It’s fair to say that most of the world uses email, so having the best iOS email app for you is a must. While communication tools like Slack, WhatsApp, and Discord exist in instant messaging, email is still how many people communicate, especially in business. Whether sending items for approval, connecting with loved ones, or simply sharing notes for the latest office meeting, there’s a lot of life in email.
While your iPhone has Apple Mail installed, it’s not for everyone. Apple continues to improve it, but it can be a bit clunky to use and lacks many of the more subtle features of other email apps. For basic sending and receiving messages, it’s great, but if you handle a lot of emails, you might be looking for something a little more flashy.
Thankfully, there are plenty of alternative email clients you can use with your iPhone or iPad, all of which make sensible changes to the basic formula. To put together our list, we compared the best features each offer, including smart inboxes, usability, calendar and meeting compatibility, and cost
The complete list of the best alternative email apps for iOS in 2023:
Why You Can Trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best.
It might seem odd to tout Microsoft’s Outlook as one of the best email apps for Apple’s iPhone, but it’s a solid alternative.
Microsoft’s long-running email client looks better than ever here, and it’s smooth to use and incredibly capable. Its Smart Inbox figures out which emails are important to you and defers others for later. You can also swipe emails to perform quick actions (many other apps on this list do).
Perhaps our favorite aspect is that the calendar in Outlook is so good that you can use it as your main planner. Its inclusion means all your meetings and events, whether from Google Calendar, iCloud or elsewhere, are in one place.
He has been the subject of a lot of discussions, whether it’s overpricing, the feature set, or the fact that developers and Apple are at loggerheads over in-app payments.
Still, Hey is an excellent email client from the makers of the widely used project management software Basecamp. Its edgy approach to email won’t be for everyone (neither will its hefty $99 annual fee), but users craving a new approach to email will be excited.
Because they’ll find they gain all sorts of great features, like the ability to filter emails from new senders, and unique filtering rules like Paper Records (for receipts) or The Feed (for newsletters) .
To use Hey, you must direct all existing emails to it, but doing so will allow you to choose a custom @hey.com address.
Of all the apps on this list, Spark feels the fastest to use, and it has a great visual style, with lots of colors in the icons, but most everything else is just plain.
Available for free on the App Store, there are a lot of features here that should make Apple consider an updated version of Mail.
Like others on this list, there’s a Smart Inbox, but we especially like Spark’s array of “actions” — you can snooze threads, remind yourself to follow up later, create smart notifications, and more. There’s also a nice slide-through calendar.
Spark also works well with add-ons, allowing you to download and open files within the app itself rather than using other options. Attachment search is also great, and you can attach anything you want to send to cloud services directly from the app.
The Edison is another good-looking Apple Mail alternative, but its real superpower is its built-in Assistant.
Edison’s Assistant will filter your emails by type or sender, which is great for those with buttery fingers, as it lets you undo sending an email for up to fifteen seconds after hitting the send button. Has a clean, uncluttered interface, and also makes good use of the slide-to-action options seen elsewhere on this list.
Dark mode is also supported; and a unified inbox that enables you to combine inboxes from most providers (but not Exchange currently). It’s also ad-free and automatically blocks email trackers to help protect your privacy.
Edison leaned a bit toward Hey’s business model, and now it’s partnering with OnMail. You can use Edison for free, but paying $4.99 gets you a custom domain, password-protected links to large files, and attachment sizes up to 250MB.
The new kid on the main block, Twobird is part email app, part to-do list — and both are great.
The email experience removes as much of the actual content of the email as possible, cleaning up the experience so you can focus on who and what.
Like others on this list of the best alternative email apps for iOS, there is a unified inbox, but Twobird is different in that you can also turn the emails in your inbox into a task list of sorts, connect it to your other daily reminders, while smart notifications figure out what you need to know and when.
Twobird is off to a good start, but there is one big caveat – sadly, there’s currently no option to add your iCloud here. However, Gmail and Exchange users will find a lot to like.
Airmail has a clever-looking design that feels ripped straight from Apple’s own design language. In fact, it feels like Apple Mail, but better. That’s not to say this should come as a surprise, as it’s designed specifically for iOS, macOS, and watchOS.
The real strength of Airmail is its integration with other services — whether it’s web services like Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, or other apps on your phone. If you use an app, so does Airmail; Google Drive, Todoist, Drafts, and Trello, they’re all here. It’s a far cry from Apple’s more isolated experience.
While airmail is free, you can upgrade to the Pro plan for $2.99 per month (or $9.99 per year). Doing this gives you a unified inbox, multiple threads, and the option to snooze and delay sending. There’s also a very useful rule feature that can automatically process emails as they arrive, depending on your preferences.
Spike is trying to blur the lines between email and instant messaging. It looks closer to iMessage than Apple Mail, which may put some people off.
In fact, it’s closer to something like Slack, stripping away the need for long emails full of headers and signatures, and reducing it to the message content and any attachments. It’s also configurable for teams, so you can send an email to a group of colleagues as if it were a Slack message.
There are also built-in note-taking and task-management options, and the two work together. Like others on this list, there’s a priority inbox so you never miss any important emails.
Being a relative newcomer, there are reportedly some growing pains with some of the app’s features, but there’s no doubt that Spike will become a major player in the space as those features are ironed out.
How to Choose the Best Alternative Email App for iOS for You
Do you think it is too bulky? Is it not fast enough? Or is there something missing that would make your email experience more intuitive?
Once you’ve decided what factors to improve or what features you’re looking for, you can start narrowing down your list of the best alternative email apps for iOS. As mentioned above, Outlook is a great option if you’re looking for a platform that syncs seamlessly with your default planner or calendar. Alternatively, some of the new kids on the block offer smart inboxes that automate your email to a certain degree.
Even something as seemingly insignificant as an Edison delayed delivery can be a vital feature if you find yourself frequently sending emails to the wrong recipients. Either way, once you’ve prioritized your key requirements, align them with your budget, as not all options on this list are free.
The Best Alternative Email Apps for iOS: How We Tested
In order to come up with a list of the best alternative email apps for iOS, we considered a range of options that offer a variety of email methods. Users are no longer limited to the basics of sending and receiving mail, with newer apps taking a whole new approach to email.
This includes “smart” inboxes that users can customize to archive emails based on rules they set. In the list above, we’ve considered where and how it might be used, or indeed it might be an overkill step for some in terms of desired functionality. So we also compared more traditional but very useful features – such as syncing with calendar and meeting apps, delayed sending, and email chain snoozing.
Of course, the key to an easy life these days is connectivity, so any mail app worth its salt should be compatible with a host of other apps and services — we’ve listed that case above.
