Native look
System font, native window and menus, light and dark that follow macOS.
Thunderbird, but made for the Mac.
Thunderbird is a great free app for every platform, which means it isn't really shaped for any of them.
zora is made only for the Mac, and does less, on purpose.
At home on macOS.
A calm inbox
Content first, quiet chrome around it. Conversations open beside the list, so you never lose your place.
Keyboard first
A command palette on ⌘K, plus J K to move, E to archive and R to reply.
Gmail labels, as labels.
Thunderbird turns Gmail labels into folders. zora signs in with Google and keeps them as labels.
No duplicate copies
A message with three labels is one message with three labels, not three copies in three folders.
Threads like Gmail
Conversations, drafts, spam and trash behave the way they do in Gmail.
IMAP too
iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo or your own domain, with server settings filled in.
Fair to say.
Thunderbird does a lot zora doesn't. Better you know before you switch.
Not free, not open source
zora costs €99, once. Try every feature free for 14 days before you decide.
Mail only
No calendar, contacts, chat, RSS or add-ons.
Mac only
No Windows, Linux or Android version.
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 me.
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.
Email that looks like it belongs on your Mac.
Requires macOS 14 or later.
Thunderbird is a trademark of the Mozilla Foundation. zora is an independent app and is not affiliated with Mozilla.