Compared with clients that sync through their own cloud.
Some email clients pass your mailbox through servers of their own. Terndesk keeps it between your computer and your mail provider, and gets its speed from your own computer.
- Where your mail is kept
- Terndesk: On your computer
- Cloud-synced client: On your computer and on the vendor's servers
- Path to your mail server
- Terndesk: Straight from your computer to Google or your IMAP server
- Cloud-synced client: Through the vendor's servers
- With the network off
- Terndesk: Read, search, triage and reply. Your changes reach your mail server when you reconnect
- Cloud-synced client: Nothing syncs until the vendor's servers can be reached
- Settings on a second computer
- Terndesk: Kept in your own mailbox, or a file you export
- Cloud-synced client: Stored on the vendor's servers
- Other servers the app contacts
- Terndesk: Only the licence service, when you activate or remove a licence. No update checks, no telemetry
- Cloud-synced client: The vendor's, for everything that syncs
- Accounts it works with
- Terndesk: Gmail and most IMAP providers. Not Outlook or Yahoo yet
- Cloud-synced client: The providers the vendor has built for
| Topic | Terndesk | Cloud-synced client |
|---|---|---|
| Where your mail is kept | On your computer | On your computer and on the vendor's servers |
| Path to your mail server | Straight from your computer to Google or your IMAP server | Through the vendor's servers |
| With the network off | Read, search, triage and reply. Your changes reach your mail server when you reconnect | Nothing syncs until the vendor's servers can be reached |
| Settings on a second computer | Kept in your own mailbox, or a file you export | Stored on the vendor's servers |
| Other servers the app contacts | Only the licence service, when you activate or remove a licence. No update checks, no telemetry | The vendor's, for everything that syncs |
| Accounts it works with | Gmail and most IMAP providers. Not Outlook or Yahoo yet | The providers the vendor has built for |
Why not a traditional desktop client?
Thunderbird and Apple Mail also keep mail on your computer and talk straight to your provider, so the first two rows above don't set Terndesk apart from them. The reason to choose Terndesk is how it works: every action on a key, a split inbox, snooze and reminders, undo that puts things back exactly, send later, and AI that runs on your own machine.
What Terndesk leaves out, on purpose
- Read receipts
- They track the people you write to. Terndesk reminds you about unanswered mail instead.
- Team comments and shared drafts
- They'd put your mail on a server of ours. Forward with a note instead.
- Public booking pages
- Terndesk pastes your free times into a reply instead.
- Phone apps, for now
- Terndesk is a desktop app for Linux and macOS today. Rules you run as Gmail filters still apply to the mail on your phone.
Clear your inbox without reaching for the mouse.
The .dmg, .deb, .rpm and AppImage are on GitHub. To hear about new versions, watch the releases or follow their feed.