Email clients are ten a penny and there are so many free tools available - including email clients that are integrated into Windows - that any program with a price tag attached to it has to offer something quite special.

The Bat! Supports multiple email accounts, making use the all popular protocols.The program is available in Home and Professional editions, with the professional version including a range of features that will be of particular interest to businesses or more advanced users. One of the key benefits of using The Bat is its wide reaching security and encryption options. To help prevent the spread of malware, the program makes use of its own HTML viewer which will not run scripts automatically and will prevent malicious scripts that may be hidden in images.

With integrated support for PGP encryption, emails remain secure in business environments. There are powerful options for email sorting and an auto-responder can be configured to save having to manually send out the same messages.

The Professional version also includes a multi-language interface and spell checking dictionaries as standard, although these can be added to the Home edition via separate downloads. For the security conscious, biometric authentication as well as support for eToken Pro and iKey1000.

The Bat! Voyager is the portable version of The Bat! Professional. Although listed here as 'freeware", it can only be used once you've purchased a Professional license.