From Postbox to eM Client worth it?

Postbox
21

As others have noted, do the trial before parting with any money.

If you want a basic email program then something like Thunderbird might do you, its getting better with its UX/UI, has tags, rules etc, and its free of course.

Outlook is another one, but you get ads if you don’t have a 365 subscription. Your own POP/IMAP accounts won’t be able to do rules without an exchange server on a Mac. Also, no categories for POP/IMAP.

eM Client is more like Outlook but doesn’t need an exchange server to do all those things.

The downside of eM Client are potential ongoing costs. If you buy the 50% personal version you will still need to purchase upgrades later on unless you want to buy the lifetime upgrade. Given the experience of Postbox dying would one want to take the risk in doing a lifetime payment? Some are fed up of paying for programs that a free one, like Thunderbird, could do, and money you would spend on eM Client could go somewhere else.

For me, the migration was a mess. Postbox Topics went to Tags, not only the UX/UI of them was ugly but it can take a while to delete them and replace them. Also rules weren’t migrated properly, basically I had to start again. It took me about 48 hours or so to get to a point where I have things under control in eM Client. Unlike going from Legacy Outlook to New Outlook I didn’t see any data loss in emails, however, do a backup in Postbox before you migrate to eM Client. eM Client categories are useless to me, can’t customize them.

The VIP support wasn’t that helpful, they told me to do things without telling me how, getting rid of me quickly I expect. The training piece from Postbox → eM Client is missing somewhat and I had to cobble around before I found things on YouTube or here in the forum.

Regarding your spam maybe you can block emails, domains or top level domains on your ISP back end before they reach your inbox. Depends who your ISP is.

1 Like
22

No, that is not feasible. With over one hundred thousand emails spread across countless folders, do you really expect anyone to manually export and import emails in EML format as you suggested? It feels as though eM Client is designed to trap users, making it difficult to transition away from their platform. I wish there were a regulatory body to oversee this, similar to the actions taken against major technology companies to enforce standards and impose penalties for their practices.

23

There is no way to group accounts. Otherwise the account list is an up and down scrolling nightmare.

There is no way to individually set sync times per account. Hence, one cannot reduce the sync load, by checking lesser important accounts, less frequently.

Otherwise, when the general sync starts, it absolutely hammers the mailserver, and Brute Force IP bans are triggered, Whitelisting IPs is not an option, as roaming users jump through various IPs.

It’s not that we wish to be unkind to eM Client. Very nice mail client, for the average user.

For power users? Absolutely NOT.

There is a reason we moved AWAY from eM CLient to Postbox, in the first place.

Will we go back to eM Client? NO. It’s like stepping out of a Ferrari, into a VW Beetle.

Hope this constructive feedback helps.

Cheers,

Herby

4 Likes
24

Hi,
I previously used Postbox and bought the eM Client licence as part of the offer.

I had several profiles in Postbox, eM Client threw them all together and did not take over any passwords.
Why does eM Client not offer profiles, or is that hidden somewhere?

For some mailboxes, POP3 was still set for certain reasons + mails left on the server after download. eM Client ignored these settings, deleted everything older than 7 days from the server without being asked. Not a user-friendly solution!

Postbox rules were imported - but only the titles, rule contents themselves are gone!
I now find the same entries several times in the rules, why? Unfortunately, it is also not possible to select several of these now unusable rules in order to delete them in one go! A remedy is urgently needed! If I am not mistaken, the rules are contained in rules.dat, rules.dat-shm, rules.dat-wal. But I don’t want to try deleting (renaming) these either.

PS: I received an invitation to the forum user - mail address + password, logged in once. Now it doesn’t work anymore, can’t even find the user. Had to create the account again.

25

Now Postbox stop development and closed - AND recommand eM Client.
At this time Postbox and Thunderbird use different structure (at beginning they are nearly the same), so a simple copy from the Postbox folder into the Thunderbird folder don’t work.
Some things of Postbox I missing, some features of eM Client I don’t need.
What I missing is a mail client as Outlook 2011 for Mac (follower of Entourage).

I painstakingly migrated from Outlook 2011 for Mac to Postbox, now painstakingly from Postbox to eM Client.
I had several profiles in Postbox - including a main profile (mostly POP3) with sophisticated rules that moved important mails to a local file structure.
eM Client copied all of them into a structure AND UNAUTHORISEDLY switched POP3 to delete after 2 days after download - a no-go! eM Client copy all different profiles into one, a second no-go for me.
All old rules don’t work now.

