What are the 5 most popular email clients?

As of December 2023, the five most popular email clients were:

Microsoft Outlook: Widely used in the corporate world due to its integration with Microsoft Office Suite and advanced organizational capabilities. It offers a range of features including calendar, task management, and contact management. The official website for Microsoft Outlook is https://outlook.live.com/. This site is used for accessing Outlook as a webmail service. For more information about the Outlook application that’s part of the Microsoft Office Suite, you would visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/email-and-calendar-software-microsoft-outlook.

Gmail: Google’s free email service, popular for its user-friendly interface and seamless integration with other Google services like Google Drive, Calendar, and Meet. It’s known for its robust spam filtering and substantial free storage space. The official website for Gmail, which is Google’s email service, is https://mail.google.com/. This URL takes you directly to the Gmail inbox if you’re already logged in, or to the login page if you’re not.

Apple Mail: The default email client for macOS and iOS devices. It’s popular among Apple product users for its simplicity, integration with iCloud, and synchronization across all Apple devices. Apple Mail is an application that comes pre-installed on Apple devices, so it doesn’t have a dedicated URL like web-based email services. For more information about Apple Mail, you can visit Apple’s official support page at https://support.apple.com/mail.

Yahoo Mail: Known for its large storage capacity and robust search capabilities. It offers a user-friendly interface and is integrated with Yahoo’s other services. The official website for Yahoo Mail is https://mail.yahoo.com/. This is where you can log in to your Yahoo email account, or get more information about the service.

Thunderbird: A free and open-source email client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It’s known for its customization options, strong security features, and support for various add-ons. As a free and open-source email client, the official website for Mozilla Thunderbird is https://www.thunderbird.net/. This site provides download links for the software, as well as additional information and support resources.

These clients vary in terms of features, interface, and integration capabilities, catering to different user needs and preferences. The popularity of these email clients can vary based on the region and specific user groups.

Beginners Guide: What is Email Forwarding?

Imagine you’ve moved to a new house and you want all your mail to be sent there instead of your old address. Wouldn’t it be convenient if the post office could automatically send all your mail to your new address? Well, in the digital world, something very similar exists for emails, and it’s called email forwarding.

Email Forwarding: The Basics

Email forwarding is a process in which an email sent to one email address is automatically sent (or “forwarded”) to another email address. This is particularly useful in various situations, both personal and professional.

Let’s simplify this with an example. Suppose you have an old email address, oldemail@example.com, that all your contacts use. But now, you’ve created a new email address, newemail@example.com, which you prefer to use. Instead of checking two email accounts, you can set up email forwarding. This means any emails sent to oldemail@example.com will automatically arrive at newemail@example.com.

Why Use Email Forwarding?

  1. Convenience: Managing multiple email accounts can be time-consuming. Email forwarding brings emails from various addresses to a single inbox, saving you time and hassle.
  2. Professionalism: For businesses, having emails from different departments (like sales@example.com, support@example.com) forwarded to one place can streamline communication and ensure no message is missed.
  3. Transition: If you’re changing your email address, email forwarding ensures you don’t miss any important emails sent to your old address.
  4. Spam Prevention: Sometimes, you might not want to give out your primary email address (to sign up for a newsletter, for instance). You can use an alternate address and have those emails forwarded to your main account. This can help in keeping your primary inbox less cluttered and more secure.

How Does Email Forwarding Work?

Setting up email forwarding is usually a straightforward process. You can typically find the option in the settings or options menu of your email service. Here’s a general step-by-step guide:

  1. Log into the email account you want to forward messages from.
  2. Find the Settings or Options menu.
  3. Look for a section labeled “Forwarding,” “Email Forwarding,” or something similar.
  4. Enter the email address you want your messages forwarded to.
  5. Save your changes.

It’s important to note that the steps may vary slightly depending on your email provider.

Types of Email Forwarding

  1. Manual Forwarding: You manually select individual emails to forward. This is useful for sharing specific emails but is not automated.
  2. Automatic Forwarding: All incoming emails are automatically forwarded. This is the most common type of forwarding used for the scenarios described earlier.

Considerations and Best Practices

  • Check Your Forwarded Emails Regularly: Ensure your forwarding is working correctly and that important emails aren’t getting lost or marked as spam.
  • Inform Your Contacts: If you’re transitioning to a new email address, inform your contacts about the change.
  • Security: Be cautious about where you’re forwarding your emails. Ensure the forwarding address is secure and trusted.

