# zora

> zora is a calm, minimal email client for macOS, made by one independent developer (Piotr Wittchen). It works with Gmail (signed in with Google) and any IMAP/SMTP account, such as iCloud Mail, Fastmail or Yahoo. Mail is cached on the Mac and sent only to the user's mail provider: there is no zora server in between, no analytics and no telemetry. Optional AI features (thread summaries, suggested replies, writing help) are off by default and work only with the user's own OpenAI or Anthropic API key (bring your own key); the user turns them on in Settings if they want them. It is sold as a one-time lifetime license (€99, taxes included where applicable) with a free 14-day trial. Requires macOS 14 or later.

This file contains the full text of every page on the zora website, for LLMs and AI search. A shorter summary is at [/llms.txt](/llms.txt).

## Home (/)

### Email, without the noise.

Just your mail, in a calm and beautiful Mac app. Nothing else asking for your attention.

For macOS 14+ · Gmail and IMAP · Your mail stays on your Mac

### What zora believes

- **Less, on purpose.** Every feature has to earn its place. Most don't make it. What's left is the part of email you actually use.
- **Beauty is a feature.** You look at your inbox every day. It should be a quiet, well-made place to be, not a noisy dashboard.
- **Your mail is yours.** No server in between, no tracking, and no AI unless you turn it on with your own key. zora talks to your mail provider and nobody else.
- **Here to stay.** zora is made by one person and paid for by the people who use it. No investors, no pivot, no shutdown email.

### Features: small app, everything you need

**Calm to read.** Feels like a Mac app should: system font, native window and menus, light and dark.

- Conversations open beside the list (a side-peek panel), so you never lose your place.
- Mail is cached on your Mac. It opens instantly and works offline.
- New mail is a standard notification and a Dock badge. That's it.

**Fast to use.** Hands stay on the keyboard, and the mouse is always optional.

- A command palette on ⌘K.
- J/K to move, E to archive, R to reply.
- Search with ⌘F, narrowed by sender, excluded words, dates or attachment size.
- The Rust programming language keeps it quick and light on memory.

**Works with your mail.** Gmail done properly, and any account that speaks IMAP.

- Threads, labels (including nested labels), drafts, spam and trash behave like Gmail.
- iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo and others, with server settings filled in.
- Several accounts in one window, a click apart.

The composer supports rich text, attachments, and recipient suggestions from the people you write to most.

Optional AI features (thread summaries, suggested replies, and help polishing or writing a message) are off by default. Turn them on in Settings with your own OpenAI or Anthropic API key.

### Themes: make it yours

Nine color themes, from bright to deep dark: zora, Everforest, Flexoki, Gruvbox, Kanagawa, Nord, Rosé Pine, Solarized and Zenwritten. Pick one in Settings or preview them live from the command palette.

- **Light, dark or automatic.** Follow the system, pin one appearance, or switch from light to dark at sunset.
- **Preview as you browse.** Open the command palette and arrow through themes. The window changes as you go.

### AI: only if you want it

zora works fine without AI, and it starts with it switched off. If you'd like help with long threads and replies, bring your own OpenAI or Anthropic key and turn it on in Settings.

**Summaries.** One click at the top of a thread explains what's going on.

- A few plain sentences, not a wall of bullet points.
- Who's asking you for what, and by when.
- Written in the thread's language: a Polish thread gets a Polish summary.

**Suggested replies.** Two or three short replies wait under the latest message.

- Click one and it becomes a draft, ready to edit or send.
- Nothing is ever sent without you.
- Newsletters and notifications get no suggestions.

**Help with writing.** A sparkle button sits next to the formatting tools.

- *Polish Message* fixes grammar and tone and keeps your meaning.
- *Write from Notes* turns a few words into a full message.
- The quoted message below your reply stays untouched.

**Claude Code and other MCP clients.** Turn on zora's MCP server in Settings → AI, copy the setup command into Terminal, and ask Claude Code about your mail.

