Balsa

5.9easy start · #118of 143
in Email clients

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Runs where you workno

Runs on Linux.

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Balsa is ranked #118 of 143 in email clients on The Geeks Club. It runs on Linux.

Compared on email clients

App coverage: desktop

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The record

Product: Balsa is a graphical email client and part of the GNOME desktop environment.
Mail protocols: Balsa supports IMAP, POP3, local mail folders, and sending through sendmail or direct SMTP.
Encryption: Balsa supports end-to-end message signing and encryption with OpenPGP or S/MIME, using GpgME and suitable cryptographic backends.
Mail features: The project lists multithreaded message retrieval and sending, automatic mail checking, printing, and inline attachment viewing among its features.
Address books: Balsa 2.6.5 added limited CardDAV address book support; its build options also include read-only LDAP address book support.
Security: Balsa prefers TLS connections over STARTTLS and offers optional DKIM and DMARC checks.
Credential storage: When built with libsecret, Balsa stores credentials through the desktop Secret Service; otherwise it stores them obfuscated in a config file, a method the project says is not recommended.
Recent release: The project lists version 2.6.5, released 2025-04-12, with fixes and improvements including IMAP connection handling and attachment saving.
Support: The project directs bug reports to its GitLab issue tracker and welcomes patches.
Known limitation: If mailbox dot locking is unavailable because of file permissions, Balsa opens the mailbox read-only.
License: The application metadata lists its project license as GPL-2.0-or-later.
Mail integration: Balsa can be used as the system mailto protocol handler, and its desktop file declares that capability by default.

Where it ranks on The Geeks Club

Best Email Clients in 2026#118 of 143

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Sources

github.com/GNOME/balsa· checked 5 Oct 2026
github.com/GNOME/balsa/blob/master/org.desktop.Bal· checked 5 Oct 2026
github.com/GNOME/balsa/blob/master/NEWS· checked 5 Oct 2026