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Comparison of email clients: Difference between revisions

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*{{note|BAT_rss2pop3}} The BAT! requires rss2mail or rss2pop3 plugin installed for handling RSS and ATOM.
*{{note|BAT_rss2pop3}} The BAT! requires rss2mail or rss2pop3 plugin installed for handling RSS and ATOM.
*{{note|plugin}} i.Scribe/InScribe requires a plugin to handle LDAP.
*{{note|plugin}} i.Scribe/InScribe requires a plugin to handle LDAP.
*{{note|pegasusRSS}} Pegasus Mail can convert RSS feeds to e-mails through the use of a free add-on.


===Authentication support===
===Authentication support===

Revision as of 01:26, 4 September 2008

The following tables compare general and technical information between a number of e-mail client programs. Please see the individual products articles (if they have one) for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date.

General

Basic general information about the clients: creator/company, license/price etc.

e-mail program Creator Cost Software license
@Mail Open @Mail Free Apache License
Alpine University of Washington Free Apache License
Citadel citadel.org Free GNU GPL
Claws Mail the Claws Mail team Free GNU GPL
Cone Courier Mail Server developers Free GNU GPL
Courier (formerly Calypso) Micro Computer Systems, Inc., continued by Rose City Software Free (as of version 3.5) proprietary software
Elm Dave D. Taylor, Sydney Weinstein, Bill Pemberton, Michael Elkins, Kari Hurtta Free Elm Mail System GPL
Eudora Qualcomm Free (Light), Adware (Pro) Future release, Penelope, will be Free/Open Source based on Mozilla Thunderbird
Eureka Email Sean O'Connor Shareware, US$20 full version proprietary software
GroupWise Novell Included with GroupWise mailbox license proprietary software
Gnus Gnus team Free GNU GPL
KMail The KMail Team Free, part of KDE GNU GPL
Kerio WebMail Kerio Technologies Non-freePart of Kerio MailServer proprietary software
Lotus Notes Lotus Software / IBM Non-free proprietary software
Mail Apple Inc. Part of Mac OS X proprietary software
Mailsmith Bare Bones Software Non-freeUS$75 incl. SpamSieve proprietary software
nmh/MH RAND Corporation Free BSDL
Microsoft Entourage Microsoft DependsPart of Microsoft Office for Mac proprietary software
Microsoft Office Outlook Microsoft DependsPart of Microsoft Office, US$109 stand-alone proprietary software
Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups Mozilla Foundation Free, part of Mozilla Application Suite MPL, MPL/GNU GPL/GNU LGPL tri-license
Mozilla Thunderbird Mozilla Foundation Free MPL, MPL/GNU GPL/GNU LGPL tri-license
Mulberry Cyrus Daboo (previously Cyrusoft International, Inc./ISAMET Free (as of version 4.0.5) ??? (old versions), Apache License
Mutt Michael Elkins Free GNU GPL
Netscape Messenger 9 Netscape Communications Free MPL, MPL/GNU GPL/GNU LGPL tri-license
Novell Evolution Ximian Free GNU GPL
Open-Xchange Open-Xchange Free GNU GPL
Opera Mail Opera Software Free, Part of Opera Freeware
Outlook Express Microsoft Part of Microsoft Windows proprietary software
Pegasus Mail David Harris Donationware
Pine University of Washington Free Pine License
Pocomail Poco Systems $40 Proprietary Software
i.Scribe / InScribe Memecode Freeware (i.Scribe), US$20 (InScribe) proprietary software
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups SeaMonkey Council Free, part of SeaMonkey MPL, MPL/GNU GPL/GNU LGPL tri-license
Sylpheed Hiroyuki Yamamoto Free GNU GPL/GNU LGPL
The Bat! RitLabs Non-freeUS$45 proprietary software
Turnpike Thus PLC (Demon Internet) GB£15 + VAT (as of 2007-11, about US$36) proprietary software
Windows Live Mail Microsoft Free proprietary software
Windows Mail Microsoft DependsPart of Microsoft Windows proprietary software
YAM YAM Open Source Team and contributing authors Free GNU GPL
Zimbra Zimbra Free MPL on server and ZPL (attribution clause) on client

