Mozilla Thunderbird Vs Microsoft Outlook: The E-mail Showdown
Below is a feature comparison between Mozilla Thunderbird, and Microsoft Outlook. Both programs have their ups and downs, but for the features that matter. Who wins?
Thunderbird:
Outlook:
Feature Comparison
Winner |
|||
Icons. |
Tie |
||
Price. |
Free |
109.99 standalone |
Thunderbird |
OS Supported. |
Windows: - 98 - 98 SE - ME - NT - 2000 - XP - Vista Linux: Fedora Core 4 Linux kernel - 2.2.14 (extra packages needed) Mac: Mac OS X 10.2.x and later |
Server 2003 Mac: |
Thunderbird |
Pretty/Shiny. |
Yes |
Yes |
Tie |
Renders e-mails in. |
Firefox |
Microsoft Word |
Thunderbird Firefox has been known for how well it handles HTML/CSS. Working with html and Word is an awful combination. Imagine for a second Firefox 2.0.0.8 killed off the majority of CSS support and only allowed table based layouts. See here for a bigger list of limitations. |
Can export settings/address book from older versions and vice versa |
Yes |
Yes |
Thunderbird for ease of use Transferring files between old versions of outlook on different operating systems is a mess, compared to Thunderbird. |
Theme and extension support |
Yes |
No |
Thunderbird
|
Message template support |
Yes |
Yes |
Tie
|
Imap support |
Yes - good |
Yes - awful |
Thunderbird |
Automatic updates |
Yes |
No |
Thunderbird Outlook users are required to buy an update license during purchase, or purchase another updated version if an update is available and their license is expired. |
Open source |
Yes |
No |
Thunderbird Most programmers will agree, open source projects are clearly more developed and secure. |
Spam filter |
Yes - works |
Yes - not as well |
Thunderbird |
Phishing protection |
Yes |
Yes - Not as advanced |
Thunderbird |
RSS support |
Yes |
Yes |
Tie |
Integrated calendar |
No |
Yes |
Outlook |
Ease of use |
Yes |
Partial |
Thunderbird Outlook can be quite difficult unless you have had previous experience, or decide to look up the documentation. |
Remote image blocking |
Yes |
Yes |
Tie |
Tagging/task support |
Yes |
Yes |
Tie |
E-mail search |
Yes |
Yes |
Tie |
Deeply rooted into the operating system |
No |
Yes |
Thunderbird Outlook ties alot of its features directly into the desktop of most machines. This allows it to become compromised easily should a virus happen to take over. |
Updated often |
Yes |
No |
Thunderbird Outlook releases come few and far, a new reworked version is released every couple of years, with security patches being distributed via Windows updates. |
Full tech support, messageboards/knowledge base/tutorials |
Yes |
Partial |
Thunderbird Thunderbird has a kowledge base, message board for tech support, and tutorials database for managing. Outlook has a knowledge base but no support forum. |
Totals: Thunderbird: 14
Outlook: 1
Ties: 7
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