Apple Mail is the built-in email client on macOS and iOS, supporting IMAP, SMTP, and S/MIME. Mail Privacy Protection hides the user’s IP address and loads remote content via Apple proxy servers to block tracking pixels.
Apple Mail
support.apple.com/mail
Our take
Apple Mail earns its place here primarily through Mail Privacy Protection, which routes remote image loads through Apple’s servers so senders cannot confirm your IP or open time, a meaningful defence against email tracking that works with zero configuration. On macOS it also supports OpenPGP via the third-party GPG Suite add-on, and S/MIME is built in for corporate use. The honest catch is that the application is closed-source and tightly coupled to the Apple ecosystem: you cannot install it outside Apple hardware, there is no independent audit of how Mail Privacy Protection is implemented, and advanced privacy settings are shallow compared to dedicated open-source clients. A practical choice for Apple users who want sensible defaults without switching apps.
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Apple Mail alternatives
Browser - Mailvelope Bring email encryption straight into your Browser. We recommend using Firefox for this. It can be used to encrypt and sign electronic messages, including attached files,…
GNOME Evolution GNOME Evolution is a Linux personal information manager combining email, calendar, contacts, and tasks in one application. It uses standard protocols (IMAP, SMTP, CalDAV, CardDAV) and supports native OpenPGP and S/MIME encryption without plugins.
Kontact Kontact is the KDE personal information management suite that combines KMail (email), KOrganizer (calendar), KAddressBook, and a feed reader into a single unified window. It runs on Linux and supports IMAP, POP3, OpenPGP, and S/MIME natively.
NeoMutt NeoMutt is a command-line email client for Linux and macOS, forked from Mutt with a large collection of patches and added features. It supports IMAP, POP3, SMTP, OpenPGP, S/MIME, Notmuch search integration, and is highly configurable via a plain-text config file.
FairEmail FairEmail is a fully featured, open-source email client for Android that uses standard IMAP/SMTP protocols and supports OpenPGP and S/MIME encryption. It blocks remote image tracking, confirms link opens, and stores no data on third-party servers.
Desktop - Thunderbird Mozilla Thunderbird is a email client, personal information manager, news client, RSS and chat client.