Comparison of email clients
 | It has been suggested that List of email clients be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2015. |
The following tables compare general and technical features of a number of email client programs. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.
General
Basic general information about the clients: creator/company, O/S, licence, & interface. Clients listed on a light purple background are no longer in active development.
| Client | Author/Developer | Operating system | Software license | User Interface |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine | University of Washington | Cross-platform | Apache License 2.0 | TUI |
| Atmail.com | Linux | Proprietary, source code available | Webmail | |
| Balsa | Stuart Parmenter | Linux | GNU General Public License | GUI (GTK+) |
| Becky! Internet Mail | Rimarts | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| BlitzMail | Dartmouth College | BSD licenses | GUI | |
| Citadel | citadel.org | Unix-like | GNU General Public License | Webmail |
| Claws Mail | the Claws Mail team | Cross-platform | GNU General Public License | GUI (GTK+) |
| Clyton | Gammadyne Corporation [Note 1] | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| Cone | Courier Mail Server developers | Unix-like | GNU General Public License | TUI |
| Courier (formerly Calypso) | Micro Computer Systems, Inc., continued by Rose City Software | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| Elm | Dave D. Taylor, Sydney Weinstein, Bill Pemberton, Michael Elkins, Kari Hurtta | Unix-like | Elm Mail System GPL | TUI |
| eM Client | eM Client Inc. | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| EmailTray | Internet Promotion Agency S.A. | Windows, Android | Proprietary | GUI |
| Eudora OSE | Qualcomm | Windows, macOS | Free | GUI |
| Eureka Email | Sean O'Connor | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| Evolution | The GNOME Project | Unix-like | GNU General Public License | GUI (GTK+) |
| FirstClass | Open Text | Proprietary | GUI | |
| Forté Agent | Mark Sidell | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| Geary | Yorba Foundation | Unix-like | GNU LGPL v2.1 | GUI (GTK+) |
| GNUMail | Ludovic Marcotte and others | Unix-like, macOS | GNU General Public License | GUI |
| Gnus | Gnus team | Cross-platform | GNU General Public License | TUI and GUI |
| GroupWise | Novell | Cross-platform | Proprietary | GUI |
| i.Scribe, InScribe | Memecode | Windows, macOS, Linux | Proprietary | GUI |
| IBM Notes (formerly IBM Lotus Notes) | IBM Collaboration Solutions (formerly Lotus Software), IBM | Windows, macOS, Linux | Proprietary | GUI (Notes), Web (iNotes) and Mobile (Traveler) |
| IMP | Horde LLC | Cross-platform | GNU General Public License | Webmail |
| Inky | Dave Baggett, Arcode Corporation | Windows, macOS, | Proprietary | GUI |
| KMail | KDE | Cross-platform | GNU General Public License | GUI (Qt) |
| Libremail | Bernard Chardonneau | Linux, UNIX, Unix-like | Free licence written by the author | TUI and shells |
| Mailbird | Mailbird | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| Mailpile | Mailpile | Linux, Windows, macOS | Affero General Public License and Apache License 2.0 | Webmail |
| mailx | ? | Unix-like | BSD Licenses | TUI |
| Microsoft Entourage | Microsoft | macOS | Proprietary | GUI |
| Microsoft Outlook | Microsoft | Windows, macOS | Proprietary | GUI |
| Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | Mozilla Foundation | Mozilla Public License | GUI (XUL) | |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | Mozilla Foundation | Cross-platform | Mozilla Public License | GUI (XUL) |
| Mulberry | Cyrus Daboo (formerly Cyrusoft International, Inc./ISAMET) | Cross-platform | Apache License 2.0 | GUI |
| Mutt | Michael Elkins | Cross-platform | GNU General Public License | TUI (ncurses) |
| Netscape Messenger | Netscape Communications | ? | GUI | |
| Netscape Messenger 9 | Netscape Communications | Mozilla Public License | GUI | |
| nmh / MH | RAND Corporation | Unix-like | BSD Licenses | CLI |
| Opera Mail | Opera Software | Cross-platform | Proprietary | GUI |
| Outlook Express | Microsoft | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| Pegasus Mail | David Harris | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| Pine | University of Washington | Cross-platform | Pine License | TUI |
| Pocomail | Poco Systems | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| RoundCube | The RoundCube Team | Cross-platform | GNU General Public License | Webmail |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | SeaMonkey Council | Cross-platform | Mozilla Public License | GUI (XUL) |
| Spicebird | Synovel | Windows, Linux, BSD | Mozilla Public License | GUI (XUL) |
| SquirrelMail | The SquirrelMail Project Team | Cross-platform | GNU General Public License | Webmail |
| Sylpheed | Hiroyuki Yamamoto | Cross-platform | GNU General Public License | GUI (GTK+) |
| The Bat! | RitLabs | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| Trojitá | KDE | Cross-platform | GNU General Public License | GUI (Qt) |
| Turnpike | Thus PLC (Demon Internet) | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| Windows Live Mail | Microsoft | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| Windows Mail | Microsoft | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| XgenPlus | Data Myxgen Technologies Pvt Ltd. | Cross-platform | Mozilla Public License for server and ZPL for client | GUI |
| Client | Author/Developer | Operating system | Software license | User interface |
| WorldClient | Alt-N Technologies | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
| YAM | YAM Open Source Team and contributing authors | AmigaOS | GNU General Public License | GUI |
| Zimbra | Zimbra | Cross-platform | Mozilla Public License for server and ZPL for client | GUI |
| Client | Author/Developer | Operating system | Software license | User interface |
Release history
A brief digest of the release histories.
