When it comes to choosing an email client, there are several factors to consider, from price to personal design and organization preferences. We’ve looked at three of the most popular email clients and broken them down.

Outlook express

Outlook Express is a free email client that is included as a component of Internet Explorer. It is one of the most user-friendly email clients out there. Users can create elegant stationery to personalize emails from multiple accounts (POP, IMAP, MSN, etc.) and mailbox screens can also be customized. It is quite easy to filter messages in Outlook Express. Users can choose from a set of 12 conditions and 12 actions to create a “yes / then” combination to properly organize their incoming mail. For example, if the message has the word “mucus” in it, you can set up a rule to send it directly to the deleted messages folder. The same goes for sender email addresses.

Notable features in Outlook:

• Simple message rules for easy filtering
• Remote Image Blocks
• Preview emails safely before opening them

Thunderbird

Thunderbird is Mozilla’s pet mail client, mimicking the browser’s tabbed format. Thunderbird users can open multiple emails and navigate between them by clicking from tab to tab. To search your emails, Thunderbird has filtering and timeline features to help you find what you are looking for faster. There are also some easy ways to customize Thunderbird. People are “skins” that you can apply to change the appearance of your inbox, and themes will change the appearance of your icons. There is also a direct link to a plugin manager so you can review the ratings and recommendations to help you decide which one to install. One really cool feature is the Mail Setup Wizard. When you want to add a new account to Thunderbird, you don’t need to know about IMAP, SSL / TLS, etc. settings. Thunderbird will search its database for the settings, so you just have to add your email address and password for your new account.

Notable features in Thunderbird:

• One-click address book
• Attachment reminder
• Activity manager

Zimbra

Zimbra is an open source creation that incorporates a desktop environment, an email client and a calendar all in one. The open source edition is free, however the network edition is not. The Zimbra email client allows you to view (or hide) messages as part of conversations. So instead of seeing each and every message in a thread, you can click on the last one to find out how many emails, attachments, etc. they are part of that particular conversation. Attachments can also be immediately viewed as HTML instead of downloading them first in Microsoft Word or other programs. Zimbra’s address book and calendar are pretty impressive. Both are easily shared with others, either internally as a read / write access document or externally as a read-only URL. And the Zimbra calendar allows you to view multiple calendars as overlays. It’s a great way to keep track of a full office or busy family’s schedule!

Notable features in Zimbra:

• Set up multiple email accounts with different signatures and email identities
• Address book autocomplete
• WYSIWYG search tool