Release history

A brief overview of the release history. Template:Beta software

Client First public release First stable release Latest stable release
Date Version Date Version Date Version
Alpine November 2006 0.8 December 2007 1.00 August 26 2008 2.00
Citadel 1987 ? 1988 1.00 September 2007 7.20
Claws Mail May 2001 0.4.67 January 2005 1.0.0 Jun 27 2008 3.5.0
Eudora 1988[1] ? 1988[1] ? October 11 2006 7.1 (Windows), 6.2.4 (Mac OS X)
Eureka Email November 2002 1.0 November 2002 1.0 March 2005 2.2
Gnus 1987[2] ? February 1 1988[2] 2.0 March 21 2008 5.10.10
Lotus Notes 1989 1.0 1989 1.0 February 2008 8.0.1
KMail October 1998 Alpha February 1999 1.0.17 February 13 2008 3.5.9
Mail ? ? ? ? July 11, 2008 3.4 (928/928.1)
Mailsmith May 8 1998 1.0 May 8 1998 1.0 March 3 2005 2.1.5
nmh/MH 1979 ? ? ? December 20 2005 1.2 / 6.8.4
Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups December 7 1998 "Preview" March 19 1999 M3 April 21 2006 1.7.13
Mozilla Thunderbird July 28 2003 0.1 December 7 2004 1.0 July 23 2008 2.0.0.16
Microsoft Entourage ? ? ? ? 2008 Office 2008 for Mac
Microsoft Office Outlook 1997 97 1997 97 January 30 2007 12.0.4518.1014
Mulberry September 20 1996 1.0 September 20 1996 1.0 February 21 2007 4.0.8
Mutt 1995 ? ? ? June 9 2007 1.4.2.3
Netscape Messenger 9 November 15 2007 9.0a1 - - - -
Novell Evolution 11 May 2000 0.0 3 December 2001 1.0 28 May 2007 2.10.2
Open-Xchange ? ? ? ? April 2006 0.8.2
Opera Mail September 1996 2.1b1 December 1996 2.1 April 3 2008 9.27
Outlook Express 1996 3.0 ? ? October 25 2001 6.0
Pegasus Mail 1990 ? 1990 ? July 16 2006 4.41
Pine January 15 1992 2.00 January 15 1992 2.00 September 28 2005 4.64
i.Scribe/InScribe 1999 1.00 ? ? November 2005 1.88
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups September 15 2005 1.0a January 30 2006 1.0 July 14 2008 1.1.11
Sylpheed January 2000 0.1.0 December 2004 1.0.0 June 17 2008 2.5.0
The Bat! March 1997 1.0 Beta March 1998 1.00 Build 1310 April 23 2008 4.0.28
Turnpike ? 1.0 ? ? 23 May 2006 6.06
Windows Live Mail ? ? ? ? November 6, 2007 2008 (Build 12.0.1606)
Windows Mail ? ? ? ? November 8, 2006 6.0.6000.16386
YAM 1995 1.0 1995 1.0 23 December 2007 YAM 2.5
Zimbra November, 2005 Beta March, 2006 3.5 February 2008 5.0.2
Client Date Version Date Version Date Version
First public release First stable release Latest stable release

Operating system support

The operating systems on which the clients can run natively (without emulation).

