Introduced in 2013, Mailbox was a tremendously popular email application that led to its acquisition by Dropbox just one short month after its launch.
While the app appeared to be a success for a while, its development was slowed down after the release of its Android and public beta version for macOS in 2014, and eventually, the app was abandoned.
Worse still, new features didn’t deliver the desired breakthroughs and in 2015, Mailbox was discontinued.
By February 2016, Mailbox ceased to exist.
Most people loved Mailbox because of its email management features and intuitive swipe interface.
Not only that, but its Inbox zero concept grew its fan base and its swipe interactions became popular even among most email apps we use today.
Here are 15 of the best Mailbox alternatives you can try.
Best Mailbox Alternatives
1. Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft’s Outlook email service is a simple and easy to use platform with a fair number of features that help you check and send emails. Among its powerful features include smart filters to help you clean up your inbox with one swipe.
While it’s not the same as Mailbox, it’s most certainly a solid option as it incorporates similar features like swipe gestures and snooze, which Mailbox had. You can also manage your emails easier by separating them into Focused or Others.
On top of that, Outlook integrates with Calendar, Office apps, and other cloud storage apps to save your attachments.
Unlike Mailbox, which only supported iCloud and Google accounts, Outlook offers a clean and easy to use interface, and supports most of the popular email apps including Exchange, Office 365, Google, iCloud, Yahoo, IMAP, and Microsoft accounts.
Outlook works with Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices to let you coordinate contacts, attachments, calendars to keep track of appointments and schedule meetings, plus your emails.
New features are constantly being added along with the best security, and you can enjoy Microsoft’s cloud integration business suite of products in one ecosystem.
2. Gmail
Gmail is another very popular Mailbox alternative that continuously improves its services, features, and security levels for its users.
The email service offers personal and business-focused email services and now includes video meetings through its Google Meet app, with screen sharing for up to 100 people and live captioning.
If you used Mailbox before, you’ll notice how Google tried to integrate Inbox, which sorted incoming messages into labels (preset or user-created) like Updates, Social, Promotions, and more.
However, Google didn’t need to boost Gmail usage through invite-only apps, so it brought Inbox by Gmail, with a similar Mailbox approach including swipe gestures, reminders, and snooze.
Gmail also added a new feature dubbed Bundles, to help you group your emails together for easier handling.
Another useful feature is Highlights, from where you can see your most important emails upfront.
As much as Gmail’s interface is cluttered and lacks a unified inbox, it still makes email management easy. Plus, you can use it on any device and take actions right from your inbox including RSVPing events, viewing attachments, and more without opening emails.
Other helpful features include the Undo Send option to turn off conversation view mode and customizable priority notifications. You can also sort out spam mail and social notifications and set rules to tag incoming mail by sender.
Gmail also blocks 99.9 percent of dangerous mail before it gets to you so you’ll get warnings in case of any phishing messages.
3. Spark
Spark by Readdle is a nimble email app that sorts your incoming emails into personal notifications and newsletter categories for easier sorting.
You can also use gesture controls to sort through mail, pin messages that you mark as important, snooze messages as you would in Mailbox, and create a button for quick replies.
Not only that, but Spark, like Mailbox, also offers integrations with various services and apps, and you can save your emails as PDF files for reference purposes. You also get some collaboration features to use with your teams and share messages with them privately or discuss emails with shared drafts, commenting, and delegation.
Spark supports Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, Hotmail, Exchange, and other common email service providers.
While Spark is a relative newcomer compared to Mailbox, it gives private and business users interesting features including integration with cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and Pocket.
For business users, Spark not only lets you create, discuss and share emails, but you can also use the real-time editor to compose professional emails using email templates or create yours from scratch.
Finally, you can set deadlines, track email progress, and receive notifications when a task is completed by your members.
Spark is the only Mailbox alternative that includes the long and short swipes, which you can customize to your liking.
The app implements the Inbox zero concept that Mailbox had, which shows the unread email count, and includes a unified Smart Inbox with categorized emails including other features like widgets, 3D touch support, pinning, and sidebar, among others.
You also get read receipts and calendar integration, along with support for popular email services, which Mailbox didn’t support.
4. Boxer
Boxer is another good Mailbox alternative that works similar to Mailbox especially in the swipe domain, so you can seamlessly archive, delete, and label your messages.
Like Spark, you can receive quick reply email templates in the Boxer app, and use calendar, contacts, and the email service altogether in one platform. This way, you can manage everything in one place.
In terms of similarity, Boxer and Mailbox have the swipe actions, but Boxer adds more features like to-do lists, bulk actions, and Smart Folders that remember where you prefer to store your emails and work accordingly.
The app allows you to send your email attachments via cloud storage providers plus you can store your emails through Evernote and other note apps.
Moreover, Boxer supports email service clients including Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, and IMAP, unlike Mailbox that only supported Google and iCloud.
Since VMware Airwatch acquired Boxer, the app has grown in popularity and usage, while maintaining its fast and gesture-powered interface.
