Microsoft Outlook 2013 alternatives

Well I have uninstalled Outlook 2013 and installed Thunderbird on my local hard drive and Opera Email on my USB. Honestly, the UI in both MS and eM Client is horrible. I don't like the way my emails are divided by yesterday, last week, last month, last year. Takes up a lot of space. Both Opera and Thunderbird seem to offer more traditional desktop experience.

 

Okay now testing The Bat, I am quite impressed. This is the only email client that has ability to start minimized in the system tray and without showing in the taskbar.Which means, it can start totally silent in windows without popping out anywhere until you get mail.

 

I've heard a lot of good things about The Bat. Let us know how your trial goes.

 

Okay so here is an update. After getting annyoed with Outlook mostly its heaviness on the system, ugly UI and licensing issues, I ended up installing back and forth the following email clients:
- Thunderbird
- Opera
- eM Client
- The Bat
After using The Bat for about 3 weeks, I pulled the trigger and got myself a professional license. This email client is the lightest, most advanced and most responsive out of all the ones above. It is also the only email client that can start minimized in tray and hidden in the taskbar and the only one that can be fully customized. I was happy to pay for a professional license $49.

 

Thunderbird? Never considered it. I'm doing Outlook 2003 still. Should I revisit and re-evaluate my choice?

 

You could always give the other email clients a chance and see if you like them. A lot of it is personal preference and what kind of computer you are running.
For example Outlook 2013 wouldn't be that bad if I had Dual or Quad Core laptop with a 15 inch screen. Outlooks division of emails by day, week, month and year takes out a lot of real estate from my 11.6 in screen. Not to mention that Outlook 2013 is really slow to start on 1.5Ghz single core AMD. I don't need my email client to support calendar function either.
So you see my point? Depending on what your expectations are, for some things simple Thunderbird will do, for others Outlook 2013 and for me The Bat fits the criteria perfectly.
By the way The Bat starts instantly with no delay, as fast as a start menu. They really sold me on it.

 

Is the $49 an annual license fee or is that a lifetime license or something else?

 

The $49 is for the 2 version upgrades. After that you can either stay at your current version or purchase an upgrade for $35. According to their blog it looks like every 1.5 years to 2 years they come up with new version. They do have a bunch of updates in between thou.
The home version is $10 cheaper for both license and upgrades.
I believe that the license is lifetime for your current version. You may want to verify that with them via email to be 100% sure.

 

good info, thanks

 

Yup, I just revived email back from ritalabs. The license never expires, you get updates until version 6. The Bat is on version 5 right now.

 

Xp is closing to eol so I started to move to windows 7. Was using outlook express under xp. Never liked outlook. Any updates on the issue?