Microsoft Windows Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix DOS AmigaOS MorphOS
Alpine Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Citadel Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Claws Mail YesTemplate:Refun Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Correo No Yes No No No No No
Courier Yes No No No No No No
Elm No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Eudora Yes Yes No No No No No
Eureka Email Yes No No No No No No
Gnus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Kerio WebMail Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
KMail via cygwin Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Lotus Notes Yes Yes Yes No No No No
Mail No Included No No No No No
Mailsmith No Yes No No No No No
nmh / MH ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Microsoft Office Outlook Yes No No No No No No
Microsoft Entourage No Yes No No No No No
Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups Terminated (1.7.13) No No
Mozilla Thunderbird Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Mulberry Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Mutt Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes [3] No
Netscape Messenger Terminated (4.80) No No
Netscape Messenger 9 Terminated (9.0a1) No No
Novell Evolution Yes (beta) Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Opera Mail Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Outlook Express Included (up to XP) No No No No No No
Pegasus Mail Yes No No No No Yes No
Pine Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Terminated (3.96) [4] No
i.Scribe/InScribe Yes Yes Yes No No No No
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Sylpheed Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
The Bat! Yes No No No No No No
Turnpike Yes No No No No No No
Windows Live Mail Yes No No No No No No
Windows Mail Included (Vista) No No No No No No
YAM No No No No No No Yes
Zimbra Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Microsoft Windows Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix DOS AmigaOS MorphOS

^ The windows port of Claws-Mail currently lacks SSL support and IMAP support.

Protocol support

What e-mail and related protocols and standards are supported by each client.

Client POP3 IMAP4 SMTP NNTP LDAP IMSP ACAP Feeds iCalendar
fetch all messages selected by filter selected by user v2 v3 RSS 0.91 RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0 ATOM
Alpine Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Claws Mail Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? No Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun
Courier Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No No
Eudora Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No
Gnus Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Template:Refun No Template:Refun ? ? Yes Yes Yes No ?
KMail Yes No No Yes Yes No Template:Refun Yes ? ? ? No Template:Refun No Template:Refun No Template:Refun No Template:Refun No Template:Refun
Kerio WebMail Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? No No No No Yes
Lotus Notes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Template:Refun Yes Yes Yes Yes
Mail Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Mailsmith Yes ? Yes No Yes ? ? ? ? ? No No No No No
Mozilla Thunderbird Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Partial ? No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Template:Refun
Mulberry Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes ? Yes Yes No No No No Yes
Mutt Yes No (possible with POP3 browser) No (possible with POP3 browser) Yes Yes No (slrn looks alike) Partial (resolve real names through NSS) ? ? ? No No No No No
Opera Mail Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Microsoft Entourage Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Microsoft Office Outlook Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ? Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun
Novell Evolution Yes No No Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No No No No Yes
Outlook Express Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? No No No No No
Pegasus Mail Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ? Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun ? ?
Pine Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
i.Scribe/InScribe Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun No No No No No No No
Sylpheed Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
TheBat! Yes Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Yes Yes Template:Refun Yes No No No Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun No
Turnpike Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Windows Live Mail Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Windows Mail Yes No No Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
YAM Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No
Zimbra Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Client fetch all messages selected by filter selected by user IMAP4 SMTP NNTP v2 v3 IMSP ACAP RSS 0.91 RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0 ATOM iCalendar
POP3 LDAP Feeds
  • ^ An Emacs module named EUDC extends Gnus and BBDB to support LDAP. [1]
  • ^ KDE supports Newsgroups (NNTP) by the use of KNode
  • ^ KDE supports feeds by the use of Akregator
  • ^ KDE supports iCal by the use of KOrganizer
  • ^ Studio Blog Reader is one RSS reader application for Lotus Notes. Lotus Notes version 8.x introduced a native RSS reader.
  • ^ Support of feeds is available in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.
  • ^ Microsoft Outlook support of iCalendar varies by version.
  • ^ Selective Download filters can skip/delete messages on POP3 server based on header (sender, recipient, subject, etc) information, this doesn't require to retrieve the full message body from the server.
  • ^ Message Dispatcher allows the user to decide which messages should be retrieved, deleted or skipped based on the header information (sender, recipient, subject, etc) displayed to the user.
  • ^ iCalendar is supported with an extension.
  • ^ RSSyl plugin is required to read RSS and ATOM in Claws Mail.
  • ^ vCalendar plugin is required to handle iCalendar in Claws Mail.
  • ^ The BAT! requires MyGate plugin installed for handling NNTP.
  • ^ The BAT! requires rss2mail or rss2pop3 plugin installed for handling RSS and ATOM.
  • ^ i.Scribe/InScribe requires a plugin to handle LDAP.
  • ^ Pegasus Mail can convert RSS feeds to e-mails through the use of a free add-on.