| Client | First public Date | First public Version | First stable Date | First stable Version | Latest stable release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine | 2006-11 | 0.8 | 2007 December | 1.00 | 2015-01-18, 2.26[1]  (2 June 2022) [±]
|
| Atmail | 2001-01-30 | 0.8 | 2012-01-12 | 6.3.5 | 2014-07-14, Template:Latest stable software release/Atmail |
| Becky! Internet Mail | 1996 | 1 | ? | ? | 2015-09-30, Template:Latest stable software release/Becky! |
| Citadel | 1987 | ? | 1988 | 1.00 | 2015-04-01, 906 (January 15, 2017) [±] |
| Claws Mail | 2001-05 | 0.4.67 | 2005-01 | 1.0.0 | 2016-01-19, 3.18.0 / 4.0.0 (July 10, 2021[2]) [±] |
| Clyton | 2007-10 | 1.0 | 2007-10 | 1.0 | 2016-03-21, v13.0 |
| Cone | 2003-05 | 0.50 | 2003-05 | 0.50 | 2015-04-25, Template:Latest stable software release/Cone |
| Courier | 2004-06 | 3.5 | discontinued | discontinued | 2004-06, 3.5 |
| Elm | 1986 | ? | 1987-03 | 2 | 2005-08-18, 2.5.8 (August 18, 2005) [±] |
| eM Client | 2007-11 | 1.0 | 2007-11 | 1.0 | 2016-02-29, 10.0.2382.0 (May 10, 2024) [±] |
| EmailTray | 2010-10 | 2.0 | 2011-03 | 3.11 | 2012-07-02, 4.0 (July 2, 2012) [±] |
| Eudora | 1988[3] | ? | 1988[3] | ? | 2006-10-11, 7.1 (Windows), 6.2.4 (Mac OS) (October 11, 2006) [±] |
| Eureka Email | 2002-11 | 1.0 | 2002-11 | 1.0 | 2005-03-01, Template:Latest stable software release/Eureka Email |
| Evolution | 2000-05-11 | 0.0 | 2001-12-03 | 1.0 | 2015-09-23, 45.0[4] (20 September 2023) [±] |
| Forté Agent | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2014-10-20, 8 (October 20, 2014) [±] |
| Geary | 2012 | 0.1 | 2012 | 0.1 | 2015-03-30, Template:Latest stable software release/Geary |
| Gnus | 1987[5] | ? | 1988-02-01[5] | 2.0 | 2015-09-18, |
| GroupWise | ? | ? | 1986 | 1.0 | 2014-04-02, Template:Latest stable software release/GroupWise |
| i.Scribe / InScribe | 1999 | 1.00 | ? | ? | 2014-02-04 2.3.18 (March 30, 2021) [±] |
| IBM Lotus Notes | 1989 | 1.0 | 1989 | 1.0 | 2013-03-14, Template:Latest stable software release/Lotus Notes |
| IMP | ? | ? | 1998 | 1.0 | 2012-03-21, Template:Latest stable software release/IMP |
| KMail | 1998-10 | Alpha | 1999-02 | 1.0.17 | 2014-11-11, 4.14.38 (November 7, 2017) [±][6] |
| Libremail | 2003-05-27 | 1.0 | 2014-10-13 | 2.4.1 | 2014-05-13, Template:Latest stable software release/Libremail |
| Mailbird | 2013-04-01 | Public Beta | ? | ? | 2015-09-10, |
| Microsoft Entourage | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2013-03-12, 2008 (12.3.6) (March 12, 2013) [±] |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | 1997 | 97 | 1997 | 97 | 2015-09-22, Template:Latest stable software release/Microsoft Office Outlook |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | 2003-07-28 | 0.1 | 2004-12-07 | 1.0 | 2016-02-16, |
| Mulberry | 1996-09-20 | 1.0 | 1996-09-20 | 1.0 | 2007-02-21, 4.0.8 (February 21, 2007) [±] |
| Mutt | 1995 | ? | ? | ? | 2016-04-04, 2.2.8[8] (November 5, 2022) [±] |
| Netscape Messenger | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2004-06-17, 7.2 |
| Netscape Messenger 9 | 2007-11-15 | 9.0a1 | discontinued | discontinued | 2007-11-15 |
| nmh / MH | 1979 | ? | ? | ? | 2012-06-11, 1.5 (June 11, 2012) [±] |
| Opera Mail | 1996-09 | 2.1b1 | 1996-12 | 2.1 | 2013-06-11, 1.0.1044[9] (February 16, 2016) [±] |
| Outlook Express | 1996 | 3.0 | ? | ? | 2004-08-25, Template:Latest stable software release/Outlook Express |
| Pegasus Mail | 1990 | ? | 1990 | ? | 2016-01-12, Template:Latest stable software release/Pegasus Mail |
| Pine | 1992-01-15 | 2.00 | 1992-01-15 | 2.00 | 2005-09-28, Template:Latest stable software release/Pine |
| Pocomail | 1999 | ? | ? | ? | 2009-04-06, 4.8 build 4400 (April 6, 2009) [±] |
| RoundCube | 2006 | 0.1-rc1 | 2014-04-07 | 1.0.0 | 2015-09-14, |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | 2005-09-15 | 1.0a | 2006-01-30 | 1.0 | 2015-11-08, 2.53.10.2 (December 28, 2021[10]) [±] |
| SquirrelMail | 1999-12 | 0.1 | 2001-01 | 1.0 | 2011-07-12, 1.4.22 (12 July 2011) [±] |
| Sylpheed | 2000-01 | 0.1.0 | 2004-12 | 1.0.0 | 2016-01-25, 3.7.0 (January 31, 2018) [±] |
