My Thoughts: Claws Mail vs. Thunderbird – A comparison
Arun
· 2 years ago
Nice comparison. As you said CM is super-fast and i like it. However availability of "Extensions" for almost anything is a big plus for thunderbird.
David Russell
· 2 years ago
The reason Claws Mail is so fast is that it doesn't really do much. I could write a tic-tac-toe program right now that will run faster than the one included in Gnome. That would be because it would be text-only, have a horrible interface, and lack most of the features people have come to expect. Much like Claws Mail actually.
zygfryd homonto
· 2 years ago
David, where are you from ? what are you talking about ? you are not serious - are you ?
Lang
· 2 years ago
The spam issue was a breaker for me. I use IMAP exclusively and couldn't find a way to easily replace the junk mail controls of Thunderbird. I like to try different programs, but seeing that even after blocking most spam at the server, about 1/2 of the mail that actually makes it through is spam and by this point Thunderbird catches about 90% of that.
I wish the junk mail controls were a little better. I'm all for the one tool for one job unix philosophy, but in this case I make the exception.
Nice write-up by the way.
Paul
· 2 years ago
David Russell says: The reason Claws Mail is so fast is that it doesnât really do much.
Excuse me David, but you talk shit! I guess that you haven't tried Claws Mail.
Peter, a few enhancements to your comments…
You talk about 'native support' for GPG and anti-spam. Since the Claws Mail team maintains and ships these plugins the line between native support and non-native support is quite blurred, imo. The main difference is that you have to initially load a plugin. 8 plugins are packaged with and built at the same time as Claws Mail, dependencies allowing, with 16 other plugins being packaged separately as 'Extra Plugins'.
Archiving: You can also Lock messages. In addition to folder-specific Processing, you can set Pre-Processing rules, which are global and are run before Folder Processing rules.
Mail Listing (sic): You can activate the option 'Reply button invokes mailing list reply' so that replying to a mailing list message just does the 'right thing' without need the specific Mailing List submenu items.
Spam: You don't have to install SpamAssassin on your machine, the SA plugin can communicate with a remote SA. Yes, SA is a bit slow, bogofilter is quicker and just as effective once it has been well trained.
Reading Email: you don't need a plugin to be able to read HTML mail. The option 'Render HTML messages as text' will strip the tags from the html and display it as plaintext, respecting linebreaks and stuff.
You didn't even mention the powerful Actions feature, which opens up many possibilities!
Howard
· 1 year ago
What about RSS? Handling RSS in Thunderbird seems much more natural than using a web browser and is my preferred method of reading RSS. Does Claws Mail handle that?
Peter
· 1 year ago
I don't remember with the version I used to compare but version 3.5 has a plugin that will give you the option to create an account to be used for RSS. Personally I don't use it, I prefer a separate reader.
upendra
· 1 year ago
Hi Guys,
I am Claws-mail - email client user . Version I use is : version 3.6.1 on gentoo.
I am very much satisfied with the way claws-mail works for me - i use GPG and calender mostly. It is very fast. I have some issues with claws-mail -
1. vcalender plugin is not as good as thunderbird may be. does not show a sidepanel like the calender in thunderbird shows - don't like vcalender plugin much.. can not import other calenders like my gmail calender.
2. I find it extremely annoying when I receive an email with html format or a doc attachment in it. It takes forever for claws-mail to download that email- eventually I have to kill claws-mail client and check that email on web interface for our email server. I delete that email from web interface because then if I re open claws-mail client it again takes forever to do anything with client, client is open but keeps on working on that email forever and I can not even browse through other folders or stop anything. I kill it.
I wonder if other users of claws-mail also have this issue..
I run Claws in Ubuntu but I don't experience any of the HTML problems you describe. Which plugins are you running?
upendra
· 1 year ago
Using dillo to show html emails. I am on amd64 and claws-mail is 64bit, GTK+ 2.14.4 / GLib 2.18.2 Locale: C (charset: US-ASCII) Operating System: Linux 2.6.27-gentoo-r1 (x86_64)
I also have this problem when someone send email with .doc attachments
Aditya
· 1 year ago
Thanks for this comparison, i've been thinking on switching from thunderbird to claws mail. But i have one question, do you know any tools to move all messages from thunderbird into Claws Mail(if there's any)? because that's what that keeps holding me back from switching to another email client
Peter
· 1 year ago
Claws mail can import mbox which is the format Thunderbird stores its email
The main reason for me to switch from thunderbird to claws was the ability to filter against the adressbook, and templates (per folder). I've seen both features only in The Bat! before. I was missing them since I moved to Linux and thunderbird.
alpha1
· 4 months ago
I installed CLAWS E-mail on my eeePC laptop running Kubuntu Jaunty, but could not figure out how to import all of my Thunderbird E-mail and settings. Is there some way to do this>
HenryH
· 2 months ago
Thanks 4 the comparison.
I used Thunderbird for several years and then switched to Claws a year or so back (mainly for the GPG support. Now I'm thinking of switching back to Thunderbird because: Claws won't let me do anything else in Claws when it's checking e-mail accounts. Claws won't even let me xkill it when it's off checking for mail!! I'm getting some (html) e-mails which show nothing in claws unless I invoke html viewing I don't like the way Thunderbird handles multiple SMTP accounts I don't like the way Claws Mail handles multiple SMTP accounts
Perhaps I should try to run The Bat! in wine?
I used The Bat! for several yease and was quite happy with it. It's a pity that the thunderbird (& Claws) developers don't do SWAT analysis of their product and the competition (from the users' perspective, NOT the programmers,) to bring in some of the features which work in The Bat! (But The Bat! is not enough to get me to go back to W).
