Switch from Outlook to MailCraft
MailCraft works the way Outlook's mail does — folders, a reading pane, the ribbon's everyday buttons and the same shortcuts — but it's free, open source and keeps no one else between you and your mail. Here's how to move over, and how to move back if you ever want to.
- Add your email accounts
- Open your Outlook data files (.pst)
- Your keyboard shortcuts
- Calendar and contacts
- What's different, and what's not there yet
- Moving back
1. Add your email accounts
If your mail lives on a server — Microsoft 365, Outlook.com, Exchange, Gmail, iCloud or any IMAP provider — there's nothing to copy: add the account in MailCraft and your folders come down from the server.
- Download MailCraft and open it.
- Choose Add account… (the gear at the top right, or the welcome screen), type your email address and your name.
- MailCraft looks up your provider's settings by itself. Microsoft accounts sign in through your browser where your copy of MailCraft offers Sign in with Microsoft; Gmail, iCloud and Yahoo want an app password — the setup guide has the steps for each.
2. Open your Outlook data files (.pst)
Mail you keep only on your computer — archives, a POP account, an old job — is in Outlook data files (.pst). Outlook usually keeps them in Documents\Outlook Files. MailCraft opens them directly; you don't need Outlook installed.
- In MailCraft, open File › Open & Export.
- Under Open a data file, choose Open… and pick the
.pstfile. - It opens as a mailbox of its own, with its folders, contacts and calendar, kept on this computer.
.pst, or write any account to one.Exchange or Microsoft 365 with Outlook? Outlook keeps an .ost file for those accounts — a cache of what's on the server. You don't need it: add the account and the mail comes from the server.
3. Your keyboard shortcuts
The everyday shortcuts are the ones your fingers already know.
| Do this | Press |
|---|---|
| New message | Ctrl+N |
| Reply / Reply all | Ctrl+R / Ctrl+Shift+R |
| Forward | Ctrl+F |
| Mark read / unread | Ctrl+Q / Ctrl+U |
| Flag | Insert |
| Archive | Backspace |
| Move to a folder | Ctrl+Shift+V |
| Send / Receive | F9 |
| Send the message you're writing | Ctrl+Enter |
| Search | Ctrl+E |
| Quick Steps | Ctrl+Shift+1…9 |
| Undo the last move, delete or flag | Ctrl+Z |
Messages can also be dragged onto a folder to move them.
4. Calendar and contacts
Microsoft 365 and Exchange accounts bring their calendar and contacts with them. Other providers sync through CalDAV and CardDAV, and a .pst brings its own. The calendar has Day, Work Week, Week and Month views, meeting invitations you can accept or decline, and reminders that pop up.
5. What's different, and what's not there yet
MailCraft is built from scratch, in beta, and honest about its gaps:
- No add-ins, Teams or Office integration — it's a mail, calendar and contacts app.
- Not yet: contact groups (distribution lists), copying a whole folder, Read Aloud, and spell checking.
- Signed or encrypted mail: MailCraft uses the S/MIME certificate already in the Windows certificate store or on your smart card, or one imported from a
.pfxfile. - Different by design: HTML mail is shown as formatted text and pictures from the web load only when you ask, so senders can't track when you read.
Missing something you rely on? Tell us — that's how the list above gets shorter.
6. Moving back
Your mail on a server is untouched by trying MailCraft. For mail kept only on your computer, File › Open & Export › Export to Outlook data file writes any account, with its folders, to a .pst that Outlook and other mail apps open; its calendar and contacts go beside it as .ics and .vcf files.