What is an email client?

Web browsers are often used by people to manage their email, using webmail services such as Gmail.com or Outlook.com. It is convenient because you can access your email from almost any computer. If you are away from your computer, then you can easily check your email on somebody else’s computer using their web browser.

An alternative to webmail is to use an email client program installed on your own computer. A program like Thunderbird or Apple Mail or Outlook offers many advantages over using webmail in a browser. Thunderbird lets you organize email exactly how you want, you can read and search email when you are offline, and you can manage multiple email accounts (e.g. work and personal Gmail, and personal Outlook accounts) all in one place. Desktop email clients and web email clients can coexist side-by-side, so you can use more than one, and you can also use webmail.

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

Getting started

You must already have one or more email accounts existing from you mail provider(s). Then:

Install Thunderbird

Install on Windows, Linux or macOS. On first startup of Thunderbird you will see an account configuration dialog.

Add your email accounts

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 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:

• Thunderbird 140 Nebula, and newer
• 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 Thunderbird support articles for Thunderbird 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.
• Our community of Thunderbird volunteers answers support questions, localizes, and contributes software patches. You can Join Us!