- It can search and read conversations, mark, star, label, archive or trash them, and open one in zora.
- It can draft replies and new messages for you to review. It never sends mail.
- The server runs only on your Mac while zora is open, and only clients with your secret token can connect.

- **Off by default.** Nothing about AI runs, and nothing is sent anywhere, until you turn it on in Settings. The same goes for the MCP server.
- **Your own key.** Add an OpenAI or Anthropic API key and pick the provider and model. Keys live in the macOS Keychain. No AI subscription to zora.
- **Straight from your Mac.** Only the conversation you have open and the text you ask for help with go to your provider, never through a zora server.

### Privacy: your mail stays yours

zora is a local app. There is no zora server between you and your mail provider.

- **On your Mac.** Mail is cached locally. Passwords and tokens live in the macOS Keychain.
- **Straight to your provider.** Nobody else receives your mail, including the developer. Optional AI features stay off unless you turn them on with your own key.
- **No tracking.** Remote images stay blocked until you ask. No ads, no analytics, no telemetry.

### Pricing: pay once, keep it

No subscription, no upsells.

- zora lifetime license: **€99, paid once**, taxes included where applicable.
- Lifetime license, no subscription.
- Free 14-day trial, every feature included, no account needed.

The pricing model and price may change for future updates.

### FAQ

**Which accounts does zora work with?**
Gmail, signed in with Google, and any provider that offers IMAP and SMTP, such as iCloud Mail, Fastmail or Yahoo. You can add several accounts and switch between them.

**Does it work with Outlook or Microsoft 365?**
Not yet. Microsoft only lets apps sign in to its mail with a Microsoft sign-in, and zora doesn't have one yet. It's planned.

**Do I need to import or move my mail?**
No. zora connects to the account you already have, so your mail, labels and folders are there as soon as you sign in. Nothing moves, and your other mail apps keep working.

**Does it work offline?**
Yes, for reading. Mail is cached on your Mac, so you can read and search it without a connection. Sending needs a connection, and zora catches up by itself when you're back online.

**Which languages does zora speak?**
English and Polish. Pick one in Settings → General. The menus and notifications switch too.

**Does zora read my mail or use AI?**
No one else reads it. Your mail goes from your provider to your Mac, with no zora server and no analytics. AI features (thread summaries, suggested replies and help with writing) are optional and off by default. If you want them, turn them on in Settings and add your own OpenAI or Anthropic API key. zora then sends the conversation you have open, and any text you ask it to help with, straight from your Mac to that provider. You can also turn on a local MCP server so Claude Code can work with your mail. It's off by default too.

**How do I get an OpenAI or Anthropic API key?**
You only need one if you want the AI features. zora works fine without a key, and adding one is optional. To get one, make an account with the provider, add a payment method, and create a key: for OpenAI at https://platform.openai.com/api-keys, for Anthropic in the Anthropic Console under API keys (https://console.anthropic.com/settings/keys). Copy the key and paste it into Settings → AI in zora. API use is billed by the provider, separately from a ChatGPT or Claude subscription, and you pay only for what you use. You need just one key, and you can remove it any time.

**Is it a subscription?**
No. You pay once and the license is yours. Try every feature free for 14 days first, no account needed.

**What if the developer stops working on zora?**
zora runs on your Mac and talks straight to your mail provider. It doesn't need a zora server to read or send mail, so it keeps working.

**Is there a version for Windows, Linux, iPhone or Android?**
Not now. zora is made for the Mac and needs macOS 14 or later.

### Download

Requires macOS 14 or later. Download coming soon.

### Contact: made by one person

Piotr Wittchen, software engineer and creator of zora, wanted a mail app that felt calm and looked at home on the Mac, so he made one. zora has no investors and no growth targets, just people who like it and pay for it. Questions, feedback or bug reports: hello@zoramail.app.

- Email: [hello@zoramail.app](mailto:hello@zoramail.app)
- Website: [wittchen.io](https://wittchen.io)
- GitHub: [github.com/pwittchen](https://github.com/pwittchen)

## Notion Mail alternative (/notion-mail-alternative/)

### Missing Notion Mail?

If you liked Notion Mail for being clean and quiet, you'll feel at home in zora: a calm, minimal email client for the Mac, made by one person who isn't going anywhere.