Authentication support

Client Regular MSN (NTLM)

browser login

Compuserve

(RPA)

MD5 APOP Template:Refun CRAM-HMAC Template:Refun DIGEST-MD5 with hardware token

PKCS#11

Biometric SMTP Auth Template:Refun SSL/TLS Client Certificate
LOGIN PLAIN MD5 SHA1 RIPEMD
Alpine Yes Yes No No No Yes No No No No No Yes No
Claws Mail Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Template:Refun ? Yes Yes
Courier Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes
Eudora Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes ?
Gnus Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? Yes ?
KMail Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes ?
Kerio WebMail Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes
Lotus Notes Yes ? Yes No No No ? ? ? Yes No Yes ?
Mail Yes Yes Yes Template:Refun No Yes Yes Template:Refun ? ? ? ? ? Yes ?
Mozilla Thunderbird Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No [2] Yes No Yes Yes
Mulberry Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes
Mutt Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes No No Yes No No 1.5.15 Yes
Novell Evolution Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes ?
Opera Mail Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No No Yes Yes
Microsoft Entourage Yes No Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Microsoft Office Outlook Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No Yes ?
Outlook Express Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No Yes ?
Pegasus Mail Yes ? No No Yes No No No No No No Yes No
Pine Yes Yes No No No Yes No No No No No Yes No
i.Scribe/InScribe Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No Yes No
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No [3] Yes No Yes Yes
Sylpheed Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No No Yes Yes
TheBat! Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes No
Windows Live Mail Yes No Yes No Yes No No No No No No No ?
Windows Mail ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
YAM Yes Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? AmiSSL
Zimbra Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ? ?

SSL and TLS Support

Client Secure POP3 Secure IMAP4 Secure SMTP Secure NNTP Secure LDAP OCSP Template:Refun CRL Template:Refun
SSL TLS Template:Refun SSL TLS Template:Refun SSL TLS Template:Refun SSL TLS SSL TLS
Alpine Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ?
Claws Mail Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Courier No No No No No No No No No No No No
Eudora Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes ? ?
Gnus ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
KMail Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No ? ? ? ?
Kerio WebMail Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes ? ?
Lotus Notes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? Yes
Mail Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? No No Yes ? ? ?
Mozilla Thunderbird Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Mulberry Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes ? ?
Mutt Yes Yes Yes Yes 1.5.15 1.5.15 ? ? ? ? ? ?
Novell Evolution Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No ? ? ? ?
Opera Mail Yes Partial Template:Refun Yes Partial Template:Refun Yes Partial Template:Refun Yes No No No ? ?
Microsoft Entourage Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
Microsoft Office Outlook Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Outlook Express Yes No Yes No Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Pegasus Mail Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ?
Pine Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No ? ?
i.Scribe / InScribe Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
The Bat! Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
Windows Live Mail Yes No Yes No Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Windows Mail Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Zimbra Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?

Features

Information on what features each of the clients support.

Note that for all of these clients, the concept of "HTML support" does not mean that they can process the full range of HTML that a web browser can handle. Almost all email readers limit HTML features, either for security reasons, or because of the nature of the interface. CSS and Javascript can be especially problematic. A number of articles describe these limitations per-email-client; see 1, 2, 3, and 4

