Summary: Thunderbird is a robust and powerful email program that can meet the needs of both light and power users. I use it all day every day.
Mozilla's Thunderbird is my choice for email. I use it all day every day, and I can heartily recommend it as an often more powerful and capable replacement for mail programs like Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail and many other desktop email applications.
The feature list is long, but I want to call out some of my favorite features and some of the things that personally draw me to Thunderbird and cause me to make it my recommendation for almost anyone using a desktop email program.
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Free: You already know that Thunderbird's free. That part's easy, and makes it something that is risk free to try and experiment with before deciding.
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Comfort: Most users of Outlook Express will actually feel very comfortable in Thunderbird. Basic operation is very similar.
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"... Thunderbird remains my recommended alternative to almost every other desktop email program."
File Format: Thunderbird uses a standard, common plain text file format for it's data store (mbox format, for the geeks among us). Many email programs use proprietary database formats that, quite frankly, seem prone to breaking and make it difficult to move from machine to machine. Thunderbird uses a simple on-disk folder structure that mirrors your email folder structure, and actual email is kept as plain text files. Moving your Thunderbird email from machine to machine is as simple as copying the folder tree.
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Cross-platform support: I've successfully moved my email not only between Windows PCs, but also to my Mac and to my Linux machines. As I said, transferring was a simple copy of all the folders and support information. The result was that not only did my email get transferred, but all the account settings, filters and even supported extensions were moved as well.
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Extensions: like it's cousin FireFox, Thunderbird has a number of powerful Add-ons available. Examples include Lightning, the calendar add-on and the Google Calendar Provider, the Enigmail encryption add-on, QuickText which allows you to enter common responses with a single keystroke, and one of my favorites, Nostalgy which allows you to copy or move messages between folder extremely easily using the keyboard.
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Filters: Thunderbird supports a set of very powerful filters that allow you to have it take action automatically on mail as it arrives. For example, I have 37 separate filters that automatically sort incoming email and place it into various folders based on various criteria. Your needs may not be that complex, but simply being able to say things like "if this is from someone in my address book, move it into this folder" is a powerful way to prioritize your approach to email.
Naturally, there are many more features that may appeal to you. I encourage you to have a look.
Thunderbird is at version 2 and remains stable. Version 3 is underway with assorted features and enhancements, of course. But even at v2, Thunderbird remains my recommended alternative to almost every other desktop email program. (The sole exception would be Microsoft Outlook for the corporate and power user, but even then, I'm a power user, and have come to prefer Thunderbird anyway.)
If you don't already have a favorite (I acknowledge that email programs are often a personal, even passionate, decision), or you're struggling with the drawbacks of whatever program you're currently using, Thunderbird is worth a look.
I recommend it.
Related:
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How do I backup my GMail? Relying on free email services - even GMail - can be an unnecessary risk. Fortunately GMail makes it possible, even easy, to backup your email.
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How do I move from web-based email to email on my desktop? Moving from a web based free email service to downloading email to your desktop is a smart move, but often not as easy to do as we'd like.
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Are free email services worth it? Free email services and accounts are convenient and ubiquitous. But free email services aren't the right place to keep your important information.
Article C3451 - July 20, 2008
Hi Leo,
glad to find a big Thunderbird fan out there, I've been happily using it as an alternative to OE for a few years now.
In fact I run my 3 little businesses, and personal stuff on it, and that's the reason for my question.
My wife and I share about 3 PC's for the businesses across our LAN, and I now have a shiny new NAS (synology DS209), on which to store all our files centrally. I'd also like to put our mail server on there, so that no matter what PC we're on we can work on email. Do you have any experience of setting up T-bird like this, or do you always just have your mail living on one Pc (plus backups)?
many thanks for any help,
Doug
12-Sep-2009
Posted by: doug stoddart at September 9, 2009 6:47 AM
Hi Leo
I have just synced my Gmail with Thunderbird as it seems like something that should make my life much easier...it imported all my inbox however it completely ignored my labeling structure and more importantly my sent box which i really need for reference.
Any tips on what might have gone wrong/how to fix?
Thanks
22-Sep-2009
Posted by: Jenny Esk at September 21, 2009 11:04 AM
One of my favourite features is to make my own incomming mail sound...I use a windoz sound 136 from(xp)pinball on most of my Thunderbirds...
Posted by: Hugh at November 3, 2009 7:16 AMTo Bill Nelson -
Posted by: Pat Shields at November 3, 2009 8:01 AMYes you can import all your old email from Outlook Express and your Address book too into Thunderbird.
Thunderbird can't import from Windows Live Mail. And, Blackbury will not sync with Thunderbird. Two good reasons not to use.
Posted by: Robert Funkey at November 3, 2009 1:33 PMUsed to use Thunderbird until Gmail came out in '05(?). I don't need to bother with backups, don't need to lug machines around, don't need to transfer settings and files to new machines. Now with Google Gears, all the info is also synched to my laptop so I can use Gmail/calendar/tasks/docs off-line.
Posted by: David at November 3, 2009 2:30 PMAll my POP3 email for my business is automatically transferred... I can't for the life of me think why I'd ever use an email client like Thunderbird/Express (uughhh)/Outlook, etc.
For about a decade, I have used the basic email "engine" for Thunderbird (even since it was part of the Netscape email application). TBird has been a reliable, stable email application, and these days, that makes it a prized asset.
TBird is not only very solid and easily handled, but an easily-fixed application-- not that it ever needs much attention.
What I like best about TBird is the new anti-spam ("Junk") feature, which makes life far easier than when we had to use filters for each email box. The junk filter is very good at guessing what is sales junk mail and what is subscription or other mail.
And the few times TBird's junk filter threw my good email into a junk folder, I "taught" TBird to correct its error by simply restoring the message (dragging it back to its correct folder). TBird "learns" each time I correct a mistaken junk mail identification, and becomes "smarter" every day.
The nice thing about using TBird is every user can visit one of the TBird forums (from the main menu, under "Help Contents") for free assistance from other users, many of whom are experts.
Posted by: Bob Greene at November 4, 2009 3:09 AMI’ve recently converted 11 gigabytes Outlook Express data to Thunderbird. The conversion happened without a hitch and was quicker than expected considering the amount of email. The file structure was preserved. Some things did not come across, or came across imperfectly. For example:
+ The read/unread status of email did not come across
+ Message rules/Message filters did not come across and had to reconstructed by hand (not a big deal)
+ The account data was “imperfect” requiring some research and fiddling with all accounts before I could send and receive email. The account data for my wife’s hotmail account was way off.
In addition to getting Thunderbird up and running, there have been a variety of interface and usability issues that needed solving. Things like the emails being sent immediately instead of going to an outbox, emails written in Ariel but being sent as plain text, the option to start up in the inbox was buried and mislabeled, and Outlook identities mapping to Thunderbird profiles (Thunderbird has “identities,” but they are a very different feature than Outlook identities). And many more small issues like these. Thunderbird is working fine now, but it took some research and fiddling before everyone in the family was happy.
== Rob ==
Posted by: Robert Bunney at November 4, 2009 9:34 PMDoes Thunderbird do newsgroups, the way OE does???
07-Nov-2009
Posted by: Glenn P. at November 6, 2009 1:45 PM
Leo, I'm rather surprised that you didn't mention this photo embedding thingy in the article and then commented on by Judy Currior Jly 4th. It's important to me that pics get sent down the line in the usual O'Ex way ?
Posted by: Derek Miles at November 11, 2009 9:38 PM