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From Mozilla’s Thunderbird, and its variants, to the retro-looking MailSmith, you do have choices besides the two most-common email clients, Apple Mail and Microsoft Entourage, when you update or set up your Mac. Here are six fine Mac email clients that will get the job and then some for exactly zero dollars

I’ve set up a lot of Macs over the years, and nearly everyone chooses Apple’s bundled Mail app. Most of those that express any preference want Microsoft Entourage. Personally, Mail has reigned unchallenged on my various Macs for over five years. Recently, I decided to revisit this choice.

• Thunderbird, download
— Easily the best and most popular open-source email client for the Mac. It’s based on the Gecko browser engine used in Firefox and includes a wealth of powerful features, including HTML email creation, a tabbed interface, fast account set up, fast search and the extensible add-on framework that’s made Mozilla one of the world’s top software makers.
— Available for Mac, Linux, PC and other operating systems.

• Mailsmith, download
— This email client has hooks for importing information from Eudora 6.x.x and earlier, and Claris Emailer. You also get a copy of SpamSieve along with this rather retro looking email client with a classic three-pane UI from Base Bones Software
— Mac only, universal

• SeaMonkey, download
— Do you remember Netscape’s once dominant Navigator? Like that storied browser of yore, Seamonkey puts it all in one place (web, email, chat, html editor) perhaps making up in convenience what it lack in terms of speed.
— Available for Mac, Linux, PC and other operating systems; earlier versions available for PPC

• Postbox Express, download
— A simple, yet powerful email application that’s light-weight and perfect for home use. The target audience here is disaffected Thunderbird users. It’s the little brother of Postbox, an office mail client that sells for $40.
— Available for Mac, PC

• Eudora, download
— Once upon a time, this email client + server platform was dominant. Now, it’s being rewritten from the bottom up and its based on Thunderbird. It’s currently in beta and generally receiving good reviews. Yeah, there’s a server, too.
— Available for Mac, Linux and PC

• Pine
— THE freeware, text-based e-mail client developed at the University of Washington. Real men run their own servers and don’t need no stinkin’ graphics!