Feature Comparison: Mozilla Thunderbird - Microsoft Outlook
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If you want to see the comparison of LibreOffice suite vs. MS Office, see here: Feature Comparison: LibreOffice - Microsoft Office.
Introduction
This page compares the features of Mozilla Thunderbird 60 (download) and Microsoft Outlook 2019. LibreOffice does not have a PIM
module and therefore users looking for a suitable PIM software need to seek alternatives for email, calendars, contacts, tasks, and chat features. This comparison table has the objective to assist users in this search. Mozilla Thunderbird is a fully-featured PIM tool. Like LibreOffice, Thunderbird is a free, open-source, cross-platform program. There are alternatives to Mozilla Thunderbird available, such as Evolution and Kontact.
Please note that neither the LibreOffice developer team nor the Document Foundation gives any official recommendation for a PIM software replacement for LibreOffice.
This table separates major and minor feature differences and also includes notes on Thunderbird add-ons. The comparison highlights differences and therefore does not display any features which are present in both PIM programs.
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The feature comparison table is work in progress and currently incomplete. |
General Personal Information Managers: Mozilla Thunderbird vs. Microsoft Outlook
| Major Feature Differences | Thunderbird 60 | Outlook 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Availability free of charge | Yes [1], donations are accepted [2] | No, proprietary software plus additional charges for language packs |
| Open-source software (OSS)
|
Yes, licensed under MPL
|
No, proprietary and closed-source software
|
| Portable version that runs on USB flash disks (without installation) | Yes [3] | No |
| Sharing a profile between different operating systems | Yes [4] | No |
| Cross-platform availability | BSD, Linux, macOS, Unix, Windows | macOS, Windows (based on different code bases [5]) |
| Supported versions of Microsoft Windows | Windows 7, 8, 10; Windows Server 2008 R2 [6] | Windows 10; Windows Server 2019 [7] |
| Eco-system of add-ons/extensions | Complex ecosystem of over 1,200 valuable add-ons [8] | Many proprietary add-ins available [9] |
| Message store type/profile data | Supports one large file (mbox) per mailbox and file per message (Maildir) [10]
|
Supports only one large file (.pst and .ost) [11]
|
| Localization | 100 languages (59 fully localized [12] and 41 partially localized) | 96 languages (60 main languages for purchase, 44 more languages (in total 60) from Language Interface Packs (LIPs) for free download) [13] |
| Changing language of the user interface on the fly | Yes [14] | Supported, but requires additional purchase of language packs / download of local LIPs |
| Officially available as native 64-bit application on OS | Linux [15], macOS [16], Windows [17] | macOS, Windows |
| Bi-diectional text support (eg. right-to-left languages) | Mediocre support under the hood, but mostly unexposed by default. Better but incomplete support using the BiDi Mail UI extension, including most advanced features Outlook lacks) | All fundamental functionality supported out of the box for HTML mail, not for plain text. Lacks per-paragraph direction and charset auto-detection capabilities and charset error correction support |
| MAPI (Microsoft Exchange server protocol) | No, but supported via ExQuilla for Microsoft Exchange, DavMail add-on or How to connect Thunderbird to Microsoft Exchange | Supported |
| Encrypt email/PIM database | Partial, several methods (from weak to strong) described in Protecting the contents of the profile | Supported (via password setting for .pst file) |
| Deployment method | On Premises | On Premises, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)/Online |
| Support for ActiveSync | No, but supported via TbSync add-on TbSync supports via Exchange ActiveSync:
Freenet,
Hotmail,
Kopano,
Office 365,
Outlook.com,
Strato,
EAS v2.5 or v14.0 compatible servers. |
Supported |
| Integrated Development Environment (IDE) | Not supported | Supported with Developer tab in Ribbon |
| Minor Feature Differences | Thunderbird 60 | Outlook 2019 |
| Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) | Supported | Not supported |
| Usenet News Reader | Supported | Not supported |
| User Interface | XUL interface can be user customized via the use of themes (which can reposition and skin controls) [18].
