Opera Mail was discontinued in 2016, so anyone still using the email client is bound to feel the lack of support. If you’re running into way more technical issues than you initially anticipated, things have to change.
You need a solid, reliable, and dependable alternative that will provide ease of use and powerful features.
Here, you’ll find three top alternatives that are far better in performance. We’ll get into the details and show you why they offer a better value proposition than Opera Mail. Additionally, we will walk you through our selection criteria, one that you can use later when shopping around for an email client.
What Is Opera Mail?
Opera Mail is a free email client developed by the team behind the well-known Opera web browser. It’s similar to what Thunderbird is to Mozilla Firefox.
The email client was initially offered as an integrated component of the Opera browser until 2013. From there onwards, it functioned as a stand-alone tool. Although it is not actively supported anymore, you can still download Opera Mail from a few locations. But is there a point?
Since it was discontinued in 2016, the Opera Software development team doesn’t work on fixing any issues or offer any updates to the platform. This leaves the software vulnerable to attacks, data breaches, and other similar problems.
In light of this, the best course of action is to switch to a more modern email client. But which one should you choose? Ultimately, it’s the software that satisfies all or most of your requirements. And there are certain criteria that can help you make the choice.
Criteria to Consider When Choosing an Alternative to Opera Mail
We’ve devised a list of criteria that help describe any email client and find its good and bad sides. There are eight key aspects that we consider most telling.
Rating
A good way to gauge how helpful, efficient, and reliable a product or service is, is by assessing the experience of previous users. Public ratings have made it easy and convenient to identify this, mainly since you can find reviews for anything and everything online nowadays.
Built-In Features
A good email client has a set of features that helps manage emails effectively and navigate your inbox seamlessly. If an email client satisfies most of your requirements, it’ll help you improve time management, optimize your inbox, and meet your daily objectives.
User Interface
An email client is a tool that should assist in your daily activities, not make them more complicated. Therefore, its interface should be intuitive, easy to navigate, and have readily available functions.
Configuration
An easy-to-install app is a given. But, with an email client, you then need to add accounts and check or set server settings. You can pinpoint good email software by how simple and straightforward that process is.
Multiple-Email Account Management
Many people have more than one account, so a good email client should allow you to manage all your accounts. It should enable you to clearly label and sort out your emails from different accounts as well as provide a seamless experience switching between accounts.
Security
Hackers and people with ill intent are constantly devising new ways to get ahold of your data. As such, your email client should be safe, and its developers should offer regular updates to address emerging issues that may threaten the security of your data. Better yet, it should provide end-to-end encryption and safety protocols.
Support
Even if a piece of software is optimized, tried, and tested, sometimes issues might arise. Having a way to troubleshoot the issues and find solutions can make all the difference between a great piece of software and a terrible one. A good email client, in this case, offers human assistance or, at the very least, sufficient support articles that can help you find a solution.
Price
A paid tool is usually a better option because the fees allow the developers to maintain stability of the software, provide timely bug fixes, and release new features. They also go into providing live support.
Of course, going above your budget may not be wise. But if you can spare a few dollars a month for an email client, you are likely to have fewer issues in the long run.With our criteria out of the way, let’s get to the three leading picks you can go with instead of Opera email software.
The Top 3 Alternatives to Opera Mail
Mailbird
Mailbird is a top pick for several reasons, bias not included.
For starters, its key strengths include how easy it is to configure the software, the overall user experience, seamless app integration, and advanced customization.
Mailbird is also constantly improving its platform and overall service, which sets it apart from other competitors in the industry, making it our first pick for Opera Mail alternatives currently available on the market.
It is currently available on all Windows systems from XP to 11, and the Mac version is in the making.
Rating
G2–4/5 | Capterra — 4.4/5
Features
Mailbird sports some elegant features, such as:
- A unified inbox that allows you to manage several accounts simultaneously;
- Advanced search that can be applied to all accounts in the unified inbox, or separately;
- A native calendar that allows you to manage your events easily;
- A contact manager where you can merge or drag and drop contacts; and
- Productivity features, including speed reader, email snooze, scheduling emails, and email tracking.
Aside from built-in features, Mailbird also supports integration with third-party applications, such as Evernote, Google Workspace, Asana, and Messengers. You can find the full list of integrations on our support page.
User interface
Mailbird’s architecture and overall layout improve your email management and online communication. Its user interface is uncluttered, easy to navigate, and provides the right amount of contrast so you can find the account or feature you need in no time.
You can customize Mailbird’s look with themes, colors, and even notification sounds. For example, you can set your favorite photo as the background image.
Configuration
As for configuration, Mailbird allows you to easily install the app on your computer using the installation wizard.
Setting up accounts is straightforward as the app automatically detects server settings. You can add an IMAP or POP account from Gmail, Outlook, AOL, Yahoo, iCloud, Exchange, or any other email provider. And you can change server settings if needed.
Once you finish adding all the accounts you need, you can tailor the app to suit your preferences.
Multiple-email account management
What makes Mailbird truly dedicated to managing multiple accounts is the unified inbox. Its special functionality carries throughout the application, meaning that you can:
- Apply email and attachment search to all connected accounts;
- Filter emails from different accounts into one set of folders; and
- Navigate all calendars at once, and more.
Security
Mailbird considers your privacy a top priority. All the data is stored on your computer and never shared with third parties or the Mailbird team.
Support
Mailbird provides all-round support for customers as well as the software.