| The Bat! | 1997-03 | 1.0 Beta | 1998-03 | 1.00 Build 1310 | 2015-08-05, Template:Latest stable software release/The Bat! |
| Trojitá | 2009-08 | 0.1 | 2012-12 | 0.3.90 | 2016-01-24, Template:Latest stable software release/Trojitá |
| Turnpike | 1996 (circa) | 1.0 | 1996 (circa) | 1.0 | 2006-05-26, 6.06 (May 23, 2006) [±] |
| Windows Live Mail | 2007-11-06 | 12 | 2007-11-06 | 12 | 2014-11-04, 2012 (v16.4.3528.0331) (November 4, 2014) [±] |
| Windows Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2007-01-01, |
| YAM | 1995 | 1.0 | 1995 | 1.0 | 2014-04-18, 2.9p1 (April 18, 2014) [±] |
| Zimbra | 2005-11 | Beta | 2006-03 | 3.5 | 2012-04-10, 8.6.0[11] (December 15, 2014) [±] |
Operating system support
The operating systems on which the clients can run natively (without emulation).
| Client | Microsoft Windows | macOS | Linux | BSD | Unix | DOS | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Atmail | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Balsa | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Becky! Internet Mail | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Citadel | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Claws Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Clyton | Yes (NT) | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Cone | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Courier | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Elm | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| eM Client | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| EmailTray | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Eudora | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Eureka Email | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Evolution | No [Note 1] | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Forté Agent | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Geary | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Gnus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Emacs |
| GroupWise | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| i.Scribe / InScribe | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| IBM Lotus Notes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| IMP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| KMail | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Libremail | No [Note 2] | Should work [Note 3] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No [Note 2] | No |
| Mailbird | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| mailx | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Microsoft Entourage | No | Terminated (2008) | No | No | No | No | No |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | Yes | 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[12] | No |
| Netscape Messenger | Terminated (4.80) | No | No | ||||
| Netscape Messenger 9 | Terminated (9.0a1) | No | No | ||||
| nmh / MH | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Opera Mail | 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)[13] | No |
| Pocomail | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| RoundCube | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Spicebird | Yes | planned | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| SquirrelMail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Sylpheed | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| The Bat! | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Trojitá | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | MeeGo |
| 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 |
| XgenPlus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Client | Microsoft Windows | macOS | Linux | BSD | Unix | DOS | Other |
| YAM | No | No | No | No | No | No | AmigaOS |
| Zimbra | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Client | Microsoft Windows | macOS | Linux | BSD | Unix | DOS | Other |
- ^ Development stopped in 2008
- ^ a b Would need small changes in the code, to use ANSI.SYS driver and shorter filenames for MS-DOS.
- ^ Not tested.
Protocol support
Communication and access protocol support
What email and related protocols and standards are supported by each client.