|
Ribbon UI; Classic UI available as third-party paid extension |
| Unicode paths support | Thunderbird does not appear to support UNICODE paths on Windows [19] | Supported [20] |
| User interface improved to enable use on touch screen devices on desktop operating systems | No | Slightly adjusted user interface for touch screen devices, but no redesign |
| Versions of PIM for mobile operating systems | No | Outlook App (for Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android) with reduced functionality [21] |
| Online/cloud version of PIM | No | Outlook web apps with reduced functionality. [22] |
Email module: Mozilla Thunderbird vs. Microsoft Outlook
| Major Feature Differences | Thunderbird 60 | Outlook 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Send large attachments via web services | Supported (Inbuilt support for Box, Hightail; support for other services available via WebDAV add-on | Not supported |
| Unified/Global Inbox | Supported for multiple POP accounts (see Global Inbox) | Not supported |
| Unified folders | Supported (see Unified folders) | Not supported |
| UTF-8 | Supported
support for various ‘Latin letters with double acute’ (eg. ő) representations: entity (ő), decimal (ő) and hexadecimal (ő) [23]. |
No support for ‘Latin letters with double acute’ representation: entity (ő Ő ű Ű) [24] |
| Spell checker, AutoSpellcheck, Spelling as you type | 130 languages supported [25] | Limited, requires additional purchase of language packs |
| Email Merge | No, but supported via Mail Merge add-on | Requires the same versions of Outlook and Word [26] |
| File size limit | [27] IMAP |
[28] default: 50 GB |
| Delay sending email | No, but supported via Send Later add-on | Supported |
| Conversation view | No, but supported via Thunderbird Conversations add-on | Supported |
| Email tracking read (date and time) receipt collated in sent email | Not supported | Supported |
| Follow up attribute | Not supported | Supported with ability to set: sender flag {Call, Do not Forward, Follow up, For Your Information, Forward, No Response Necessary, Read, Reply, Reply to All, Review}; start, due and reminder dates/time; recipient flag |
| Email voting | Not supported | Supported with voting buttons {Approve;Reject}, {Yes;No}, {Yes;No;Maybe} |
| Minor Feature Differences | Thunderbird 60 | Outlook 2019 |
| Bottom-posts replies | Supported | No, but via add-on |
| Edit received email messages and subjects | Not supported by default, but workaround | Supported [29] |
| Set permissions on IMAP mailboxes/folders
|
No, but supported via IMAP ACL extension add-on. | Not supported |
| Email category | Not supported | Supported |
Calendar module: Mozilla Thunderbird vs. Microsoft Outlook
| Major Feature Differences | Thunderbird 60 | Outlook 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| CalDAV (Calendaring Extensions to WebDAV) | Supported | No, but via add-on |
| Connect Calendar to MS Exchange server | No, but supported via Exchange EWS Provider add-on | Supported |
| Show birthdays from address book in calendar | No, but supported via CardBook add-on | Supported |
| Connect to Google Calendar | No, but supported via Provider for Google Calendar add-on | Supported |
| Viewing more than one calendar next to each other | Not supported | Supported |
| Minor Feature Differences | Thunderbird 60 | Outlook 2019 |
| Auto-detect date information in emails | Supported | Not supported |
Contacts module: Mozilla Thunderbird vs. Microsoft Outlook
| Major Feature Differences | Thunderbird 60 | Outlook 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Chat/IM/VoIP details | Supported (Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo!, Skype, QQ, MSN, ICQ, Jabber, IRC) | Partial support (Skype, IM address) |
| Automatically add contacts to address book (recipients of emails or replies) | Supported | No, but via add-on |
| CardDAV (vCard Extensions to WebDAV) | No, but supported via CardBook add-on CardBook supports: 1&1 MailXchange, atmail, Baïkal Server, Cozy, DAVdroid, DAViCal, Deepen Dhulla OpenSync App for Android, Fastmail, Framagenda, GMX, Google, Horde, Hover, iCloud, Kolab, Kolab Now, Kopano, macOS Contacts Server, Mail Fence, Mail-in-a-Box, mailbox.org, MDaemon, Memotoo, MyPhoneExplorer, Nextcloud, Open-Xchange, outlook.com/hotmail, ownCloud, Posteo, Radicale, sabre/dav, SecureBlackbox, Synology, Tine 2.0, WebDAVBlackbox, Xandikos, Yahoo!, Yandex, Zarafa, Zentyal, Zimbra, Zoho, and more |
No, but via add-on |
| Storing multiple phone numbers of the same type | No, but supported via CardBook add-on | Partial support (Business, Business 2, Home, Home 2; however, problems occur if contacts have multiple mobile phone numbers or more than 2 business/home phone numbers) |
