This is the best Linux email client I've found – and I've tested them all

I’ve used every Linux email client on the market, from the terminal-based Alpine (originally just Pine) to the Evolution groupware, and everything in between. Some of those email clients I stuck with for years, but eventually walked away from them for one reason or another — too ugly, too inefficient, too outdated, too slow, too broken, etc.

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Had you asked me five years ago which email client I would take to my grave, the answer would have been Thunderbird. Between then and now, I’ve found that email client to be a bit too outdated in the UI and a bit too slow for my needs.

There is one email client that I went back and forth on for a while, but eventually came back to and, unless someone develops something new and amazing, will most likely stick with Geary for some time.

Why?

Let me answer that question.

1. The clear interface

One of my issues with several Linux email clients is outdated UI. But it doesn’t end with looking more like early 2000s software; some of those clients have a UI that’s too busy to be efficient. Sure, that old-school interface worked for a long time, but with nearly every Linux distribution now enjoying highly modern desktop environments, the apps that go along with those operating systems should at least look like they came from sometime during the last five years. One of the few clients to do that is Geary, and I’m all for it. 

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The Geary UI is clean and modern enough to blend right into nearly all Linux desktops. Even with multiple email accounts configured for Geary, it’s still a cleaner UI than Thunderbird or Evolution.

2. The one-trick pony of it all

For those who need a groupware suite, Evolution is your way forward. If you’re like me, however, you’d prefer your email client to do only one thing — email. I have other tools I use for calendars, contacts, and tasks, so I don’t need or want my email client to offer those same features; it’s a redundancy I don’t need. 

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Geary is a one-trick-pony app; it does email and that’s it. The good news is that Geary does its one trick really well. I’ve found Geary to be as good at handling email as Thunderbird, but it doesn’t get bogged down with the other features.

3. The speed

During my many stints using Evolution, it inevitably would become slow. That could be because of a large email inbox, a crowded calendar, attempting to sync with other services, or even memory leaks. Although Evolution is a great groupware suite, I need speed over a kitchen-sink full of features. Geary shrugs off all that nonsense and delivers a fast experience. 

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It opens very quickly, I can navigate through email as fast as my fingers can move (thanks to customizable keyboard shortcuts), and I never have to worry about the Geary app going awry and consuming more than its fair share of system resources. Aside from a terminal-based email app, Geary is one of the fastest email clients I’ve used in a while.

4. The ease of use

By design, Geary is very easy to use. This is partially due to the clean interface, but also the distilled feature set and limited customizability. Some might see the minimal customization as a weakness, but it helps to make Geary an email client that anyone can use. And because of this ease of use, Geary has become a very efficient email client. I never have to worry about getting bogged down with the app because it’s been designed to be very intuitive. Geary might seem too basic for some, but for those looking for simplicity and reliability, it’s a great option.

5. The open-source license

I’m not an open-source purist, by any stretch of the imagination. For me, it’s about the app that gets the job done, and Geary is that to a T. Sure, there are other email clients I could switch to (some of which meet and exceed my expectations), but those clients are proprietary. 

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I have a rule that I try to follow: if there’s an open-source option and it does as good a job as the closed-source software, I always go with the open-source option. The likes of Blue Mail and Mailspring are wonderful, but they’re closed-source. With Geary, their equal, I’m going with Geary every time.

I’m not saying Geary is right for everyone. It’s not. I am saying that if you like a clean, simple, fast, and open-source email client, it might very well be the one for you. Since switching back to Geary, I’ve realized it doesn’t check all the boxes for my needs, so it’ll most likely be my default for a long time.