| Client | POP3 fetch all messages |
POP3 selected by filter |
POP3 selected by user |
IMAP4 |
SMTP |
NNTP |
LDAP v2 |
LDAP v3 |
EWS | IPv6 | MAPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? |
| Atmail | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Becky! Internet Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 1] | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Citadel | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Claws Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? |
| Cone | Yes | No | No [Note 2] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Courier | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Elm | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| eM Client | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| EmailTray | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Eureka Email | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Evolution | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | plug-in | ? | plug-in |
| Gnus | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| GroupWise | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| i.Scribe / InScribe | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [Note 3] | Yes [Note 3] | No | No | Yes |
| IBM Notes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| KMail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No [Note 4] | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Libremail | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | ? | No |
| Mailbird | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? |
| Microsoft Entourage | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Partial | ? | ? |
| Microsoft Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial[14] | extensible[15] | Yes | ? |
| Mulberry | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | 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) | ? | ? | Yes | ? |
| Netscape Messenger | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Netscape Messenger 9 | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| nmh / MH | Yes | ? | ? | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No | ? | No |
| Opera Mail | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Outlook Express | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | No |
| Pegasus Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 5] | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Pine | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? |
| Pocomail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? |
| RoundCube | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | ? | ? | Yes | ? |
| Spicebird | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SquirrelMail | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Sylpheed | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| The Bat! | Yes | Yes [Note 6] | Yes [Note 7] | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 8] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Trojitá | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Turnpike | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Live Mail | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | No |
| Windows Mail | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No | Yes | No |
| YAM | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? |
| Zimbra | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Client | POP3 fetch all messages |
POP3 selected by filter |
POP3 selected by user |
IMAP4 | SMTP | NNTP | LDAP v2 | LDAP v3 | EWS | IPv6 | MAPI |
| Client | IMSP |
ACAP |
RSS 0.91 Feeds | RSS 1.0 Feeds | RSS 2.0 Feeds | ATOM Feeds | iCalendar | MAPI/RPC | CalDAV | CardDAV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Atmail | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Becky! Internet Mail | ? | ? | Yes [Note 9] | Yes [Note 9] | Yes [Note 9] | Yes [Note 9] | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Citadel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Claws Mail | ? | ? | No | Yes [Note 10] | Yes [Note 10] | Yes [Note 10] | Yes [Note 11] | ? | ? | ? |
| Cone | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? |
| Courier | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? |
| Elm | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| eM Client | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| EmailTray | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| Eudora | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? |
| Eureka Email | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Evolution | No | No | No [Note 12] | No [Note 12] | No [Note 12] | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gnus | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GroupWise | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| i.Scribe / InScribe | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? | ? |
| IBM Lotus Notes | No | No | Yes [Note 13] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| KMail | ? | ? | Yes [Note 14] | Yes [Note 14] | Yes [Note 14] | Yes [Note 14] | Yes [Note 15] | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Libremail | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | No | No |
| Microsoft Entourage | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | ? | ? | Yes [Note 16] | Yes [Note 16] | Yes [Note 16] | Yes [Note 16] | Yes [Note 17] | Yes | No | No |
| Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 18] | Yes [Note 19] | ? | ? |
| Mulberry | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? | Yes | ? |
| Mutt | ? | ? | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? |
| Netscape Messenger | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Netscape Messenger 9 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| nmh / MH | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Opera Mail | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | No |
| Outlook Express | ? | ? | No | No | No | No | No | ? | No | No |
| Pegasus Mail | ? | ? | Yes [Note 5] | Yes [Note 5] | Yes [Note 5] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Pine | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? |
| Pocomail | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 18] | ? | ? | ? |
| Spicebird | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 18] | No | ? | ? |
| SquirrelMail | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Sylpheed | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| The Bat! | No | No | Yes [Note 20] | Yes [Note 20] | Yes [Note 20] | Yes [Note 20] | No | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Trojitá | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| Turnpike | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Live Mail | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| YAM | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? |
| Zimbra | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Client | IMSP | ACAP | RSS 0.91 Feeds | RSS 1.0 Feeds | RSS 2.0 Feeds | ATOM Feeds | iCalendar | MAPI/RPC | CalDAV | CardDAV |
- ^ Becky! requires FRNews or BkNews plugin installed for handling NNTP.
- ^ Cone has an option to either keep all POP3 mail on the server, or download all messages from the POP3 mailbox.
- ^ a b i.Scribe / InScribe requires a plugin to handle LDAP.
- ^ KDE supports Newsgroups (NNTP) by the use of KNode
- ^ a b c d Pegasus Mail can convert Newsgroup messages and/or RSS feeds to emails through the use of free add-ons.
- ^ 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.
- ^ The Bat! requires MyGate plugin installed for handling NNTP.
- ^ a b c d Becky! requires BkBlogReader or BkRSSviewer or B.F.R or BkRssReader plugin installed for handling RSS and ATOM.
- ^ a b c RSSyl plugin is required to read RSS and ATOM in Claws Mail.
- ^ vCalendar plugin is required to handle iCalendar in Claws Mail.
- ^ a b c The evolution-rss plugin (provided as a separate package by many distributions provides the RSS functionality in Evolution.
- ^ Studio Blog Reader is one RSS reader application for IBM Lotus Notes. IBM Lotus Notes version 8.x introduced a native RSS reader.
- ^ a b c d KDE supports feeds by the use of Akregator
- ^ KDE supports iCal by the use of KOrganizer
- ^ a b c d Support of feeds is available in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. Earlier versions require RSSPopper plug-in.
- ^ Microsoft Outlook support of iCalendar varies by version.
- ^ a b c iCalendar is supported with an extension.
- ^ Mozilla Thunderbird only supports SimpleMAPI.[citation needed]
- ^ a b c d The Bat! versions prior to 6.3 required rss2mail or rss2pop3 plugin installed for handling RSS and ATOM. The Bat! versions 6.3 and later have built-in support for RSS.