Client HTML e-mail UTF-8 support Image blocking Junk filtering Phishing filtering Thread view PGP support S/MIME support
local server-side inline PGP/MIME or OpenPGP protocol OCSP CRL certificates on tokens, smartcards support
Alpine Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ?
Claws Mail Read-only Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
Courier Yes No No Yes Yes ? No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Citadel Yes Yes No Yes Template:Refun ? ? No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Eudora Yes No Yes Pro only Pro only ? Yes Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes ? ? ?
Gnus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes
Lotus Notes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Template:Refun Yes Yes
(4.1.2+) 		Yes Yes, [4] Yes Yes
KMail Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes
(with GPG) 		Yes
(1.5+, with GPGME) 		Yes ? ? ?
Kerio WebMail Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ?
Mail Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Yes ? ?
Mozilla Thunderbird Yes Yes Yes Yes No since 1.5.0.4 Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
Mulberry Yes Yes Yes No Yes ? Yes Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun ? ? ?
Mutt External Yes Yes
(no support for images) 		Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes (with GPGME) ?
Novell Evolution Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
Opera Mail Read-only Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes No No No ? ? ?
Microsoft Entourage Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ? ?
Microsoft Office Outlook Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes ? ? ?
Outlook Express Yes Yes Yes No ? ? Yes Yes Template:Refun No Template:Refun Yes ? ? ?
Pegasus Mail Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes
(sending is broken) 		? No No No
Pine Read-only Yes Yes No ? ? Yes Yes
(with Pine Privacy Guard) 		No Yes ? ? ?
i.Scribe / InScribe Read-only Yes Yes Yes No ? Yes Yes No No No No No
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Yes ? Yes
Sylpheed No Template:Refun Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ?
The Bat! Yes Yes Yes Template:Refun Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial Template:Refun Partial Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun
Windows Live Mail Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ?
Windows Mail Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Zimbra Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (depends on antivirus) Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ?
Client HTML e-mail UTF-8 support Image blocking Junk filtering Phishing filtering Thread view PGP support S/MIME support
local server-side inline PGP/MIME or OpenPGP protocol OCSP CRL certificates on tokens, smartcards support
  • ^ First release 6.0 (September 2003), enhancements introduced in release 7.0 (August 2005)
  • ^ PGP/GPG and S/MIME support require a free (included) plugin.
  • ^ Sylpheed has some limited ability to show HTML email. It can show the plain text that's left after stripping away all the HTML tags. Sylpheed has no ability to compose HTML.
  • ^ The Bat is not able to display inline images.
  • ^ The Bat! supports two modes of S/MIME: Internal Implementation and via Microsoft Crypto API[5]. CRLs and OCSP are only supported in the latter mode.
  • ^ The Bat! supports two modes of S/MIME: Internal Implementation and via Microsoft Crypto API. Internal implementation only supports Aladdin eToken Pro or Rainbow iKey1000[6] tokens and can import certificates (from PKCS#12/PFX format) which were created outside The Bat!. CryptoAPI supports any kind of tokens and smart cards which have a corresponding Cryptographic Service Provider installed.
  • ^ Citadel plugs Mail into SpamAssassin
  • ^ Eudora requires a plugin to handle PGP.
  • ^ Mail requires GPGMail-plugin.
  • ^ Using PGP in Thunderbird requires Enigmail.
  • ^ Using PGP in Outlook Express requires a plugin.
  • ^ Outlook Express does not display PGP/MIME signed messages.

Messages features

Client Label Messages Spell Checking Signatures Native images preview
with Colors with flag antidelete add note jpeg gif bmp png others
Alpine Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Citadel ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Claws Mail Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Courier Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No No
Eudora Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Gnus Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes XPM, others?
IBM Lotus Notes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No CGM, Lotus PIC, PCX, TIFF
KMail No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Kerio WebMail Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Mail Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes any QuickTime supported format
Mozilla Thunderbird Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ico
Mulberry Yes ? ? Yes Yes No No No No No
Mutt Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No No
Novell Evolution Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Opera Mail No Yes No No Yes Template:Refun Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ico, WBMP
Microsoft Entourage Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Microsoft Outlook Yes Yes Template:?no Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Outlook Express No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ico, art
Pegasus Mail Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Pine Yes Yes ? ? Yes Template:Refun Yes No No No No No
i.Scribe / InScribe Yes No No Yes Yes Template:Refun Yes Yes Template:Refun Yes Yes Yes Template:Refun ico, tiff
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Sylpheed Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
The Bat! Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ico, emf
Windows Live Mail No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Windows Mail ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Zimbra Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Client Label Messages Spell Checking Signatures Native images preview
with Colors with flag antidelete add note jpeg gif bmp png others
  • ^ Opera supports full integration with GNU Aspell, which is its requirement for spell checking.
  • ^ Pine supports full integration with GNU Aspell or other external speller, which is its requirement for spell checking.
  • ^ i.Scribe / InScribe supports full integration with GNU Aspell, which is its requirement for spell checking.
  • ^ i.Scribe / InScribe requires libjpeg.
  • ^ i.Scribe / InScribe requires libpng.

