Desktop mail programs
 

For those who install and use desktop email programs instead of web-based clients: why?

What are the benefits?

Thanks.

Typically, desktop clients have more features than web clients. Also, if you want to keep a local copy of mail, most desktop clients allow you to do that.

In my case, it really doesn't matter because I exclusively use IMAP so a client is really pointless. I do use one though (thunderbird). Now that I think about it, it's counterproductive because I have to download my contacts from my IMAP provider and pull them into thunderbird, plus create and IMAP application password for thunderbird to use. The app password may actually be more secure than the web client, not sure.

On the other hand I use IMAP only when absolutely necessary. I tend to be a private person. IMAP messages are kept on the server. I realize that they really are anyway because even when downloaded from a pop server there are still backups, etc. However I am just far more comfortable keeping my own and deleting them from the server, so use POP (thunderbird in my case). Besides, if my ISP only has backup copies of my years of emails it is a little more difficult for an outsider to get to them. But then I wish everyone used encryption (e.g. enigmail) anyway which would remove the problem.

Single client, many mail accounts. I can search across mail accounts.
Reading mail while offline.

EDIT: I don’t like the browser paradigm very much. If not written carefully, browser-based applications expose me to unexpected browser quirks.

I had been using the gmail web interface for more than a decade until some of recent updates made it intolerably slow in Firefox.

Claws Mail because I need (ie want) emails stored locally as text files. Also makes it really easy to use multiple accounts.

Webmail interfaces are, at best, clunky...and we have accounts on several different servers.

I live by email on all my devices and I can't do that without IMAP. So...I use an email provider based in another country, not for privacy per se because it does have hosting where I live, but it makes me feel a little better than gmail. Gmail worked very well, but...I always worried that one day Google would say "oh heck, this gmail thing is expensive, let's pull the plug." Probably not happening since it is probably the most widely used email service here in the US anyway, but I wanted to try something else in a feeble attempt to de-googlfy my life as much as possible.

Primarily, I use an email client (currently Evolution, formerly Thunderbird) because I like more control over my email than webmail typically provides. Having said that, I have one account that is webmail only, that doesn't get much traffic. When I do receive an email at that account, it sends an email to my primary account to let me know it's there.

I like having a local mail store; I like being able to pull multiple email accounts into one interface; and I prefer mail clients that don't do HTML, such as Claws and Sylpheed. And composing on local is faster.

I do use IMAP on my not-primary devices.

The only reason I log in to my primary email account's webmail interface is to mark spam as spam, in the hope that it will help them improve their spam filters. And, based on past experience, it does indeed seem to do so.

The only reason I log into my Gmail account, which is solely news alerts and Youtube notifications and which I have only because I have an Android phone, is to move stuff to the "Delete" directory.

Web clients can't be used to submit patches to mailing lists. Desktop clients can.

Consolidation of accounts and also calendar functionality - I use Evolution mail and none of the Web-based email clients work so well. The user experience is so much better too. I would use Thunderbird, but its Gmail calendar plugin is atrocious, hence moving to Evolution, which by all accounts is a joy to use.

This has been my experience, as well. I just recently started using Evolution after using Thunderbird for a long time. Faster than T-bird, too.

Hmm. I have no problems with the Thunderbird-to-Gmail plug in. Not so obvious is the need to add the "Provider for Google Calendar" extension in addition to Lightning (which should be built in) to get two-way communication.
Of course, YMMV. ;)