### Switching takes a minute

Notion Mail sat on top of Gmail, and so does zora. Your mail never left Gmail, so there's nothing to export or import.

1. **Download zora.** A native app for macOS 14 or later. Every feature is free for 14 days, no account needed.
2. **Sign in with Google.** The same Google account you used with Notion Mail. zora connects straight to Gmail.
3. **Your inbox is there.** Threads, labels, drafts, spam and trash, the way you left them in Gmail.

### What will feel familiar

- **A calm inbox.** No clutter, no badges fighting for attention. Content first, quiet chrome around it.
- **Keyboard first.** A command palette on ⌘K, plus J/K to move, E to archive and R to reply.
- **Labels that work.** Your Gmail labels, nested ones included, right in the sidebar.

### And what's different

- **A real Mac app.** Native window, menus and notifications. Mail is cached on your Mac, so it opens instantly and works offline.
- **AI only if you want it.** No auto-sorting and nothing reading your inbox by default. Summaries, suggested replies and writing help are optional, off until you turn them on, and use your own OpenAI or Anthropic key.
- **Not only Gmail.** Add iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo or any IMAP account next to Gmail, all in one window.

### Built to stay

Free apps from big companies come and go. zora is paid for by the people who use it, so its only job is to be a good mail app for them.

- **Pay once.** A lifetime license, no subscription. Try it free for 14 days first.
- **Runs on your Mac.** zora doesn't need a zora server to read or send your mail.
- **One person, no investors.** No growth targets, no pivot, no shutdown email.

Notion and Notion Mail are trademarks of Notion Labs, Inc. zora is an independent app and is not affiliated with Notion.

## Superhuman alternative (/superhuman-alternative/)

### Fast email. No subscription.

If you love Superhuman's keyboard flow but not paying for it every month, try zora: a calm, keyboard-first email client for the Mac that you pay for once.

### Your fingers already know it

zora is built around the keyboard, so the habits you picked up in Superhuman carry over.

- **Command palette.** Press ⌘K and type what you want: move, label, switch account or change theme.
- **Familiar shortcuts.** J/K to move, E to archive, R to reply. The mouse is always optional.
- **Search that narrows.** ⌘F to search, then filter by sender, dates, excluded words or attachments.

### Fast, because it's local

- **Opens instantly.** Mail is cached on your Mac, so the inbox is there the moment you open the app, even offline.
- **A real Mac app.** Native window, menus and notifications. System font, light and dark, nine color themes.
- **Gmail and more.** Gmail with its labels and threads, plus iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo or any IMAP account, in one window.

### What zora leaves out

zora does less, on purpose. Better you know before you switch.

- **No AI by default.** No AI plan to pay for and nothing reading your inbox out of the box. Summaries, suggested replies and writing help are optional: turn them on with your own OpenAI or Anthropic key, or leave them off.
- **No read receipts.** zora doesn't track whether people opened your mail, and blocks remote images so others can't track you either.
- **No snooze or send later.** Not yet, anyway. If you live by these, Superhuman may still suit you better.

### Pay once, keep it

A lifetime license costs about as much as a few months of a premium email subscription. Then it's yours.

- **No subscription.** One payment. Try every feature free for 14 days first, no account needed.
- **No server in between.** zora talks straight to your mail provider. Nobody else receives your mail, including the developer.
- **One person, no investors.** No growth targets, no upsells, no acquisition email.

Superhuman is a trademark of its respective owner. zora is an independent app and is not affiliated with Superhuman.

## Mimestream alternative (/mimestream-alternative/)

### Gmail on the Mac, and more

If you like Mimestream for being a proper Mac app for Gmail, zora is worth a look: the same respect for Gmail, room for your other accounts, and you pay once.

### Gmail, done properly

zora signs in with Google and treats Gmail as Gmail, not as a pile of folders.