| Categories | No, but supported via CardBook add-on | Supported |
| Notes | Plain text in default AddressBook and CardBook add-on | Supports complex formatting and pictures |
| Search | Name or email when using default Address Book name, email, telephone number, address, notes when using CardBook add-on |
Name, email, telephone number, address, notes |
| Viewing options | No, but better support with CardBook add-on | Supported (People, Address Cards, By Category, Detailed Address Cards, Business Cards (with photos showing), Card, Phone, List) |
| Support for editing LDAP address books | Only support for reading LDAP address books (moz#86405) | Supported |
| Attaching files to contacts | Not supported | Supported |
| Rich text editing in notes field | Not supported | Supported |
| Show posts from social networks in address book | Not supported | Supported (Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing) |
| Minor Feature Differences | Thunderbird 60 | Outlook 2019 |
| Telephone number verification | No, but supported via CardBook add-on | Supported with “Check Phone Number” dialog box |
| Address (home, business, other) displayed in correct format for country | No | Supported with “Check Address” dialog box |
Tasks module: Mozilla Thunderbird vs. Microsoft Outlook
| Major Feature Differences | Thunderbird 60 | Outlook 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Tasks | Supported | Supported |
| Minor Feature Differences | Thunderbird 60 | Outlook 2019 |
Chat module: Mozilla Thunderbird vs. Microsoft Outlook
| Major Feature Differences | Thunderbird 60 | Outlook 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Chat networks (group limit) | Facebook Chat (varies [30]), Google Talk (100 [31]), IRC (varies), Twitter (unknown), XMPP (user defined [32]), Yahoo (unknown)
|
Freemium Skype for Business (Free 20; $2 per month per user 250) [33].
|
| Minor Feature Differences | Thunderbird 60 | Outlook 2019 |
Important Thunderbird add-ons
Many add-ons are available for Mozilla Thunderbird. Most add-ons can be found at ATN. Below is a small sample of some Thunderbird add-ons:
Email module
- CompactHeader. Switch between compact and expanded view.
- Enigmail. OpenPGP message encryption and authentication.
- ExQuilla for Microsoft Exchange. Connecting to Microsoft Exchange Web Services.
- ImportExportTools. Adds some tools to import and export folders and messages.
- Mail Merge. Mass mail and personal mail.
- Mail Redirect. Allow to redirect (a.k.a. "remail") mail messages to other recipients.
- QuickFolders (Tabbed Folders). Turn your favorites into tabs - open folders and subfolders, move mails without scrolling around or searching.
- Send Later. True “Send Later” functionality to schedule the time for sending an email.
- Signature Switch. Switch the signature on/off or choose a new one from your predefined set of signatures.
Calendar module
- Lightning Calendar Tabs. Displays tabs which allows quick navigation between time periods in Lightning calendar.
- More Snooze. This add allow to customize the snooze delay when snooze popup appears.
- Purge Events Plus. Purge events from Sunbird and Lightning files and thereby cleans the calendar.
- TbSync. Synchronize calendars, contacts and tasks to Thunderbird via Exchange ActiveSync or CalDAV/CardDAV.
Contacts module
- CardBook. A new Thunderbird address book based on the CardDAV and vCard standards.
- Contact Tabs. Enhances Thunderbird to give you quick access to all your contacts directly from Thunderbird's main window: Use the powerful search field to find your contacts and open them in a new tab for viewing and editing.
- gContactSync. Synchronizes contacts & groups between Thunderbird and Google Contacts. Imports Facebook friends, contacts you follow on Twitter, and more.
- TBDialout. Place phone calls directly from Thunderbird's address book.
- TbSync. Synchronize calendars, contacts and tasks to Thunderbird via Exchange ActiveSync or CalDAV/CardDAV.
- Telify. Converts telephone numbers into clickable links for use with CTI applications, SIP clients, Skype, Netmeeting, snom phones, the AGFEO TK-Suite Client and SerVonic IXI-PCS.
Tasks module
- Chromatasks. Color task rows with calendar color.
- TbSync. Synchronize calendars, contacts and tasks to Thunderbird via Exchange ActiveSync or CalDAV/CardDAV.
LibreOffice extensions for the integration with Thunderbird
- EuroOffice Mail Archiver. Store and organize your e-mails in an OpenOffice Document. This version works only with Thunderbird mail folders, IMAP folders are not supported.