Authentication support
| Client | Regular | MSN (NTLM)
browser login |
Compuserve
(RPA) |
MD5 APOP [Note 1] | CRAM-HMAC [Note 2] | DIGEST-MD5 | with hardware token | Biometric | SMTP Auth [Note 3] | X.509 Client certificate | OAUTH | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOGIN | PLAIN | MD5 | SHA1 | RIPEMD | ||||||||||
| Alpine | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
| Atmail | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Becky! Internet Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Citadel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Claws Mail | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | No | ? | Yes | No | ? |
| Cone | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Courier | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Elm | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| eM Client | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
| EmailTray | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
| Eudora | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| Eureka Email | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Evolution | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Gnus | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
| GroupWise | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| i.Scribe / InScribe | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
| IBM Lotus Notes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? |
| KMail | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Libremail | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
| Microsoft Entourage | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
| Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No [3] | Yes | No | Yes | 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 | ? |
| Netscape Messenger | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Netscape Messenger 9 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| nmh / MH | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Opera Mail | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Outlook Express | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
| Pegasus Mail | Yes | ? | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Pine | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
| Pocomail | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| RoundCube | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No [4] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
| SquirrelMail | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
| Sylpheed | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
| The Bat! | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes [Note 4] | Yes [Note 4] | Yes | No | Yes |
| Trojitá | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
| Turnpike | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Live Mail | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? |
| Windows Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| YAM | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | AmiSSL | ? |
| Zimbra | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes [Note 5] | ? | ? |
| Client | Regular | MSN (NTLM)
browser login |
Compuserve
(RPA) |
MD5 APOP [Note 1] | CRAM-HMAC [Note 2] | DIGEST-MD5 | with hardware token | Biometric | SMTP Auth [Note 3] | SSL/TLS Client Certificate | OAUTH | |||
| LOGIN | PLAIN | MD5 | SHA1 | RIPEMD | ||||||||||
SSL and TLS support
| Client | Secure POP3 | Secure IMAP4 | Secure SMTP | Secure NNTP | Secure LDAP | OCSP [Note 1] | CRL [Note 2] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SSL | TLS [Note 3] | SSL | TLS [Note 3] | SSL | TLS [Note 4] | SSL | TLS | SSL | TLS | |||
| Alpine | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
| Atmail | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Becky! Internet Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Citadel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Claws Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Cone | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Courier | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Elm | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| eM Client | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| EmailTray | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Eudora | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Eureka Email | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Evolution | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Gnus | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GroupWise | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| i.Scribe / InScribe | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| IBM Lotus Notes | Yes | No[16] | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes |
| KMail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Libremail | ? [Note 5] | No | No | No | ? [Note 5] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Microsoft Entourage | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Mulberry | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Mutt | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1.5.15 | 1.5.15 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Netscape Messenger | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Netscape Messenger 9 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| nmh / MH | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Opera Mail | Yes | Partial [Note 6] | Yes | Partial [Note 6] | Yes | Partial [Note 6] | Yes | No | — | — | Yes | Yes |
| Outlook Express | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Pegasus Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Pine | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | ? |
| Pocomail | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| RoundCube | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Spicebird | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SquirrelMail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Sylpheed | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| The Bat! | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes [Note 7] | Yes [Note 7] |
| Trojitá | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes (system) | Yes (system) |
| Turnpike | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Live Mail | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Mail | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| XgenPlus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
| YAM | ? | ? | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Zimbra | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Client | Secure POP3 | Secure IMAP4 | Secure SMTP | Secure NNTP | Secure LDAP | OCSP [Note 1] | CRL [Note 2] | |||||
| SSL | TLS [Note 3] | SSL | TLS [Note 3] | SSL | TLS [Note 4] | SSL | TLS | SSL | TLS | |||
- ^ a b Online Certificate Status Protocol - Description: RFC 2560
- ^ a b Certificate Revocation List - Description: RFC 3280
- ^ a b c d Description: RFC 2595
- ^ a b Description: RFC 2487
- ^ a b SSL ports can be chosen in Libremail configuration file but SSL library is not (and will not be) included in Libremail's sources. the website proposes to use Libremail with stunnel software.
- ^ a b c Opera Mail does not support STARTTLS command on special ports, like 995 for pop3 connection
- ^ a b Since version 4.2, The Bat! supports two modes of X.509 certificate handling: Internal Implementation and via Microsoft Crypto API. CRLs and OCSP are only supported in the latter mode during TLS connections.
Features
Information on what features each of the clients support.
General features
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.
