I do most of my emailing from my iPhone using Apple Mail. On my MacBook, I use Apple Mail again, but I’ve always struggled to find a solid email client for Windows. If you do most of your emailing on Windows, you’ll know the struggle of trying to find a good email client.
Outlook is bloated (and filled with ads if you’re using it for free), Microsoft has killed off Windows Mail, and browser-based clients are messy at best. Thunderbird was my open-source choice for years, but in 2025, I feel it looks a little dated and packs too many features I’ve never needed to use.
What I wanted was simple: a clean, modern, fast, and free email client for Windows that doesn’t bury me in clutter or ads. After spending some time trying out different e-mail clients, I’ve finally found my favorite: meet Betterbird.
What is Betterbird?
An updated Thunderbird
Betterbird is a fork of Mozilla Thunderbird, built by its developers with one goal: fixing what Thunderbird gets wrong. Thunderbird is still widely used and actively maintained, but its legacy design and slow update rollout often weigh it down. Betterbird, on the other hand, takes the same open-source foundation and makes it sharper, faster, and easier to use.
The project describes itself as a “better Thunderbird,” and, after using it for a while, that’s precisely what it feels like to me.
Why Betterbird stands out
No ads and no unnecessary features
Where Outlook pushes ads and extra services, Betterbird focuses on the essentials. It’s a cross-platform email client that runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS, but it feels especially refreshing on Windows, where decent free clients can be difficult to find.
The first thing you may notice is Betterbird’s performance. It launches quickly, handles multiple inboxes without lag, and makes navigating between folders and calendars painless. It takes the Thunderbird core and trims some of the fat.
Adding accounts in Betterbird is fast and straightforward. From POP to IMAP and Exchange, all major services are supported — unlike Outlook, which sometimes forces you through multiple confusing re-authentication hoops. If you’re coming from Thunderbird, the experience will feel familiar, but the improvements — like cleaner account management and fewer bugs — will be immediately noticeable.
Features that matter
No bloat
While Betterbird probably won’t win any design awards for minimalism, the app does manage to strike a balance that Thunderbird never fully managed. The layout is clean, fully customizable, and responsive. There’s proper dark mode support, including the ability to tone down blinding white emails so they’re easier on the eyes.
Themes are also supported, so you can tweak the interface to your liking. If you’re used to Gmail-style shortcuts, don’t worry — you can map them instantly in Betterbird. It feels modern enough to be fresh, without trying to reinvent the email app.
All the essentials are covered by Betterbird, like scheduled sending, labels, filters, and rules. If you need calendars or task lists, they’re built-in, but they don’t dominate the interface. Each feature feels practical, rather than bolted on, which is the feeling I get when I use Thunderbird nowadays.
Truly free and open-source
With active updates and community support
Betterbird doesn’t hide its functionality behind paywalls, nor does it clutter your inbox with ads. It’s fully open-source software, funded by user donations, and driven by the philosophy that email should be a reliable and accessible tool.
I find this to be a refreshing contrast to Microsoft Outlook, which feels more like a funnel into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, which holds basic multi-account support hostage unless you pay to upgrade. With Betterbird, everything you see is what you get, it packs full functionality from the moment you use the installer.
Because it’s a fork, it can sometimes feel like it’s waiting for Thunderbird’s next big move before it can adapt.
One of Thunderbird’s biggest criticisms has been the pace of updates. Butterbird tackles this by releasing fixes and refinements much more quickly. Bug fixes that may take months in Thunderbird tend to arrive much sooner in Betterbird, which, for me, makes it feel more polished on a day-to-day basis.
All of this isn’t to say that Betterbird is perfect. Because it’s a fork, it can sometimes feel like it’s waiting for Thunderbird’s next big move before it can adapt. Documentation is also thinner compared to Thunderbird, so you may occasionally need to dig through forums for answers to your problems. And while the UI is cleaner than Thunderbird, it’s not as minimal as modern Mac-style email clients. If you’re expecting Apple Mail simplicity, Betterbird still leans toward Microsoft power-user territory.