Database, folders and customization

Client Message file format Encrypted database Virtual folders Scheduled backup Ticker notification Customizable interface Customizable keybindings Fragmented messages Template:Refun Database search with regular expressions support Indexed search Search folders Template:Refun IMAP search
Alpine mbox, mbx, mix, maildir (with patches), MMDF, tenex, mtx, MH, mx, news, phile ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Claws Mail MH, mbox No No No Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Courier Proprietary Yes (weak) Yes Yes ? Yes (layout) No ? No No Yes No
Eudora mbox No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes [specify] Yes Yes Yes
Gnus babyl, maildir, mbox, mmdf, news, rnews, SOUP, nsmail, outlook, oe-dbx No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
KMail mbox, maildir No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes ? Yes Yes
Lotus Notes Proprietary Yes [5] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Template:Refun No Yes Yes ?
Mail Proprietary ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun ?
nmh/MH MH No Yes No No Yes No ? Yes Yes Yes No
Mozilla Thunderbird mbox ? Yes ? Yes Yes Template:Refun ? No ? No Yes Yes
Mulberry mbox Template:Refun Partial Template:Refun Partial Template:Refun Partial Template:Refun ? Yes ? ? Yes [specify] Partial Template:Refun No Yes
Mutt mbox, MMDF, MH, maildir No ? (has limit command) No ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? (has header cache) No (easily integrated with mairix) Yes
Novell Evolution maildir, mbox, MH No Yes ? No Partial Yes Template:Refun Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
Opera Mail maildir (9.20 and Above), mbox (9.10 and Below) No Yes
(all folders are virtual) 		No Yes Yes Yes No ? Yes Yes ?
Microsoft Entourage Proprietary ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Microsoft Office Outlook Proprietary No Template:Refun Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Template:Refun Yes ?
Outlook Express Proprietary No No No No No No Yes ? No ? ?
Pegasus Mail Proprietary No Yes No ? Yes ? ? Yes ? Yes Yes
Pine mbox, mbx, mix, maildir (with patches), MMDF, tenex, mtx, MH, mx, news, phile ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
i.Scribe / InScribe Mail2 File No No No No Yes No No No No No No
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups mbox ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes
Sylpheed MH No No No Yes Yes Yes No No Template:Refun No Template:Refun No ?
The Bat! Proprietary Yes (RC2 128 bit)

(with Pro and Voyager version) Template:Refun

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

(PCRE 6.2)

