How about isync + notmuch + afew + alot + msmtp? gpg decryption not directly supported but using alot's pipeto it can be used to decrypt messages. As using notmuch as indexer it's flow is pretty similar/compatible to/with gmail.
this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2025
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Thunderbird.
It is the worst email client besides all the alternatives
Thunderbird since forever. Before that, Seamonkey and the Mozilla suite.
There are some changes I didn't like over the years like the tabbed interface for everything, but nothing else ever came along that worked as well and was multi-platform.
Betterbird
Evolution.
I use Thunderbird.
Sometimes you just cant beat the classics.
Especially when the classic Thunderbird was just overhauled with modern UI
(Which you can disable, luckily. I still use the classic layout with the table of emails on top and the selected email below)
Good ol Thunderbird
seamonkey and thunderbird are both good
aerc
Þis is þe way.
I use msync and notmuch, to provide Google-like tagging and searching, and to keep a local email cache so it's faster, but aerc supports boþ notmuch and IMAP, so you get boþ.
I really respect your comittment to using þorns here, even though it means people probably down vote you because they don't know what's going on.
Just wanted to let you know. Keep it up :)
Cheers!
Thunderbird. I even use Thunderbird as my RSS reader too.
Thunderbird and neomutt.
aerc+mbsync+notmuch
If you want a GUI, I was using Evolution before aerc and I was happy with it. I just prefer keyboard navigation which naturally is well supported by any TUI application.
Any halfway decent desktop email client will do the job—people have already listed several. I use claws-mail, but getting it to work with GMail involves the computer equivalent of doing a triple backflip through a hoop, so you may want to go with something more common.
Thunderbird
I like evolution a lot
I used to use Thunderbird, but their GPG integration always crashed the whole program. I now use Evolution.
Interesting, GPG has been working just fine for me so far.
My main issue with it remains that barely anyone else uses GPG.
I use mutt
I use AERC. TUI that is just so painfully easy to use. integrates with whatever editor you use like vim or emacs or whatever. Account setup is a breeze via a config file thus making it easy to backup. I have it in my nix config so whenever I take my nixos anywhere or reinstall it I instantly have my email ready to go.
Also Thunderbird, but specifically the Betterbird fork.
It works well, its fast, its lightweight (like 100-200MB of RAM), and has lots of features.
I also have my calendar in it.
At this point I'm thinking of creating my own client haha.
I believe MailSpring is really powerful. But some advanced features are behind a pro account. MailSpring itself is open source.
As a Gnome/GTK enthusiast, I really love Geary. I think it’s the email client that integrates best with the Gnome environment!
Geary is very polished and shiny. I ended up not using it because I have a lot of folders, automatic rules to sort things, different signatures and addresses and some of the advanced email stuff isn't in there. But definitely worth a look for someone with a simpler private email inbox. And so much more intuitive to use than for example Thunderbird.
mu4e inside my Emacs session.
I tried using Gmail through Thunderbird, but the problem is that the filtering is web UI only
Betterbird
I've tried Vivaldi mail. Might be something for you, but I just didn't like the UI so I'm also still using the web interface for each. Looking forward to seeing others answer as well.
Vivaldi is great IF you don't use the web UI. outside of that it's fast and decent. I still use my Vivaldi email account from when I used to use the browser. now I just use it in aerc as a sort of 'junk drawer' email.