Claws Mail is a lightweight email client and news reader built using the GTK toolkit. Formerly known as Sylpheed-Claws, it combines a traditional desktop interface with extensive configuration options and fast access to locally stored messages.
The application is designed for users who prefer a conventional three-pane email interface, keyboard shortcuts and control over how their correspondence is organised. Messages are stored in MH format, with support for importing and exporting other mailbox formats.
Claws Mail can be extended through plugins that add encryption, RSS feeds, calendar facilities and other functionality. Its flexible approach to message handling makes it suitable for managing anything from a personal mailbox to a complex collection of accounts and folders.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Support for multiple email accounts using POP3, IMAP and SMTP.
- Usenet news reading and posting through NNTP.
- TLS encryption for mail and news connections using GnuTLS.
- OAuth2 authentication for supported email providers, including Gmail and Microsoft services.
- Threaded message display with colour labels, tags and message scoring.
- Powerful searching, filtering and per-folder message processing.
- Multiple MH mail folders, Unix mailspool support and Mbox import/export.
- OpenPGP encryption and digital signatures through GnuPG and GPGME, supporting PGP/MIME and inline PGP.
- S/MIME encryption and digital signatures through the S/MIME plugin and GpgSM.
- Search for missing OpenPGP keys and optionally retrieve them when preparing encrypted messages.
- Configurable address book with LDAP support and recipient autocompletion.
- Spell checking using Enchant.
- Message templates, signatures, user-defined headers and an external editor.
- Configurable display of HTML messages, including per-folder text rendering or plugin-based viewing.
- Attachment management, MIME handling and warnings about potentially forgotten attachments.
- Spam filtering through plugins supporting Bogofilter and SpamAssassin.
- RSSyl plugin for reading RSS and Atom feeds.
- Calendar functionality through the vCalendar plugin.
- Additional plugins for mail archiving, notifications, PDF viewing and other tasks.
- Customisable toolbars, themes, keyboard shortcuts and external actions.
- Command-line options for controlling application behaviour.
Website: www.claws-mail.org
Support:
Developer: Claws Mail team
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
Claws Mail is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Graphical Email Clients | |
|---|---|
| Thunderbird | Popular free, cross-platform e-mail, RSS and newsgroup client |
| Kmail | Email component of Kontact |
| Sylpheed | Simple, lightweight client |
| Mailspring | New version of Nylas Mail |
| Claws Mail | Lightweight yet powerful and full-featured client |
| Evolution | Provides integrated mail, addressbook and calendaring functionality |
| Geary | Mail client for GNOME written in Vala |
| Astroid | Lightweight and fast Mail User Agent |
| Balsa | Email client for GNOME |
| Also known as Pantheon Mail | |
| Dodo | Based on the command line email swiss-army-knife notmuch |
| Aerion | Standalone lightweight e-mail client inspired by Geary |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Lightweight Email Clients | |
|---|---|
| Sylpheed | Client also based on the GTK+ GUI toolkit |
| Claws Mail | Powerful, user-friendly, fast and full-featured mail client based on GTK+ |
| Geary | Lightweight mail client for GNOME that is written in Vala |
| Astroid | Lightweight and fast Mail User Agent |
| Trojitá | Qt-based IMAP email client |
| Aerion | Lightweight e-mail client inspired by Geary |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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It would help if you tell the reader if it finds all the connections automatically like Thunderbird.
There is a link for the documentation inside. If this is really a go or nogo, klick on it. And then, in the first part you could read: “When you click the “Auto-configure” button, Claws Mail will attempt to configure your account’s servers based on your email address and the type of account you have chosen. ”
But this depends of your provider. On my MailServers this doesnt work, not for Thunderbird either.
I am using Claws for a lot of years and for me it is really the best. Fast and secure, super easy to make a full backup of all relevant parts, so also restore is easy.