| Client | HTML email | UTF-8 support | Image blocking | Junk filtering | Phishing filtering | Thread view | Conversation 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 | ? | ? | ? |
| Atmail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Becky! Internet Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Citadel | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [Note 1] | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Claws Mail | Read-only | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Cone | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Courier | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Elm | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| eM Client | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| EmailTray | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Eudora | Yes | No | Yes | Pro only | Pro only | ? | Yes | No | Yes [Note 2] | Yes [Note 2] | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Eureka Email | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Evolution | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Gnus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes |
| GroupWise | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| i.Scribe / InScribe | Read-only | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| IBM Notes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 3] | ? | Yes | Yes (4.1.2+) |
Yes | Yes, [5] | Yes | Yes |
| KMail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes (with GPG) |
Yes (1.5+, with GPGME) |
Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Libremail | Read-only [Note 4] | Yes | Yes [Note 5] | [Note 6] | Yes [Note 7] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Mailbird | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No |
| Microsoft Entourage | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (2010+)[17] | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | Yes | Yes [Note 8] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 9] | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 10] | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Mulberry | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes [Note 11] | Yes [Note 11] | Yes [Note 11] | ? | ? | ? |
| Mutt | Read-only | Yes | Yes (no support for images) |
Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes (with GPGME) | ? |
| Netscape Messenger | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Netscape Messenger 9 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| nmh / MH | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Opera Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Outlook Express | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes [Note 12] | No [Note 13] | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Pegasus Mail | Yes | 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 | ? | ? | ? |
| Pocomail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| RoundCube | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (depends on antivirus) | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes [Note 10] | Yes [Note 10] | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Spicebird | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
| SquirrelMail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (depends on antivirus) | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Sylpheed | No [Note 14] | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| The Bat! | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 15] | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial [Note 16] | Partial [Note 16] | Yes [Note 16] |
| Trojitá | Read only | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Read only | Read only | Read only | Read only | Read only |
| Turnpike | Read-only | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Live Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Mail | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| XgenPlus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| YAM | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Zimbra | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (depends on antivirus) | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | |
| Client | HTML email | UTF-8 support | Image blocking | Junk filtering | Phishing filtering | Thread view | Conversation view | PGP support | S/MIME support | |||||
| local | server- side | inline | PGP/MIME or OpenPGP | protocol | OCSP | CRL | certificates on tokens, smartcards support | |||||||
- ^ Citadel plugs Mail into SpamAssassin
- ^ a b Eudora requires a plugin to handle PGP.
- ^ First release 6.0 (September 2003), [1] enhancements introduced in release 7.0 (August 2005)
- ^ Plain text is the only format to write Emails messages. For emails received both in text and HTML format, the text section is shown by default, but it is possible to watch the HTML section as text, with or without HTML tags
- ^ Any enclosure file need to be watched by a separate tool.
- ^ As libremail downloads each mail in a separate file, it is possible to sort them in different directories or to delete them according to the content of a header field using a UNIX command.
- ^ Any header field can be tested to delete emails from server. Filtering from sender's address works with domain names and addresses with a variable part. There are also tools to refuse pure HTML emails and emails exceding a chosen size.
- ^ Although Thunderbird supports UTF-8, its handling of line wraps causes problems with long lines of text that don't contain spaces, which essentially makes it unusable for certain languages (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, Korean) [2]
- ^ Mozilla Thunderbird adds this feature in Thunderbird 1.5.0.4
- ^ a b c Using PGP in Thunderbird requires Enigmail.
- ^ a b c PGP/GPG and S/MIME support require a free (included) plugin.
- ^ Using PGP in Outlook Express requires a plugin.
- ^ Outlook Express does not display PGP/MIME signed messages.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c The Bat! supports two modes of S/MIME: Internal Implementation and via Microsoft Crypto API.[18] CRLs and OCSP are only supported in the latter mode. Internal implementation only supports Aladdin eToken Pro or Rainbow iKey1000[19] 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.
Messages features
| Client | Label messages | Reformat received messages | Bi-directional text support | Composing messages | Native images preview | Postpone / scheduled message sending | Native documents preview | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| with colors | with flag | antidelete | add note | edit headers (e.g., Subject) | forced recode [Note 1] | Spell checking | Signatures | Bottom-posts replies | jpeg | gif | bmp | png | others | txt | doc | xls | odt | ods | others | ||||
| Alpine | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Atmail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Becky! Internet Mail | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Citadel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Claws Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | with a plugin | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Cone | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Courier | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | ? |
| Elm | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| eM Client | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| EmailTray | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
| Eudora | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | QuickTime | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Eureka Email | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Evolution | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Gnus | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | XPM | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GroupWise | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| i.Scribe / InScribe | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes [Note 2] | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 3] | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 4] | ICO, TIFF | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| IBM Notes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | CGM, Lotus PIC, PCX, TIFF | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| KMail | Yes[20] | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Libremail | No | No | No | No | outside [Note 5] | No | ? | No | Yes | Yes | No [Note 6] | No | No | No [Note 6] | No [Note 6] | Yes[Note 7] | No [Note 6] | No | No | No | No | No | Enclosure emails |
| Mailbird | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
| Microsoft Entourage | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes[Note 8] | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | with a plugin | Yes | Yes | 2010 | 2010 | PowerPoint |
| Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | with a plugin[6], not via IMAP [7] | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 9] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ICO | Yes [Note 10] | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Mulberry | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Mutt | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | postpone | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Netscape Messenger | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Netscape Messenger 9 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| nmh / MH | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Opera Mail | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | APNG, ICO, SVG, WBMP, XBM, WebP | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Outlook Express | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ICO, art | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Pegasus Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | in index | No | No | Yes | Yes | No [Note 11] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | TIFF | — | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | RTF, HTML |
| Pine | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | with a patch [Note 12] | ? | Yes [Note 13] | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Pocomail | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| RoundCube | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SquirrelMail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Sylpheed | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | ? |
| The Bat! | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ICO, emf | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Trojitá | No | Yes | ? | ? | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Turnpike | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Live Mail | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| YAM | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Zimbra | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Client | Label messages | Reformat received messages | Bi-directional text support | Composing messages | Native images preview | Postpone/?scheduled message sending | Native documents preview | ||||||||||||||||
| with colors | with flag | antidelete | add note | edit headers (e.g., Subject) | forced recode [Note 1] | Spell checking | Signatures | Bottom-posts replies | jpeg | gif | bmp | png | others | txt | doc | xls | odt | ods | others | ||||
- ^ a b It's a frequent problem for people dealing with Cyrillic/Russian in email messages that the message is not encoded in the encoding declared in its headers and thus can't be read. With such a message (with a wrong declaration of the encoding), it well might be the case that it passed through several incorrect recoding stages while it was being sent and delivered; thus it's not possible to correctly render it and read it if one uses the common type of the interface for choosing the encoding (such as the menu in Mozilla Firefox). An example of such a complex case of a wrongly declared encoding: a message was entered through a webform in the windows-1251 encoding, but the web interface incorrectly assumed that it was in latin-1; based on this assumption, it performed the recoding from latin-1 to utf-8. The result of this operation cannot be correctly decoded through the common encoding-selection interface; it can only be decoded through a two-stage recoding: first from utf-8 to latin-1, then from windows-1251 to utf-8 (assuming that one works in a Unicode environment). After it is decoded, it is desirable to store it in the recoded form instead of the original, in order to be able to read it easily afterwards, and to quote it for replies.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Libremail gives the full path of the mail file which can be changed by a text editor.