No Yes Yes
Turnpike Proprietary Yes Yes ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? Yes ?
Windows Live Mail ? No No No No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes ?
Windows Mail ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Zimbra File system Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Client Message file format Encrypted database Virtual folders Scheduled backup Ticker notification Customized interface Customizable keybindings Fragmented messages Template:Refun Database search with regular expressions support Indexed search Search folders Template:Refun IMAP search
  • ^ Fragmented messages are called truncated document in Lotus Notes.
  • ^ with Spotlight Mac OS X v. 10.4
  • ^ Search folders is called Smart Folders in Mail on Mac OS X v. 10.4.
  • ^ Mulberry is a dedicated IMAP client; If the IMAP server has these abilities, Mulberry can use them.
  • ^ This is for Mulberry's 'offline browsing' capability, which is turned off by default. In the default configuration no local copy of the mail is created.
  • ^ Search Folders are virtual folders that contain views of all e-mail items matching specific search criteria. Search Folders display the results of previously defined search queries.
  • ^ Editable keybindings is part of GNOME, provided "Editable menu accelerators" is enabled in GNOME's "Menus & Toolbars" control applet.
  • ^ Fragmented messages makes possible, for example, to send a large audio message as several partial messages, and still have it appear to the recipient as a simple audio message rather than as an encapsulated message containing an audio message. RFC 2046
  • ^ Because MH stores each letter in a separate file, it is trivially easy to (externally) search them with grep. This ease is shattered when non-raw encodings are used, such as base64.
  • ^ The Bat! Pro support two methods access to program when database is encrypted: password authorization and token authorization; Voyager support only password authorization and encrypted database is default and only available storage method.
  • ^ Thunderbird's interface can be user customized via the use of themes (which can reposition and skin controls)
  • ^ supported since Office 2007.
  • ^ when best encryption is used, .pst file cannot be read by a hex editor.

Templates, scripts and programming languages

Client Message templates Message templates individual for Support in message templates scripts, programming languages
new reply forward read confirmation save print JavaScript VBScript PHP Scripts Python Regular expressions Java Other (specify)
Alpine Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? any ? No No ? ? No ?
Citadel ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Claws Mail Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No No No No ? ? ?
Eudora Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? No No No No Yes No No
Gnus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No No No No Yes No elisp
KMail Yes Yes Yes No No No none ? No No No ? ? ?
Lotus Notes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes No No No Yes [6] Yes LotusScript, Formula language
Mail Yes Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) ? ? No ? ? ? No No No No No ? AppleScript, Automator
Mozilla Thunderbird Yes YesTemplate:Refun YesTemplate:Refun Yes Yes Yes profile Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
Microsoft Entourage Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Microsoft Office Outlook Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Mulberry Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? No No No No ? ? ?
Mutt Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? any No No No No Yes ? Internal macros
Novell Evolution Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Opera Mail Yes Yes No No No No none No No No No No No No
Outlook Express Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Pegasus Mail Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Pine Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? any ? No No ? ? No ?
i.Scribe/InScribe Yes Yes Yes No No No any No No No No No No Internal macros (similar to JavaScript)
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Sylpheed Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No No No No No ? ?
The Bat! Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes account
folder
address book group
contact 		Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes Template:Refun Yes PCRE 6.2 Internal and plugins macros
Windows Live Mail YesTemplate:Refun YesTemplate:Refun ? YesTemplate:Refun ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Windows Mail ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
YAM Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? No No No No ? ? ARexx
Zimbra Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes any No No No No No ? ?
Client Message templates Message templates individual for Support in message templates scripts, programming languages
new reply forward read confirmation save print JavaScript VBScript PHP Scripts Python Regular expressions Java Other (specify)
  • ^ The Bat! supports JavaScript in message templates with the JavaScript Macro plugin.
  • ^ The Bat! supports VBScript in message templates with the XMP plugin.
  • ^ The Bat! supports PHP in message templates with the XMP plugin.
  • ^ The Bat! supports Python in message templates with the TBPyxie plugin.
  • ^ Weak "stationery" system that only accept pages done with Word.
  • ^ Thunderbird supports HTML templates with "Stationery" add-on.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "The Birth of Eudora". Retrieved 2007-04-10.
  2. ^ a b "GNUS: a NNTP based news reader for GNU Emacs (1 of 2)". Retrieved 2008-08-04.
  3. ^ "Other Programming Projects and Downloads". Retrieved 2007-04-06.
  4. ^ "PC-PINE-3.96 README". Retrieved 2007-04-06.
  5. ^ "List of features of The Bat! e-mail client".
  6. ^ "The Bat! with Hardware Tokens".
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