- **Labels, not folders.** Your Gmail labels, nested ones included, in the sidebar and on every thread.
- **Threads that make sense.** Conversations, drafts, spam and trash behave the way they do in Gmail.
- **Nothing to import.** Your mail stays in Gmail. Sign in with the same Google account and it's all there.

### And not only Gmail

- **Any IMAP account.** Add iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo or your own domain next to Gmail. Server settings are filled in for common providers.
- **One window.** Several accounts, a click apart. Switch from the sidebar or the command palette.
- **Keyboard first.** A command palette on ⌘K, plus J/K to move, E to archive and R to reply.

### Calm by design

- **Quiet inbox.** Content first, quiet chrome around it. Conversations open beside the list, so you never lose your place.
- **Nine themes.** zora, Everforest, Flexoki, Gruvbox, Kanagawa, Nord, Rosé Pine, Solarized and Zenwritten, in light and dark.
- **Fast and offline.** Mail is cached on your Mac. It opens instantly and stays readable without a connection.

### Pay once, keep it

No yearly renewal to remember. One license and an app that keeps working.

- **No subscription.** A lifetime license. Try every feature free for 14 days first, no account needed.
- **No server in between.** zora talks straight to Google and your other providers. Nobody else receives your mail, including the developer.
- **No tracking, AI off by default.** Remote images stay blocked until you ask. No analytics, no telemetry. Optional AI features use your own API key.

Mimestream is a trademark of its respective owner. Gmail is a trademark of Google LLC. zora is an independent app and is not affiliated with either.

## Apple Mail alternative (/apple-mail-alternative/)

### Outgrown Apple Mail?

Apple Mail is fine until you get a lot of mail, live in Gmail, or want to keep your hands on the keyboard. zora is a calm Mac email client made for exactly that.

### Still feels like a Mac

zora doesn't ask you to give up what you like about Apple Mail.

- **Native look.** System font, native window and menus, light and dark that follow macOS.
- **Standard notifications.** New mail is a macOS notification and a Dock badge. That's it.
- **Private by default.** Passwords live in the Keychain, and remote images stay blocked until you ask.

### What you get on top

- **Gmail labels, as labels.** Sign in with Google and labels show up as labels, not folders. Threads, spam and trash behave like Gmail.
- **Keyboard first.** A command palette on ⌘K, plus single keys: J/K to move, E to archive, R to reply.
- **Search that narrows.** ⌘F to search, then filter by sender, dates, excluded words or attachment size.
- **A calmer inbox.** Fewer buttons, more room for your mail. Conversations open beside the list, so you never lose your place.
- **Nine color themes.** Everforest, Flexoki, Gruvbox, Kanagawa, Nord, Rosé Pine, Solarized, Zenwritten and zora's own.
- **Same accounts.** iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo or any IMAP account, with server settings filled in for common providers.

### Fair to say

Apple Mail is free and comes with every Mac. A few things it does that zora doesn't:

- **Mac only.** There's no zora for iPhone or iPad. Keep using Mail there, your accounts stay in sync on the server.
- **No Exchange.** zora speaks Gmail and IMAP. Work accounts that only offer Exchange won't connect.
- **Not free.** zora costs €99, once. Try every feature free for 14 days before you decide.

### Made by one person

zora is paid for by the people who use it, so its only job is to be a good mail app for them.

- **Pay once.** A lifetime license, no subscription.
- **No server in between.** zora talks straight to your mail provider. Nobody else receives your mail, including the developer.
- **No tracking, AI off by default.** No analytics, no telemetry. Optional AI features use your own API key and stay off until you turn them on.

Apple, Mac, macOS and iCloud are trademarks of Apple Inc. zora is an independent app and is not affiliated with Apple.

## Privacy policy (/privacy/)

Effective date: October 5, 2026

This policy explains how zora, an email client for macOS ("zora", "the app"), handles your data, including the data it receives from Google when you sign in with a Google account. zora is developed by Piotr Wittchen ("we", "us").