You can also use VMware’s Workspace ONE platform as a corporate user and get more utility out of Boxer to manage access, mobile workflows, security features, and app integrations.
5. eM ClientÂ
eM Client is a simple and clean app that helps you break out of your email routine by enhancing your email communication and making you more productive.
The app also helps you master your workflow by offering unique tools that increase productivity and better email management.
While eM Client features snooze like Mailbox, it also gives you other features such as message encryption, message translation, integrated chat, calendar, tasks, notes, quick text, send later, and watch for replies, among others.
The app is also designed for teams covering all your needs for professional communication for a team and enterprise, making it ideal for companies.
In addition, the app is compatible with any email service, unlike Mailbox that only worked with iCloud and Google, so you can connect to Google Workspace, Office 365, Outlook, Exchange, and many more.
eM Client works with Windows and macOS for home and professional users alike. You can either use the free tier or the Pro premium version for commercial use, which offers unlimited accounts and VIP support.
6. Mailbird
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Mailbird is an email client that offers a range of great features to make using email a seamless experience. The app is loaded with native features including a customizable interface, integrations with other email and social media apps, and more.
The email client lacks filter support but offers more integration with cloud storage like Dropbox, social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, Slack, and other services like Google Docs and Calendar.
This is much more than what Mailbox offered before it shut down, so you can enjoy a better, streamlined workflow.
Mailbird also offers personal (free) and business (subscription or one-time license) services, which help you save time managing multiple accounts and enjoy a customizable experience using the many free themes included in the app.
While the email client doesn’t offer filters to help you sort your inbox, you get a unified inbox to allow you to manage your contacts and messages from multiple accounts on one platform.
In terms of design, Mailbird also allows for personalized creativity through its customizable layout, which offers dark and lite themes and free color themes.
In terms of extras, you get a LinkedIn Lookup option for seamless connection to the professional social networking service, and you only need a single click to perform this task.
Finally, Mailbird also offers Attachment Search and Speed Reader, which wasn’t in Mailbox, and allows you to read and reread emails faster, and quickly sift through all attachments.
Mailbird also features multilingual support for 17 different languages, and you can use shortcuts to compose, reply, forward, or archive messages quickly and easily.
7. Dispatch
Dispatch is one of the best Mailbox alternatives for high volume emails and boosting productivity.
The app makes it easy to act on emails whether you’re at home, work, or on the go and allows you to delete, delegate, defer, respond to emails, or generate actions easily.
You can respond faster through replies, which are stored as snippets for use later to respond to similar questions.
Dispatch also supports TextExpander touch snippet expansion for composing and replying to emails quickly, as well as action-based replies for emails that need following-up.
Like Mailbox, you can swipe left on Dispatch emails to archive, mark as spam, or delete a message.
Plus, you can use the interleaved replies to give context to your responses by quoting the original email and interspersing your remarks in between or use an auto salutation to reply faster.
If you didn’t like the only two integrations that Mailbox offered – Google and iCloud, you’ll love Dispatch because it works with 31 other apps including IMAP services, Evernote, Twitter, and Chrome, so you can streamline your current productivity app stack.
Plus, Dispatch will fetch and notify you of new emails instead of using push notifications, even when the app isn’t running. You can also use badges for unread messages.
8. ProtonMail
ProtonMail is one of the most secure and best Mailbox alternatives available that’s designed to ensure that only you and your intended recipients can read and decrypt your messages.
The email app offers end-to-end encryption, making it safe and easy to use while offering peace of mind in the midst of data breaches and unauthorized access to your user data.
In addition, the service, which was founded in 2013 around the same time Mailbox was introduced, protects your data by strict Swiss privacy laws. This way, every email you send can’t be decrypted and read by any unauthorized persons.
ProtonMail uses open-source implementations of OpenPGP, RSA, and AES security in order to maximize privacy and security, plus you don’t have to struggle with any ads because it doesn’t display any.
You won’t also have to worry about your emails being shared with third parties, and you don’t need to sign up using your personal data.
However, to use storage space and other organizational tools, you’ll need to upgrade to a premium tier, which is different from Mailbox that offered integration with Google and iCloud storage services.
9. Edison Mail
Edison is a complete, all-in-one email app for mobile platforms that supports a variety of email services but also bundles in numerous helpful email management features and a handy smart assistant.
The app has powerful features including swipe controls, which were in Mailbox, but you also get a handy bulk unsubscribe feature, which the app is known for, that helps you get off spam mail lists.
You can also auto-sort emails by categories, and use its native AI assistant for real-time travel notifications for gate changes and flight changes, receipt organization and package tracking, among a wealth of other helpful features.
Edison Mail also supports more integrations with other services compared to Mailbox. These include Office 365, Outlook, Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, and IMAP accounts.
The mobile app helps you get the most out of your inbox and streamline your workflow, and its smart notifications let you mute some senders. This way, you can only get alerts from important emails that are critical to your business.
10. Mail and Calendar
The Mail and Calendar email service is built into Windows 10 and helps you stay updated on email, managing your schedule, and helping you contact and stay in touch with those whom you care about most.
