I'm returning to Thunderbird after years of using Spark

After years of jumping between email clients, many of which have either disappeared, become bloated, or pivoted into something unrecognizable, I’ve decided to return to an old acquaintance: Thunderbird. Or more precisely, its better-behaved fork, Betterbird.

Before I dive into the why, let me clarify: I’ve used a lot of email apps over the years. From early experiments to popular names like Airmail, Mailbird, Postbox (which, ironically, is now eM Client), and of course, Spark, the one I stuck with the longest across both desktop and mobile.

But Spark has lost its way. What began as a clean, intuitive, fast app slowly gave way to feature creep. AI summarization, chat-like threads, smart sorting… all trendy, all shiny, but most of it unnecessary. Worse, these features now justify a premium price tag and stupid subscriptions I’ve never felt compelled to pay. I don’t need my email app to act like a productivity coach. I need it to manage email well.

The problem Spark couldn't solve

What finally broke the deal for me was a persistent sync issue: read emails not syncing properly across devices. When you're managing more than ten email accounts and handling hundreds of emails weekly, this becomes a nightmare.

I'd read something on desktop, open the mobile app later, and, surprise, it still showed as unread. Worse, Spark removed the option to select and mark multiple messages at once on mobile. I found myself manually opening or tapping messages just to clear notifications. Not exactly the “smart inbox” experience I was promised.

Even more frustrating was Spark’s handling of old or deactivated accounts. You can’t export messages. If you delete an account from Spark, those emails are gone, permanently. That was a deal-breaker. I need to retain access to archives, especially for work, legal references, or projects long past their expiration date.

So I went hunting. Again.

Enter Betterbird

Thunderbird always had promise, but I’d found it clunky in the past. Now? Betterbird brings everything Thunderbird offers but with usability improvements that make a real difference.

The plugin system adds flexibility, and while it’s still a bit old-school in spirit, the experience is far more polished than I remembered. That said, I’m cautious not to overload it with too many add-ons, Thunderbird's core still lurks underneath, and it can bog down under weight.

Mobile? That’s a messier story

Finding a solid mobile companion is another story. The landscape is littered with overpriced, half-baked apps. Polymail, for example, wants €156/year for a clunky experience wrapped in slick branding. Bluemail has potential but suffers from a frustrating interface and questionable privacy policies.

After testing several options, I landed on Preside, not the prettiest, but functional and privacy-respecting. I gave Outlook another shot (even with a Microsoft 365 subscription), but the app is slow, unreliable with notifications, and occasionally loses messages altogether.

Why not just use Apple Mail?

If you're an Apple user, you might ask: “Why not just use the built-in Mail app?” Short answer: It’s not good enough.

For a company that invests so heavily in polish and profit, Apple Mail feels like an afterthought. Basic, underpowered, and stagnant. It’s baffling that with every iOS update, Apple finds time to obsess over emoji keyboards and “new reaction bubbles” but not over building a modern, privacy-first email app.

At one point, I even considered building my own iOS email client. But the reality is: designing, developing, and refining such a tool would require at least a year of focused work, time I currently can’t spare.

From To-Do mania to AI overkill

There was a time when every app tried to be a to-do list. Now, it's all about being “AI-enhanced”. But this isn’t evolution, it’s distraction. Email apps are bloating themselves with bells and whistles, losing sight of their core purpose: managing email reliably, securely, and simply.

And naturally, the new model is always the same: subscription-based pricing that treats your inbox like a commodity.

So...where I'm at now

For now, I’m testing Betterbird alongside Mailspring, trying to decide which one truly delivers on the basics: full control, message backup, and local storage, not cloud dependency or data brokering.

Because in the end, I want to own my inbox, not rent it from some startup that could disappear next year, or worse, lock me out of my data.

Once your messages live on your machine, they’re yours. And in a world of ephemeral services and shifting terms, that might be the only guarantee that still means something.