**In short:** zora runs entirely on your Mac. Your mail, contacts and credentials are stored only on your device and are sent only to your own email provider (for Gmail, to Google) and, only if you turn on the optional AI features, to the AI provider you choose with your own API key, and, only if you turn on the MCP server, to apps such as Claude Code that you connect to it on your Mac. We do not operate any server that receives your email data, we never sell or share it, and we do not use it for advertising, analytics or training AI models. The app contains no analytics, tracking or telemetry. Only this website uses cookieless visitor analytics.

### 1. Data zora accesses

**Google account data.** When you add a Gmail account, you sign in with Google in your web browser and grant zora the following permissions (OAuth scopes):

- `https://mail.google.com/`: read, compose, send and manage your Gmail messages. This is the only scope Google accepts for the IMAP and SMTP protocols zora uses to work with your mailbox.
- `openid`, `email` and `profile`: your email address and name, used to identify the account inside the app.

Through these permissions zora accesses your email messages (headers, bodies and attachments), threads, labels and folders, drafts, read/starred state, and the email addresses and names of the people you correspond with.

**Other email accounts.** For IMAP/SMTP accounts, zora accesses the same kinds of mail data from the mail server you configure, using the email address and password you enter.

**What zora does not access.** zora does not access your contacts, calendar, Google Drive, location, microphone or camera. To pick a light or dark appearance by time of day, the app estimates sunrise and sunset from your Mac's time zone setting, on the device.

### 2. How zora uses your data

zora uses your data only to provide the email features you see in the app and use directly:

- showing your mailboxes, labels, threads and messages, and keeping them in sync;
- composing, replying to, forwarding and sending email, and saving drafts;
- archiving, deleting, labeling, starring, moving and marking messages as read, spam or unread when you ask it to;
- suggesting recipients from addresses you have exchanged mail with;
- showing new-mail notifications and the unread count on the Dock icon;
- letting you read cached mail while offline;
- summarizing conversations, suggesting replies and helping you write, only if you turn on the optional AI features (see section 4);
- letting an MCP client you set up, such as Claude Code, read and organize your mail and save drafts, only if you turn on the MCP server (see section 4).

zora does not use your data for advertising, profiling, analytics, or to develop, improve or train generalized or non-personalized artificial intelligence or machine learning models.

The app contains no analytics, tracking or telemetry. The only things we count are downloads, trials and license activations, and only to sell and license zora (see section 4).

### 3. Where your data is stored

- **Mail data** is cached in a local database and attachment folder on your Mac, in the app's data and cache directories (`~/Library/Application Support/com.pwittchen.zora` and `~/Library/Caches/com.pwittchen.zora`).
- **Credentials** (Google OAuth tokens, IMAP/SMTP passwords, any AI provider API keys you add and the MCP server's token) are stored only in your macOS Keychain, never in plain files.
- **Settings** such as theme and appearance are stored locally on your Mac.

None of this data is uploaded to us or to any server we operate. The app's diagnostic logs stay on your Mac and never contain message contents, subjects, addresses, tokens or passwords.

### 4. How your data is shared and transferred

We do not sell, rent or share your data, including Google user data, with anyone. zora's network connections are limited to:

- **Google** (for Gmail accounts): Google's sign-in and token endpoints, and Gmail's IMAP and SMTP servers, to sign you in and to read, send and manage your mail.
- **Your mail provider** (for IMAP/SMTP accounts): the IMAP and SMTP servers you configure.
- **AI providers, only if you turn on AI features.** AI features are off by default. If you turn them on in Settings and add your own OpenAI or Anthropic API key, zora sends the conversation you have open (its subject, messages, and the names and addresses of the people in it) to summarize it or suggest replies, and any text you ask it to polish or write a message from, directly from your Mac to the provider you chose. This happens under your own account with that provider and its terms and privacy policy; nothing goes through us. To stop, turn AI features off or remove the key in Settings.
- **MCP clients you connect, only if you turn on the MCP server.** The MCP server is off by default. If you turn it on in Settings → AI, zora accepts connections only from your own Mac (127.0.0.1), and only from apps that present the secret token you copy from Settings. A client you set up this way, such as Claude Code, can search and read your conversations (their subjects, messages, and the names and addresses of the people in them), mark, star, label, archive or trash them, and save drafts. It can't send mail. What the client reads is then handled by that app and the AI provider it uses, under your own account and their terms and privacy policies. None of it goes through us. To stop, turn the MCP server off. To disconnect clients you set up earlier, make a new token.
- **Remote images, only if you choose to load them.** Images embedded in emails are blocked by default. If you click *Show images*, zora downloads them from the sender's servers on your Mac, without your cookies or the original referrer, so senders can't track you through them.
- **Licensing, trials and updates.** When the app starts a trial, activates a license or checks for updates, it sends only the license key, a random installation ID and the app version. We use these requests, together with download counts, only to handle trials, purchases and licenses. They never contain email data or Google user data.

Purchases are handled by a third-party payment provider under its own privacy policy. We may disclose information only if required by law, and since we do not hold your email data, we have none of it to disclose.

### 5. Google API Services User Data Policy

zora's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the [Google API Services User Data Policy](https://developers.google.com/terms/api-services-user-data-policy), including the Limited Use requirements. In particular:

- Google user data is used only to provide and improve user-facing email features that are visible in the app's interface.
- Google user data is not transferred to others, except as needed to provide those features (such as sending a conversation to the AI provider you chose when you use the optional AI features, or to an MCP client you connected), to comply with applicable law, or as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of assets with notice to you.
- Google user data is not used or transferred for serving advertisements, including retargeting, personalized or interest-based ads.
- Nobody reads your Google user data. It never leaves your Mac except to go to Google, to the AI provider you chose if you turn on AI features, or to an MCP client you connect if you turn on the MCP server, so we have no access to it.
- Google user data is not used to develop, improve or train generalized AI or machine learning models.

### 6. Retention and deletion

Your mail data is kept on your Mac for as long as the account is added in zora, so the app can show it and work offline. You are in control of deleting it:

- **Remove the account in zora** (Settings → Accounts, or Sign out). This deletes the account's tokens or password from the Keychain and its cached mail, attachments and contacts from your Mac.
- **Revoke zora's access to your Google account** at any time at [myaccount.google.com/permissions](https://myaccount.google.com/permissions). zora then can no longer access your Gmail.
- **Remove your AI API keys** in Settings → AI features. Anything already sent to an AI provider is kept according to that provider's policies.
- **Turn off the MCP server** in Settings → AI, and remove zora from your MCP client (in Claude Code, `claude mcp remove zora`). Anything a client has already read is kept according to that client's and its AI provider's policies.
- **Uninstall the app.** Delete zora from the Applications folder and remove the folders listed in section 3 to delete all remaining local data.

Removing an account from zora does not delete any mail from your Gmail or mail server.

### 7. Security

zora connects to Google, to mail servers and to AI providers over encrypted connections (TLS). Sign-in with Google uses OAuth 2.0 with PKCE in your own browser, so zora never sees your Google password. Credentials and AI API keys are kept in the macOS Keychain. The optional MCP server listens only on your Mac and refuses any request without its token, which is also kept in the Keychain. All HTML email content is sanitized before it is displayed, with scripts and remote content blocked.

### 8. This website

This website uses [DataFast](https://datafa.st) cookieless analytics to count visitors and see which pages they view and where they come from. It sets no cookies and does not collect your email data. DataFast processes this information under its own privacy policy. Apart from that, the website only remembers your light or dark preference in your browser's local storage.

This analytics runs only on the website. The zora app itself contains no analytics, tracking or telemetry.

### 9. Children

zora is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

### 10. Changes to this policy

If we change how zora handles your data, we will update this page and its effective date before the change takes effect. Significant changes will also be announced in the app's release notes.

### 11. Contact

If you have any questions about this policy or your data, contact Piotr Wittchen at [hello@zoramail.app](mailto:hello@zoramail.app).