Thunderbird vs OE Classic: Which is best for Windows 10/11?

Outlook Express was without a doubt one of the most popular email clients on Windows platform. Unfortunately, Outlook Express was scrapped by Microsoft despite being one of the the best email clients on Windows.

Over the years many Outlook Express alternatives appeared with OE Classic and Thunderbird being the most popular ones.

Since both Thunderbird and OE Classic are such popular emails clients, we decided to make a comparison between the two.

Thunderbird or OE Classic

Thunderbird was originally created by Mozilla in 2004, and ever since its release, Thunderbird has been rather popular among the users. However, Mozilla decided to stop the development of Thunderbird in order to focus on more important tasks, and the development of Thunderbird was given to the community.

On the other hand, OE Classic takes after Outlook Express and it does its best to use the same simple visual style that many Windows users are familiar with. If you’re looking for an email client that is a proper Outlook Express replacement, OE Classic might be just what you need. Unlike OE Classic, Thunderbird‘s user interface relies heavily on tabs, and many Outlook Express users might not like the tabbed interface. Another advantage of OE Classic are its big and colorful icons that allow you to easily check for mail or create a new email message.

The first thing you’ll notice when you open Thunderbird is its offer to create a new email account by using one of their partners. If you already have an email address, you can choose the option to use an already existing email account.

We have to give credit to Thunderbird for making the account setup process fast and straightforward. You just have to enter your username and password and Thunderbird will automatically configure your account. Of course, you can manually change all the necessary data if necessary.

• Editor’s Note:  If you’re interested in other email solutions, check out our wide collection of guides.

OE Classic on the other hand doesn’t offer you to create a new email address as soon as you open it, instead it requires you to to select that option manually. The process of account creation is simple and straightforward just like in Thunderbird.

Even though Thunderbird uses modern-looking user interface, we can’t shake the feeling that its interface is a bit packed with features. Unlike OE Classic, Thunderbird comes with Event Scheduler and Calendar, and even though Event Scheduler is a welcome feature, you won’t use it if you already use any other to-do list app. Same goes for Calendar, it works great with Event Scheduler by showing all scheduled events in the calendar, however such feature isn’t necessary for an email client.

OE Classic doesn’t have Calendar or Event Scheduler, and instead of adding somewhat unnecessary features creators of OE Classic focused on developing an email client that resembles Outlook Express as much as possible. This means that there are no tabs, or any unnecessary features that you probably won’t ever use in an email client.

Thunderbird also comes with a chat option that allows you chat over Google Talk, IRC, Twitter, XMPP, and Yahoo. We were surprised to see chat a option available in an email client, but we assume that this option might be useful for some users.

Although OE Classic offers more simplistic and easier to use interface, we have to admit that we miss the Thunderbird’s Quick Filter option that allows us to quickly search for email messages. OE Classic has the option to search emails, but in order to use it, you need to click the find button and search for emails in a new window. In our opinion, Thunderbird’s Quick Filter option feels more natural because it allows you to easily search for emails right from your inbox, without opening any additional windows.

In terms of developer support, Thunderbird is being developed by community and not by Mozilla, therefore updates might not be as frequent as they used to be. As for OE Classic, the developers of OE Classic are constantly working on it, and in fact, they are closely listening to user feedback and suggestions regarding new features. If you have a feature you’ll like to see in OE Classic, feel free to share your ideas with the developer and they will certainly consider it.

Thunderbird offers a modern tabbed user interface that looks great, but the interface might feel a bit crammed with features. Features such as Chat and Calendar are useful, but we can’t shake the feeling these features aren’t really necessary for an email client.

OE Classic doesn’t have modern user interface, but it does its job perfectly. As we mentioned, OE Classic is inspired by Outlook Express, one of the most used email clients on Windows, therefore it resembles Outlook Express in terms of simplicity and user interface. If you want a simple client to send and receive emails, without any unnecessary features, we suggest that you try OE Classic.