What is an email client?

If you are accustomed to using email through your web browser at websites like gmail.com or outlook.com, then the concept of an email client may be unfamiliar to you.

Today, many people manage their email on the web using services such as Gmail.com or Outlook.com. These webmail email service providers offer access to email accounts through any web browser. It is convenient because you can get your email from almost any computer. If you are away from home for work or vacation you can easily check your email on somebody else’s computer.

Another way to handle your email is to use an email client program like Thunderbird or Apple Mail or Outlook installed on your own computer. A program like this offers many advantages over using a web email client. It lets you organize your email exactly how you want, it enables you to read and search your email when you are offline, and you can manage multiple email accounts (e.g. your work gmail and your personal gmail and your personal outlook accounts) in one place. Of course, desktop email clients and web email clients can coexist side-by-side. Using an email client at home does not preclude you from using webmail if, for example, you want to check your account while you are on the road without your computer which has the email client.

Thunderbird is a feature-rich, reliable, and secure email client for managing your email. It's free and open source. Thunderbird has been around since 2004, and is used by many people around the world. Best of all, it runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. You can connect to any email service that supports email standards (e.g. POP, IMAP and SMTP), including Outlook, Exchange, Gmail, Hotmail, GMX and Fastmail.

Getting started for those who are used to webmail

Once you have installed Thunderbird on Windows, Linux or macOS then the next steps are:

Add your email accounts

First, add your existing email accounts to Thunderbird.

For example, add your gmail account(s), or add your outlook, hotmail, office365 accounts using OAuth.

Configure Thunderbird as you see fit

• Perhaps you want Card View?
• Perhaps you want a Unified Inbox? There are many possibilities. Please feel free to experiment in order to find your optimal setup.

Check out the powerful features that an email client offers:

• Use the Quick Filter Toolbar to search a single account as you type.
• Or use Global Search to search across multiple accounts.
• Organize your messages using filters.
• Multiple calendar accounts all in one place.
• Offline mode for reading emails and composing drafts while not connected to the internet.

For beginners and experts alike: Backups, the main window and more

• Please ensure you back up your Thunderbird data periodically. See: Export your Thunderbird Profile
• There are a lot of features in Thunderbird's main window that might improve your workflow. Full details: Getting Started with the Thunderbird main window (Supernova and newer)

I'm not a beginner! What's changed?

Not new to Thunderbird? Perhaps checking it out after a few years? Then the following articles should be helpful in resuming your journey with Thunderbird:

• New in Thunderbird 128 Nebula
• Thunderbird 128 Nebula FAQ
• Getting Started with the Thunderbird main window (Supernova and newer)
• New in Thunderbird 115 Supernova
• Thunderbird 115 Supernova FAQ

Need support? Got a Feature Request? Want to contribute to Thunderbird or Mozilla?

• If the support articles for Thunderbird on this site don't solve your problem and you need support please ask a question on our Thunderbird Forum.
• Please suggest feature requests and other improvements on Mozilla Connect.
• Did you know that our community of Thunderbird volunteers in addition to contributing sofware patches, answers support questions, localizes support articles and more? Join us!