It would probably have been better at the time if I had started migrating to Thunderbird right after the end of the old Mac with Office 2011 for Mac and Outlook.
My main mail client on the Mac is Apple’s Mail.app anyway
Entourage, Outlook 2011, eMail is used to manage additional mailboxes and as a mail archive.
Thunderbird (+ Betterbird test) is also installed, but serves other purposes.

26

I have the same problems. Driving me nuts that I can’t sort the account order as everything is alpha sorted. Biggest issues are grouping, smart folders w/ more powerful conditional logic, rules & conditional logic, and yea - mail servers being hammered…

1 Like
27

I think we all are Beta Users for eM Client (for Mac) now.
The other - Apples Mail and Outlook 2011 for Mac use(d) local Mail-Dir (could see each mail in Finder)
Postbox, Thunderbird (per default), eM Client use Mail-Box format.

28

Hi - I used emClient until about 3 months ago and then moved to Postbox! Whoops. I preferred the look of it - more organised. Also, I could customise the top toolbar, which I preferred: large buttons in the order I wanted.

BUT emClient does one thing I use a lot - rewording email titles, so I can see dates of events in titles quickly. I actually suggested this to Postbox, but it hasn’t been updated for years, and I’m not surprised it’s gone under.

I used to use MailWasher but it got to be too much work and I just make filters in the mail app now. Postbox offered many more options: emClient is simpler.

29

I like what I see but it just doesn’t have the features I use. I have dozes of email accounts, a few dozen smart folders, hundreds of rules and automations.

I really do hope they work on eM Client and enhance it. Perhaps some of the ideas and codebase from Postbox will translate since they both seem to be forks of TB.

I bought a license but I’ll set on it and keep using Postbox until it’s more evolved. So bummed right now though.

30

I would really like to think otherwise, but after spending yet another frustrating day trying to love eM Client, here is my conclusion…

It’s not about resistance to change. In my 40+ of doing business, and using email since 1982, I have seen MANY email cients come and go. If anyone here is old enough to remember, the Pegasus software was by far the best email client ever produced, starting in 1989.

However, the Pegasus GUI has hardly changed since 1989, and in an attempt to modernize, I have probably used and tested every email client in existence. Ultimately, Postbox was the only email client that can serve power users adequately.

Sadly, that road seems to be coming to an end. That’s life, and we have to roll with it, but not necessarily in a forced direction.

We will stick with Postbox, until it falls apart, due to lack of support and development. It’s bug free at the moment. It is in fact a very stable email client. I don’t think we ever needed support.

Will we be enticed into buying an eM Client subscription? Not at all. It’s not worth it, for power users.

eM Client works just fine for basic use, but that’s about it.

While it seems that Postbox was acqiuired for the user base, and if so, I fear the homework was not done. Postbox users are primarily power users.

The founders of eM Client will do well to listen up quickly. Either incorporate the Postbox power features into eM Client, or keep Postbox alive and well, albeit under new ownership.

Failing that, my prediction is that not many Postbox users will become eM Client users and/or pay for a license. Perhaps they will do so for the first year, given the discount, but once they realize what they are actually getting, there won’t be a renewal.

Whatever the cost was to acquire Postbox, it’s not going to be money well spent. (Think along the lines of the Elon Musk and Twitter fiasco.)

Like myself, most Postbox users will simply keep using Postbox until it dies. Thereafter, even Thunderbird would be a better option, than eM Client.

I hope this constructive feedback helps, in some way.

Cheers,

Herby

2 Likes
31

Current Thunderbird (Betterbird) - the only obstacle is that the database is now incompatible with the current Postbox version.

Thunderbird - no import from Postbox!

32

That was also my first thought. For me, it was far too colorful with too many elements distracting from the content. But in fact, the eM Client interface can be adjusted very precisely. I’m not completely satisfied yet, but I’ve been experimenting with changes in the settings and the design editor and am slowly getting closer to what I want.

33

I agree with you 100%. Also,

I don’t care about the discounted price. If it doesn’t do the job, it doesn’t matter if it’s free.

If users like us didn’t have special demands, we wouldn’t be using postbox. Like the majority, we would be content with what Outlook can do.

Years ago, I was a Thunderbird user, then I used ‘Ritlabs Thebat’ for a long time. Its interface was old and complicated. I met postbox and I’ve been using it for maybe 10 years.