In conclusion, email forwarding is a simple yet powerful tool that can make managing your emails much easier. Whether it’s for personal use or for your business, it can save time, enhance organisation, and ensure that you stay on top of your communications without the need to juggle multiple inboxes.

How to: Setup IMAP using Microsoft Office Outlook 2016

This guide is for setting up IMAP in Outlook 2016 to access your mail, IMAP is recommended if you are checking mail on multiple devices and wish to store your mail on the server.

If you will be checking mail on one device and wish to store copies of mail on your device and not on the server please follow the link below to view our guide on how to setup POP in Outlook 2016:

Outlook 2016 POP setup guide

  1. Open Microsoft Office Outlook 2016
  2. Go to File > Info > Add Account
  3. Select the checkbox Manual setup or additional server types. Click Next.

Outlook 2016 Step 3

  1. Select the option POP or IMAP and hit Next.

step 4

  1. Specify the following:
  • Your Name.
  • The email address that you are setting up the IMAP account for.
  • Account Type: IMAP
  • Incoming mail server: Enter mail.yourdomainname.com, for example if your domain name is johndoe.com please enter mail.johndoe.com.
  • Outgoing mail server: Enter mail.yourdomainname.com, for example if your domain name is johndoe.com please enter mail.johndoe.com.
  • User Name: Specify your full email address. Example: info@johndoe.com.
  • Password: This will be the password that you set when creating the mail account in Plesk, it is the password that you use to login to RoundCube webmail.
  • Require logon using Secure Password Authentication (SPA). Leave this option cleared.

step 5 imap

  1. Click More Settings, open the Outgoing Server tab and check My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.

Step 6

  1. Open the Advanced tab and enter 587 as Outgoing Server (SMTP) port and INBOX as the Root folder path. Click OK and Click Next to complete the setup.

step 7 imap

How to: Setup POP using Microsoft Office Outlook 2016

This guide is for setting up POP in Outlook 2016, POP is recommended if you will be checking mail on one device and wish to store copies of mail on the device and not on server.

If you will be checking mail on multiple devices please follow the link below to view our Outlook 2016 IMAP guide:

Outlook 2016 IMAP setup guide

To setup a POP account:

  1. Open Microsoft Office Outlook 2016
  2. Go to File > Info > Add Account
  3. Select the checkbox Manual setup or additional server types. Click Next.

Outlook 2016 Step 3

  1. Select the Option POP or IMAP and hit Next.

step 4

  1. Specify the following:
  • Your name.
  • The email address that you are setting up the POP account for.
  • Account Type: POP3
  • Incoming mail server: Enter mail.yourdomainname.com, for example if your domain name is johndoe.com please enter mail.johndoe.com.
  • Outgoing mail server: Enter mail.yourdomainname.com, for example if your domain name is johndoe.com please enter mail.johndoe.com.
  • User Name: Specify your full email address. Example: info@johndoe.com.
  • Password: This will be the password that you set when creating the mail account in Plesk, it is the password that you use to login to RoundCube webmail.
  • Require logon using Secure Password Authentication (SPA). Leave this option cleared.

step 5

  1. Click More Settings, open the Outgoing Server tab and check My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.

Step 6

  1. Open the Advanced tab and enter 587 as Outgoing Server (SMTP) port. Click OK and Click Next to complete the setup.

step 7

 

Emails not forwarding to Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo

emailEmail Forwarding Problems

If you are using the free SMTP service provided with your UKC hosting account then sometimes there may be problems with deliverability to the free email providers.

As this is a shared service, performance may be limited by the actions of other users. For example, rogue users could cause a build-up of backlogged mail, and can even cause the server to become temporarily blacklisted.

There is also the possibility that some users may be using the system to spend spam and other malicious email. In this case, other email systems may see this spam and blacklist the server.

This could cause your emails to be delayed or, in the worst case, bounced back.

Ensure your Email / Domain is in your Recipient Safe Senders list

All of the large providers offer a “safe senders” list. You should ensure you ask your clients that use free email addresses as the contact details to ensure your domain is added to their “safe senders” list to ensure deliverability.

See: How we ask our clients to add us to their safe senders list

Use your ISP SMTP Server for maximum deliverability

For best SMTP performance we recommend that you use your ISP SMTP server.

See: Which SMTP server should I use to send email?