- ^ a b c d Enclosure files are just extacted and need to be watched separately.
- ^ There are different tools to write emails and to send them. The tool for sending emails can be used in a shell or a cron.
- ^ Entourage can link a message to a note.
- ^ Configurable to start replies at top or bottom, with separate configuration of signature position
- ^ Thunderbird requires SL8TR extension.
- ^ Starts replies with cursor at top, but is configurable regarding whether to include a blank space at the top for replies or not; some interleaved-posting users prefer starting the cursor at the top so they can trim the quotes
- ^ The recoding engine and interface extensions that would solve the described recoding problems have been developed as a patch for Pine; it is to be found in the package pine-4.58L-alt4.src.rpm(ftp) for ALTLinux (under the name
pine-4.58L-alt2-0.4.1.diff). Its essential feature is to enable to forcibly recode messages, save them in the recoded form, and quote in replies. - ^ Pine supports full integration with GNU Aspell or other external speller, which is its requirement for spell checking.
Database, folders and customization
| Client | Message file format | Encrypted database | Virtual folders | Scheduled backup | New mail notification | Customizable interface | Customizable keybindings | Fragmented messages [Note 1] | Database search with regular expressions support | Indexed search | Search folders [Note 2] | IMAP | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ticker | tray icon | tooltip | sound | Search | IDLE | |||||||||||||
| Alpine | mbox, mbx, MIX, maildir (with patches), MMDF, tenex, mtx, MH, mx, news, phile | ? | Yes | Partial | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ||
| Atmail | maildir, imap, mbox | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ||
| Becky! Internet Mail | mbox | ? | ? | No | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Citadel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Claws Mail | MH, mbox (plugin) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No | Yes | No | ||
| Cone | mbox, maildir | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes (colors) | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Courier | Proprietary | Yes (weak) | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes (layout) | No | ? | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | ||
| Elm | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| eM Client | Proprietary (sqlite) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ||
| EmailTray | Proprietary | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ||
| Eudora | modified mbox | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [specify] | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ||
| Eureka Email | Proprietary | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Evolution | maildir, mbox, MH | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes [Note 3] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Gnus | babyl, maildir, mbox, MMDF, news, rnews, SOUP, outlook, oe-dbx | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ||
| GroupWise | Proprietary | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ||
| IBM Notes | Proprietary | Yes [8] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 4] | No | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ||
| KMail | mbox, maildir | No | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Libremail | maildir | No | No | Yes [Note 5] | No | No | No | No | Yes [Note 6] | for programmers [Note 7] | No | Partial [Note 8] | No | No | No | No | ||
| Mailbird | Proprietary | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Microsoft Entourage | Proprietary (Personal Storage Table) | ? | Yes | Partial [Note 9] | ? | ? | ? | ? | Partial | No | No | Partial [Note 10] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Microsoft Office Outlook | Proprietary (Personal Storage Table) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes [Note 11] | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | mbox | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Mozilla Thunderbird | mbox | No | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 12] | ? | No | ? | Yes (as of 3.0) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Mulberry | mbox [Note 13] | Partial [Note 14] | Partial [Note 14] | Partial [Note 14] | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes [specify] | Partial [Note 14] | No | Yes | No | ||
| Mutt | mbox, MMDF, MH, maildir | Yes (with compressed folders patch [9]) | ? (has limit command) | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | no integrated solutions available[21] | No (easily integrated with mairix) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Netscape Messenger | mbox | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Netscape Messenger 9 | mbox | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| nmh / MH | MH | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ||
| Opera Mail | mbox, MH, Proprietary | No | Yes (all folders are virtual) |
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ||
| Outlook Express | Proprietary | No | No | No | ? | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | No | ? | ? | Yes | ||
| Pegasus Mail | Proprietary (mbox-like) | No | Yes | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No[22] | ||
| Pine | mbox, mbx, MIX, maildir (with patches), MMDF, tenex, mtx, MH, mx, news, phile | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | ||
| Pocomail | mbox | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ||
| RoundCube | [IMAP Server] | ? | ? | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ||
| i.Scribe / InScribe | Proprietary (sqlite) | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ||
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | mbox | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ||
| SquirrelMail | [IMAP Server] | ? | ? | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ||
| Sylpheed | MH | No | Yes | No | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | No | No [Note 15] | No [Note 15] | Yes | ? | No | ||
| The Bat! | Proprietary | Yes (AES 128 bit)
(with Pro and Voyager version) [Note 16] |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
(PCRE 6.2) |
No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Trojitá | IMAP | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ||
| Turnpike | Proprietary | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ||
| Windows Live Mail | File System (.eml) | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ||
| Windows Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ||
| YAM | mbox, maildir, oe-dbx | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Zimbra | File system | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Client | Message file format | Encrypted database | Virtual folders | Scheduled backup | New mail notification | Customizable interface | Customizable keybindings | Fragmented messages [Note 1] | Database search with regular expressions support | Indexed search | Search folders [Note 2] | IMAP | ||||||
| ticker | tray icon | tooltip | sound | Search | IDLE | |||||||||||||
- ^ a b Fragmented messages make it 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
- ^ a b Search Folders are virtual folders that contain views of all email 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 are called truncated document in Lotus Notes.