I hope you add the features that keep Postbox users using Postbox to your program within about three months. Until then, I’ll continue with Postbox. After that, The Bat might be an option, but in its current form, eM Client is definitely not.

Sorry…

1 Like
34

I just switched to emClient from Postbox on a Mac. My use case is similar to yours. I find the interface somewhat bizarre, and have spent about two days learning it. It took a lot of tinkering to get it set up the way I want it. However, now that I mostly understand the interface, I actually (with some exceptions) like it better than Postbox. One thing to look out for is that large sends (over 10mb) take forever. I had to reduce the resolution of pdfs (my pdf program lets me do it) to send them in my lifetime.

As to Spamsieve, I agree with you, but according to its developer, emClient simply does support his plugin. My awkward solution is to leave Apple Mail running and let it do the heavy spam lifting.

Aside from that and some other minor quibbles, so far I’m using it as my main client.

35

I love it—mostly. Disappointingly (and like ‘New’ Outlook, in some ways), category implementation is a bit rubbish, but tags are great. It seems you can’t add your own categories.

36

For me, NO. Have tried em Client in the past, and now with Postbox being out and v10 released for em Client I thought I’d give it another go, but there are still some things that bug me like hell.

  • NO account grouping (which should include Unified stuff). It’s probably OK if you only use 1-2 accounts, but I have my accounts separated in PERSONAL and WORK, all in all 16 accounts. I don’t want to see my work mail along side my private mail in “All Inboxes”.
  • NO unified archive. Can be worked around with a Search Folder, but you cannot change an icon of a folder unfortunately.
  • NO workable templates/quick text. Something is implemented, but you don’t get any preview of the variables you’ve added, so nice sending Hello {VARIABLE}.
  • NO sync settings per account, I don’t need all to sync every minute. This is the point I care least about.

No account grouping and workable templates are a dealbreaker for me.

37

I removed the broken rules imported from Postbox:
eM Client terminated
Files rules.dat, rules.dat-shm, rules.dat-wal saved and renamed in the eM Client directory.
Restarted eM Client, now creates new files rules.dat, rules.dat-shm, rules.dat-wal. Only the spam filter is still present.
Now you can create new filters again.
…
Virtual (search) folders can be created using labels + corresponding rules. Works, but is not quite what Postbox, Thunderbird, Apple’s Mail offers

38

It is not true that Thunderbird or Betterbird are incompatible, The menu has a tools>import that directly imports a compatible profile, and Postbox qualifies. Yesterday, I installed Thunderbird, clicked the tools>import and within a few minutes all of my accounts were alive and stable.

39

Have you protected in Postbox your POPs3, IMAP, SMTP account data with a password? I have, could that be the reason why I have to re-enter all passwords?
…
Somehow I’m missing the ‘button’ in the junk folder, ‘this mail is not junk, move to mailbox’
…
Another problem. All fonts (directory, account names, mail headers, other Thunderbird system fonts) are very small.
How (with which syntax) can these be enlarged?
I only know that it works in /chrome with the files userChrome.css & userContent.css.

There is still a long way to go until the TB look & feel similar to Mail.app, Postbox, eM Client.

I use am M1 MacMini with an 27" 2560 x 1440 (QHD/WQHD - Wide Quad High Definition) monitor.

40

In my opinion, it is always worth to support indie devs, especially for something like an email client.

Think about it. Email has been around for so long that we’ve taken email clients for granted, but not many good alternatives are around anymore (at least commercially)… They come mostly as integrated tools in some fashion in various OSes, but many of them have some quirks attached to them: Apple Mail does something despicable to your IMAP folders; Gmail poses as IMAP whilst being a proprietary protocol (tags as folders, anyone?); let’s just completely skip the Windows side of things; and on Linux I can always choose between Thunderbird, while fiddling around with Mutt in the terminal. Meanwhile, eM Client gives me a unified experience between platforms thanks to their free Android client, so I wouldn’t dismiss them right away just because they don’t align with what you’ve been used to.

The recent acquisition of Postbox by eM Client is a good thing and maybe some of its former features will find their way into eM Client, if they align with their vision for they software. Nobody is locking or forcing anyone into anything. Unlike the hostile Twitter takeover by a complete moron, I believe the eM Client is a competent team (working since 2007) that will know how to leverage the Postbox code base, and it’s not just about purchasing into their user base, but also about not getting good work go to waste.

1 Like