Peter
· 2 months ago
The inability to do anything Claws when it is checking mail is annoying. I don't have the problem of multiple SMTP accounts although I do have several accounts that require different SMTP accounts. I "solved" it by setting up a mail server in my local network and have the mail server handle the remote SMTP settings, In claws I just have on SMTP setting, to my local mail server.
I never used The Bat!, but I don't like to use wine in general, kinda defeats the purpose of running Linux.
HenryH
· 2 months ago
Wine leaves lots to be desired but The Bat! does have lots of good points (IMAP is not one of them). I had thought of having my own mailserver locally but that seems to me to be overkill for something which SHOULD be quite simple - getting the mail!!
I have given up on Claws (for a while anyway) an have decided to use The Bat! (under wine) for the pop3 accounts and Thunderbird for the IMAP. It's a compromise but one I can live with as I can e-mail between the accounts for the few times when I need to transfer info between the clients.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Nikkobuntu
· 1 month ago
Thank's all for the topic ...
I was on finding an alternative to Thunderbirb, mainly for the poorly way that Thunderbird is managing contacts. On one of my PC's I switched to Evolution .. and not really happy with it, but it's not the topic here. SO, what about the contact management offered by Claws ? Is any one who had experience with Outlook or Evolution would give me some commentary on this point ?
All Comments
I wish the junk mail controls were a little better. I'm all for the one tool for one job unix philosophy, but in this case I make the exception.
Nice write-up by the way.
Excuse me David, but you talk shit!
I guess that you haven't tried Claws Mail.
Peter, a few enhancements to your comments…
You talk about 'native support' for GPG and anti-spam. Since the Claws Mail team maintains and ships these plugins the line between native support and non-native support is quite blurred, imo. The main difference is that you have to initially load a plugin. 8 plugins are packaged with and built at the same time
as Claws Mail, dependencies allowing, with 16 other plugins being packaged separately as 'Extra Plugins'.
Archiving: You can also Lock messages. In addition to folder-specific Processing, you can set Pre-Processing rules, which are global and are run before Folder Processing rules.
Mail Listing (sic): You can activate the option 'Reply button invokes mailing list reply' so that replying to a mailing list message just does the 'right thing' without need the specific Mailing List submenu items.
Spam: You don't have to install SpamAssassin on your machine, the SA plugin can communicate with a remote SA. Yes, SA is a bit slow, bogofilter is quicker and just as effective once it has been well trained.
Reading Email: you don't need a plugin to be able to read HTML mail. The option 'Render HTML messages as text' will strip the tags from the html and display it as plaintext, respecting linebreaks and stuff.
You didn't even mention the powerful Actions feature, which opens up many possibilities!
Personally I don't use it, I prefer a separate reader.
I am Claws-mail - email client user . Version I use is : version 3.6.1 on gentoo.
I am very much satisfied with the way claws-mail works for me - i use GPG and calender mostly. It is very fast. I have some issues with claws-mail -
1. vcalender plugin is not as good as thunderbird may be. does not show a sidepanel like the calender in thunderbird shows - don't like vcalender plugin much.. can not import other calenders like my gmail calender.
2. I find it extremely annoying when I receive an email with html format or a doc attachment in it. It takes forever for claws-mail to download that email- eventually I have to kill claws-mail client and check that email on web interface for our email server. I delete that email from web interface because then if I re open claws-mail client it again takes forever to do anything with client, client is open but keeps on working on that email forever and I can not even browse through other folders or stop anything. I kill it.
I wonder if other users of claws-mail also have this issue..
Installed versions: 3.6.1(21:10:47 11/12/08)(crypt dillo doc gnome imap ldap session spell ssl xface -bogofilter -gnutls -ipv6 -kde -nntp -pda -spamassassin -startup-notification)
Thanks
Which plugins are you running?
Locale: C (charset: US-ASCII)
Operating System: Linux 2.6.27-gentoo-r1 (x86_64)
I also have this problem when someone send email with .doc attachments
I used Thunderbird for several years and then switched to Claws a year or so back (mainly for the GPG support. Now I'm thinking of switching back to Thunderbird because:
Claws won't let me do anything else in Claws when it's checking e-mail accounts.
Claws won't even let me xkill it when it's off checking for mail!!
I'm getting some (html) e-mails which show nothing in claws unless I invoke html viewing
I don't like the way Thunderbird handles multiple SMTP accounts
I don't like the way Claws Mail handles multiple SMTP accounts
Perhaps I should try to run The Bat! in wine?
I used The Bat! for several yease and was quite happy with it. It's a pity that the thunderbird (& Claws) developers don't do SWAT analysis of their product and the competition (from the users' perspective, NOT the programmers,) to bring in some of the features which work in The Bat! (But The Bat! is not enough to get me to go back to W).
I don't have the problem of multiple SMTP accounts although I do have several accounts that require different SMTP accounts. I "solved" it by setting up a mail server in my local network and have the mail server handle the remote SMTP settings, In claws I just have on SMTP setting, to my local mail server.
I never used The Bat!, but I don't like to use wine in general, kinda defeats the purpose of running Linux.
I have given up on Claws (for a while anyway) an have decided to use The Bat! (under wine) for the pop3 accounts and Thunderbird for the IMAP. It's a compromise but one I can live with as I can e-mail between the accounts for the few times when I need to transfer info between the clients.
Thanks for your thoughts.
I was on finding an alternative to Thunderbirb, mainly for the poorly way that Thunderbird is managing contacts. On one of my PC's I switched to Evolution .. and not really happy with it, but it's not the topic here.
SO, what about the contact management offered by Claws ?
Is any one who had experience with Outlook or Evolution would give me some commentary on this point ?
Thks in advance ..