefer
 07/14/2007  at  12:26 PM

Entourage is not bad (I use it to connect to my work's Exchange server all the time), but you should note that it in no way has the full functionality of MS Outlook. For basic Exchange needs it does fine, but if you are a power user for Exchange, look to run the real MS Outlook under virtualization or emulation on the Mac to better suit your needs.

 Macintiger
 07/14/2007  at  05:23 PM

Has anyone had the experience from transferring mail from a PC (Windows XP) in Thunderbird to a Mac either uesing Thunderbird or Mail.app? I'm about ready to undertake this with my primary email with about 7 yrs worth of stuff and would like to know what I'm getting myself into

 macfoo
 07/15/2007  at  07:39 AM

I transfered all of my Thunderbird accounts (four) from Windows to Thunderbird in OS X with no problems. The only thing I had to do after copying the files was recreate my message filters.

 ben stewart
 07/21/2007  at  11:00 PM

Web based email IS NOT IMAP.IMAP uses an email client, like POP does but stores the mail on the server rather than downloading it. Very useful for using multiple computers or in a business environment. Web mail, on the other hand, is accessed through a browser, although some like Gmail may also be downloaded.

 Larry Gusaas
 08/01/2007  at  09:33 PM

One thing to bear in mind is that Entourage uses an entirely proprietary database, which it has to be said is rather prone to corruption. If the database corrupts, you lose _all_ your email and attachments. Additionally, you are unable to expand the functionality of Entourage.

Apple Mail under Mac OS X 10.4 uses what are called "flat files", meaning that each email is separate (and thus a corruption affects only that email), its entire contents are completely searchable from Spotlight, and it can be commented on and referenced from any other application that integrates with the Spotlight API (which is open and freely available to any developer).

 Elf
 08/02/2007  at  06:44 AM

New satisfied owner of a Macbook.

Have questions on Mail though. When I send my emails out to my PC client or colleagues, the signature, the signature with my company logo (.gif) and the message thread all become .htm attachments. This can be annoying to the client. How can i get rid of it?

Hope you guys can help. Thanks.

 Noel
 11/07/2007  at  01:19 AM

Everyone seems to like Gmail, but I have trouble addressing my messages. It's is not easy-not straight forward enough.

 b.taylor
 01/17/2008  at  05:42 PM

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