{"slug": "claws-mail", "name": "Claws Mail", "category": "communication", "category_name": "Email and chat", "description": "", "recommenders": 7, "commenters": 10, "warners": 2, "score": 4.702, "rising": 0.36, "first": "2026-01-10", "latest": "2026-08-18", "why": "Claws-mail (https://claws-mail.org) has a good working Windows version.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 8, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 2, 0, 3, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Claws-mail (https://claws-mail.org) has a good working Windows version.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "claws-mail.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.claws-mail.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Claws Mail"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 789716416, "item_id": 49357276, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49357276", "by": "sleetdrop", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have you tried claws mail.", "excerpt": "Have you tried claws mail. https://www.claws-mail.org/ BTW: It\u2019s GTK based, so it looks not very native on windows.", "context": "", "use_case": "IMAP email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Good IMAP Email Clients?"}, {"id": 789666595, "item_id": 49354162, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49354162", "by": "ggm", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There are X frontends to NMH like Sylpheed or claws. They make sense.", "excerpt": "I use mbsync, to Maildir and then NMH Maildir to folder/file format. I step over the OAuth with email-oauth2-proxy. There are X frontends to NMH like Sylpheed or claws. They make sense.", "context": "", "use_case": "mail frontend", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Good IMAP Email Clients?"}, {"id": 763272676, "item_id": 47704542, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47704542", "by": "nosioptar", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Seamonkey or claws mifht be good alternatives too.", "excerpt": "Seamonkey or claws mifht be good alternatives too. http://seamonkey-project.org/ https://claws-mail.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 763242801, "item_id": 47702675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47702675", "by": "PunchyHamster", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "before I moved to claws-mail", "excerpt": "Thunderbird of now is more annoying and less convenient to use than when I last time used it in 2010's, before I moved to claws-mail. And only reason using it now is cos of MS fucked up oauth2 method that is PITA to setup for any other OSS client as it requires the app to be added to their catalog and only thunderbird was big enough to get that So I can understand the annoyance", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "Thunderbird", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 761912656, "item_id": 47619541, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47619541", "by": "sombragris", "date": "2026-04-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Claws-mail (https://claws-mail.org) has a good working Windows version.", "excerpt": "> However, on more practical level, what are other options? Outlook, the desktop application works really well with local copies, is pretty low bandwidth and very familiar to end users. Claws-mail (https://claws-mail.org) has a good working Windows version. Native desktop app, lightweight, extremely fast, able to handle multigigabyte inboxes for breakfast. The only drawback for some would be that it does not compose ", "context": "", "use_case": "Desktop email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Artemis computer running two instances of MS outlook; they can't figure out why"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 769998273, "item_id": 48124892, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48124892", "by": "SyneRyder", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "There's Claws Mail, but it has enough bugs that I didn't even find it usable, nevermind reliable.", "excerpt": "Occasional Haiku user here, running directly on hardware. \"Works\" on my ThinkPad X1 Yoga 3rd Gen (which is an 8th Gen Core i7 device). To get it working I have to type \"continue\" at the two kernel panics on startup due to spurious / overzealous Thunderbolt PCI warnings. I also needed help from an Action Retro video to figure out how to setup the UEFI BIOS files on the correct partitions on the bootable Samsung USB st", "context": "", "use_case": "email on Haiku", "switched_from": "", "story": "Haiku"}, {"id": 761919216, "item_id": 47619951, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47619951", "by": "jayofdoom", "date": "2026-04-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It doesn't display HTML emails just fine.", "excerpt": "I used this for a while. It doesn't display HTML emails just fine. It only supports a subset of stuff which -- as a geek is awesome because it protects me -- but would be hideous to give to a normal user. Literally less than half of my emails were readable.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Artemis computer running two instances of MS outlook; they can't figure out why"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["imap email client", "mail frontend", "email on haiku", "desktop email", "desktop email client", "email client"], "compared": [{"slug": "thunderbird", "name": "Thunderbird", "co": 3, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "seamonkey", "name": "SeaMonkey", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49353921", "title": "Ask HN: Good IMAP Email Clients?", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47700388", "title": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47615490", "title": "Artemis computer running two instances of MS outlook; they can't figure out why", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47133313", "title": "Firefox 148 Launches with AI Kill Switch Feature and More Enhancements", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48124002", "title": "Haiku", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46577242", "title": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (January 2026)", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 3, "warn": 1}, "2026-05": {"warn": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 789716416, "item_id": 49357276, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49357276", "by": "sleetdrop", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have you tried claws mail.", "excerpt": "Have you tried claws mail. https://www.claws-mail.org/ BTW: It\u2019s GTK based, so it looks not very native on windows.", "context": "", "use_case": "IMAP email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Good IMAP Email Clients?"