The service is designed for home and work so you can focus on what’s important and communicate quickly across all your accounts.
Unlike Mailbox, you can get more integration with your favorite and popular services including Outlook, Exchange, Office 365, Yahoo, and Gmail, among others.
Moreover, the latest update of Mail and Calendar lets you browse and select contacts when addressing email using the Windows people picker, download and save attachments in one go, and switch to the People app from Mail and Calendar.
You can also craft emails more easily than before using the app’s rich and familiar Microsoft Word capability built into its authoring experience. This also lets you insert tables, images, and use bullet points.
Not only that, but you can use new touch gestures to keep up with your inbox so you can read, sort, or archive emails.
You can also use Calendar to view your schedules like days, weeks, and months, plus quickly and conveniently toggle the navigation bar so as to move freely between calendar and email.
11. Thunderbird
Thunderbird brings together privacy, speed, and the latest in technology to make email better for you. The open-source app may seem limited because it isn’t cloud-based, but it’s easy to download and install on your device.
Once you run the service, you’ll find that it contains cutting edge features that you’d expect from an email provider, as well as customization options. You also get add-ons to provide more functionality and features, and different themes to personalize your email experience in a way that Mailbox couldn’t do.
Some of these cutting edge features include a mail account setup wizard, one-click address book, attachment reminder, tabbed email, quick filter toolbar, and search tools.
It lacks the swipe gestures that Mailbox had, but you can use the message archive feature, large files management, smart folders, an add-ons manager, automated updates, and phishing protection.
You also get to change the look and feel of Thunderbird to work on a light or dark theme, and more available as add-ons.
The app’s junk mail tools help you stay ahead of spam, and you can rest assured it will continue being secure and quickly updated thanks to the open and active community of experts working on the app to bolster overall security.
12. Spike
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Spike is an award-winning email service that allows you to plan, group chat, organize, collaborate, video chat, and even take notes so you can transform your email into your entire workspace.
The app allows you to communicate better, faster, and with others no matter what part of the world they’re in, and get real work done faster in real-time and with real results.
With Spike, you can use powerful features including conversational email, collaborative notes and tasks, group chat, calendar, advanced search, cloud integration with Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive, and audio/video calls.
You can also supercharge your inbox and simplify your workflow using real-time messaging, priority inbox, bulk actions, which is the equivalent of Mailbox’s swipe gestures for archiving or deleting messages.
In addition, Spike offers read receipts, a unified inbox that supports popular email services that Mailbox didn’t support like Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook, IONOS mail, AOL, Exchange, GoDaddy email, and IMAP mail accounts.
Your data is also under lock and key and encrypted thanks to the AES256 encryption. You can also use keyboard shortcuts on the desktop to save time whether you’re creating a message or searching your inbox.
Other features include dark/light theme, custom notifications, customizable swipes, send later, snooze, undo send, file preview, multimedia messaging, instant unsubscribe, voice notes, reminders, and live collaboration tools.
13. myMail
The myMail email app has a clean and flat interface that makes it easy to use. It has some similar features to Mailbox considering they both make it easier to manage your email from your mobile device.
Some of these similar features include swipe actions, though myMail’s actions are non-customizable, and a unified inbox.
On the right of the app is a navigation bar, which lists all of your folders and you can switch easily between different email accounts.
Other features include the ability to browse files directly on the app for attachments, create custom signatures, notification control support, filters, ActiveSync protocol, address book, and PIN protection.
The app also supports more email providers than Mailbox did, except for Microsoft Exchange and Office accounts.
14. TypeMail
The TypeMail email service features an interface that looks like that of iOS devices, but it’s beautiful and functional in its own way while being highly customizable.
While it may seem to have Mailbox features like swipe actions, TypeMail goes further to include configurable menus, a cool picker interface that allows you to toggle between filters and different accounts easily.
Plus, TypeMail adheres to Inbox zero, so you can see and know about your unread mail through badges. Other cool features include snoozing (which was in Mailbox), conversations/clusters, quick filters, color coding, and encryption support, among others.
In addition, TypeMail beats Mailbox as it supports many email providers including Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, iCloud, Outlook, and smaller providers like Zoho, GMX, RediffMail, and Comcast or any other Exchange or IMAP/SMTP account.
15. Airmail
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Airmail is a powerful email client that allows you to customize it to your own needs. You can integrate other apps and create custom actions whether you’re using an Apple Watch, iOS device, or Mac.
The powerful email client has some similar Mailbox features like snooze, but you also get more powerful features like smart inbox to see important emails, unified inbox, privacy mode, and send later.
It also offers multiple accounts for any type owing to its integration with Gmail, Exchange, Office 365, iCloud, GSuite, Outlook, POP3, and IMAP among others, which you won’t find with Mailbox.
Wrapping Up
While all good things must come to an end, it doesn’t mean you can’t find a better option to replace Mailbox in your personal or office life. Â
These 15 Mailbox alternatives all offer unique and customizable features to help you manage your email with ease.