Customer support is always available via email. You can chat with real people if you have any questions that aren’t covered in the Help Center articles.
Mailbird developers provide consistent updates, guaranteeing that the platform delivers a high-quality tool.
Price
As for pricing, you can try Mailbird for free on a trial period. Once satisfied with your experience, either pay $39/year for the personal plan or $59/year for the business plan. Or you can opt for a personal lifetime subscription at $79.
Download Mailbird
Mailbird is our number one recommendation and for good reason — it stands out. You can download and try Mailbird for free today, and should you like it, you can go ahead and make a purchase.
eM Client
eM Client is an email client for both individual and business needs available on Windows and Mac. It’s a good Opera Mail alternative thanks to its clean design and feature-rich interface.
While the official website suggests that eM Client is lightning-fast and secure, some user reviews show the opposite. So let’s get into details about the client and see how it compares to the other two alternatives.
Rating
G2–4/5 | Capterra — 4.1/5
Features
eM Client offers basic and special features, including:
- Notes for a quick way to jot down your thoughts;
- Message translation for when you’re dealing with international contacts;
- Calendar and Tasks to keep track of your daily agenda;
- Chat for communicating with other eM Client users; and
- And a few productivity features, including email snooze and send later.
However, the client loses points for lack of integration. Aside from Google Workspace, Office 365, IceWarp, and a few cloud-storage solutions, eM Client doesn’t integrate with any third-party applications.
User interface
eM Client has a basic user interface that works well. As for navigation, it seems good at first glance, however, some users report having trouble finding certain functions, like Archiving. Another downside is that users experience unexpected issues, such as system timeouts, freezing, and syncing errors.
On the bright side, the email client offers a few themes. You can also customize the layout and notifications.
Configuration
As a user, you can also configure the software quickly, and installation only takes a few clicks. You can further integrate email providers, such as Gmail, iCloud, and Microsoft 365. You can use almost any email provider or host.
Unfortunately, eM Client stopped supporting Exchange ActiveSync which some users miss.
Multiple-email account management
eM Client also allows you to monitor and manage multiple accounts at the same time. It has an All Inboxes filter that can simplify handling emails from different accounts, as well as Tags that help sort through your correspondence.
The inbox view is grouped by day, precisely, messages received today and older email. This can be a hit-and-miss in different situations. For example, if you are away and haven’t checked your email for a few days, you risk missing a message or two.
Security
eM Client supports Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption which is good for anyone who needs to send encrypted emails. The software also provides message encryption.
However, multiple users have reported loss of data. As good as encryption is, it won’t save missing emails or attachments.
Support
Free users only have access to a community center which isn’t always helpful. If you want live support, you’ll need to buy a license.
Price
eM Client offers a free plan, albeit with limitations. The upside, however, is that the pro edition requires just a one-time payment of $34.95.
Mailspring
We picked Mailspring as our third recommendation for best alternatives to Opera Mail, mainly owing to its user interface, built-in features, and overall security. It is available both for Windows and Mac.
Something worth noting is that you no longer require a Mailspring ID to access any of the app’s features. This was an issue for many users.
Rating
G2–4.5/5 | Capterra — 5/5
Features
As for built-in features, Mailspring has:
- Read receipts that notify you as soon as contacts read your messages allowing you to follow up appropriately;
- Individual and company profiles for better contact management;
- Link tracking to notify you when and by whom a link was clicked; and
- Mailbox insights to keep a grip on how you use your inbox.
Overall, Mailspring has a good set of features that seem to be working well.
User interface
This platform’s user interface is nice, clean, and less cluttered than a lot of other options on the market. However, it could do with brighter colors to distinguish between different email accounts.
Customization is also possible but it’s limited to a few layouts and themes.
Overall, the interface could do with more personalizations as well as more contrast for buttons, accounts, and labels to make them more detectable
Configuration
Mailspring is quick to install. It integrates with Fastmail and Microsoft 365, as well as major email providers, including Outlook, Yahoo, Gmail, Office 365, and iCloud.
What might be a dealbreaker is that Mailspring only supports IMAP accounts. That’s not ideal for users who prefer POP and to store their email on the computer rather than the server.
Multiple-email account management
You can add and manage multiple email accounts via the email client. Mailspring also offers a unified inbox that supports email search across accounts.
However, thr unified inbox doesn’t offer color-coding, so knowing which account received an email is down to guess work.You’ll have to open an email and look up the recipient.
Security
Mailspring doesn’t store or even process any user data and complies with the GDPR. However, it also doesn’t provide any specific security protocols.
Support
Since this is an open-source app, you can address your issues to the community. However, there’s no dedicated live support.
Price
This email client has a free version, though it is quite limited in features and functionality. The pro version unlocks all of the mail client’s features for only $8 a month.
Top Opera Mail Software Alternatives Compared Side by Side
The following is a breakdown of each email client’s features based on the criteria discussed earlier:
What’s the Best Opera Mail Alternative for My Inbox?
Opera Mail is already outdated. Although it’s free, and you can still download it from the internet, there are far better, more modern email clients that you can choose from.
These email clients have more functionality and will guarantee your data’s security while allowing you to tailor the email client to your preference and specification. You cannot go wrong with any of the three email clients discussed in this article. We are confident that our list of options meetsr core criteria and will fulfill all the needs you may have, either for yourself or your business.
If you need an email client for managing multiple accounts with a wide range of features and integration, get Mailbird on a trial.
