To make things a bit clearer: Thunderbird is a email client, but doesn't actually hosts emails. Gmail is both a email client, and you can host your email with t

To make things a bit clearer: Thunderbird is a email client, but doesn't actually hosts emails. Gmail is both a email client, and you can host your email with them. But that doesn't mean you have to use Gmail "The Client" to access Gmail "The Emails". So in short, you can use Thunderbird as a client with your @gmail.com address, so you still have the same spam filter and search, but a lighter and faster UI.