}, {"id": 789666595, "item_id": 49354162, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49354162", "by": "ggm", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There are X frontends to NMH like Sylpheed or claws. They make sense.", "excerpt": "I use mbsync, to Maildir and then NMH Maildir to folder/file format. I step over the OAuth with email-oauth2-proxy. There are X frontends to NMH like Sylpheed or claws. They make sense.", "context": "", "use_case": "mail frontend", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Good IMAP Email Clients?"}, {"id": 769998273, "item_id": 48124892, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48124892", "by": "SyneRyder", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "There's Claws Mail, but it has enough bugs that I didn't even find it usable, nevermind reliable.", "excerpt": "Occasional Haiku user here, running directly on hardware. \"Works\" on my ThinkPad X1 Yoga 3rd Gen (which is an 8th Gen Core i7 device). To get it working I have to type \"continue\" at the two kernel panics on startup due to spurious / overzealous Thunderbolt PCI warnings. I also needed help from an Action Retro video to figure out how to setup the UEFI BIOS files on the correct partitions on the bootable Samsung USB st", "context": "", "use_case": "email on Haiku", "switched_from": "", "story": "Haiku"}, {"id": 763272676, "item_id": 47704542, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47704542", "by": "nosioptar", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Seamonkey or claws mifht be good alternatives too.", "excerpt": "Seamonkey or claws mifht be good alternatives too. http://seamonkey-project.org/ https://claws-mail.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 763242801, "item_id": 47702675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47702675", "by": "PunchyHamster", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "before I moved to claws-mail", "excerpt": "Thunderbird of now is more annoying and less convenient to use than when I last time used it in 2010's, before I moved to claws-mail. And only reason using it now is cos of MS fucked up oauth2 method that is PITA to setup for any other OSS client as it requires the app to be added to their catalog and only thunderbird was big enough to get that So I can understand the annoyance", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "Thunderbird", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 761919216, "item_id": 47619951, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47619951", "by": "jayofdoom", "date": "2026-04-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It doesn't display HTML emails just fine.", "excerpt": "I used this for a while. It doesn't display HTML emails just fine. It only supports a subset of stuff which -- as a geek is awesome because it protects me -- but would be hideous to give to a normal user. Literally less than half of my emails were readable.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Artemis computer running two instances of MS outlook; they can't figure out why"}, {"id": 761912656, "item_id": 47619541, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47619541", "by": "sombragris", "date": "2026-04-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Claws-mail (https://claws-mail.org) has a good working Windows version.", "excerpt": "> However, on more practical level, what are other options? Outlook, the desktop application works really well with local copies, is pretty low bandwidth and very familiar to end users. Claws-mail (https://claws-mail.org) has a good working Windows version. Native desktop app, lightweight, extremely fast, able to handle multigigabyte inboxes for breakfast. The only drawback for some would be that it does not compose ", "context": "", "use_case": "Desktop email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Artemis computer running two instances of MS outlook; they can't figure out why"}, {"id": 754301664, "item_id": 47143854, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47143854", "by": "hagbard_c", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "can handle it without problems", "excerpt": "All your mail in one place does not require a 'fat' client, something like Claws mail [1] (not in any way related to the recent LLM claws craze) can handle it without problems. Modern looks, well... it looks the way it looked about 25 years ago give or take a few iterations of GTK. Compact, efficient, to the point. If that's not your thing and you'd rather have large amounts of empty space and unrecognisable buttons ", "context": "", "use_case": "Email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Firefox 148 Launches with AI Kill Switch Feature and More Enhancements"}, {"id": 754261456, "item_id": 47141341, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47141341", "by": "nosioptar", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Clawsand SeaMonkey both have a more reasonable design.", "excerpt": "Clawsand SeaMonkey both have a more reasonable design. (SeaMonkey did a piss poor job picking screenshots for their webpage...) https://www.claws-mail.org/screenshots.php https://www.seamonkey-project.org/doc/screenshots", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Firefox 148 Launches with AI Kill Switch Feature and More Enhancements"}, {"id": 745358033, "item_id": 46584877, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46584877", "by": "olowe", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Talons[1] is my stripped down fork of claws-mail[2] which itself is a fork of Sylpheed[3].", "excerpt": "Revitalising a 20+ year-old GTK mail client with Zig. Talons[1] is my stripped down fork of claws-mail[2] which itself is a fork of Sylpheed[3]. Moving from auto tools to Zig\u2019s build system was a huge quality of life improvement. Most of the work since has been deleting features and tidying up the code to make it easier to reason about. I realise there may not be that much value porting C to Zig the more I work on th", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (January 2026)"}, {"id": 745132945, "item_id": 46570809, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46570809", "by": "wwfn", "date": "2026-01-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "why not a traditional client (thunderbird, claws, even outlook)", "excerpt": "If looking for local email, why not a traditional client (thunderbird, claws, even outlook) or the more flexible/cli friendly maildir and notmuch? There are a bunch of front ends, including WebUIs https://notmuchmail.org/frontends/ Is what you're looking for a pretty good fit for how email was originally used? Or am missing something obvious", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bichon: A lightweight, high-performance Rust email archiver with WebUI"}]}