- ^ Need to be done outside (saving files).
- ^ Environment variables for colors, extra characters for Braille terminals and timeout. An optional file to change default subdirectories and filenames. Text files for autoreply emails.
- ^ Need to change keys in the source code, but on_line documentation will not be updated.
- ^ Can be done with grep and egrep for emails not encoded base64.
- ^ With Entourage 2008, you can use AppleScript and various internal/external scheduling mechanisms to create timed backups of Entourage Data.
- ^ With Entourage 2008 and later versions of 2004, you can use the Spotlight data to search what's in the Entourage database via regular expression in the file system in Terminal or via Spotlight's ...interesting...version of "regular expressions".
- ^ supported since Office 2007.
- ^ Thunderbird's interface can be user customized via the use of themes (which can reposition and skin controls)
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c d Mulberry is a dedicated IMAP client; If the IMAP server has these abilities, Mulberry can use them.
- ^ a b 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.
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 | JavaScript | VBScript | PHP Scripts | Python | Regular expressions | Java | Other (specify) | |||
| Alpine | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | any | No | No | No | No | ? | No | ? |
| Atmail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | any | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Becky! Internet Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | any account folder |
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Citadel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Claws Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | account folder |
No | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | Perl |
| Cone | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Courier | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Elm | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| eM Client | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | account | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Eudora | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | any | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Eureka Email | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Evolution | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Gnus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | elisp |
| GroupWise | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| i.Scribe / InScribe | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | any | No | No | No | No | No | No | Internal macros (similar to JavaScript) |
| IBM Notes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | No | No | No | Yes [10] | Yes | LotusScript, Formula language |
| KMail | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | none | ? | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? |
| Libremail | No | Yes[Note 1] | No | No | ? | ? | Auto reply | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Microsoft Entourage | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | AppleScript, Automator |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | Yes | Yes[Note 2] | Yes[Note 2] | Yes | Yes | Yes | profile | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Mulberry | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? |
| Mutt | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | any | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? | Internal macros |
| Netscape Messenger | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Netscape Messenger 9 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| nmh / MH | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Opera Mail | No | No | No | No | No | No | — | 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 | ? |
| Pocomail | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No | PocoScript |
| RoundCube | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SquirrelMail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? |
| Sylpheed | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| The Bat! | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | account folder address book group contact |
Yes [Note 3] | Yes [Note 4] | Yes [Note 5] | Yes [Note 6] | Yes | PCRE 6.2 | Internal and plugins macros |
| Turnpike | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Live Mail | Yes[Note 7] | Yes[Note 7] | ? | Yes[Note 7] | ? | ? | ? | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 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 | JavaScript | VBScript | PHP Scripts | Python | Regular expressions | Java | Other (specify) | |||
- ^ For auto-reply email when a mail is deleted by a filter because it is too big, in pure HTML or sent in hidden copy.
- ^ a b Thunderbird supports HTML templates with "Stationery" add-on.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c Weak "stationery" system that only accept pages done with Word.
Internationalization
The Bat! supports Email Address Internationalization (EAI).[23][better source needed][discuss]
As of April, 2014, there are no email clients that support SMTPUTF8.
See also
- List of email clients
- Unicode and email
- List of personal information managers
- Comparison of layout engines
- Webmail
- Comparison of feed aggregators
- Comparison of mail servers
- Comparison of webmail providers
References
- ^ Eduardo Chappa (2 June 2022). "New version 2.26".
- ^ "Latest News". Retrieved 2021-07-10.
- ^ a b "The Birth of Eudora". Retrieved 2007-04-10.
- ^ "Introducing GNOME 45". 20 September 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
- ^ a b "GNUS: a NNTP based news reader for GNU Emacs (1 of 2)". Retrieved 2008-08-04.
- ^ "KDE Ships KDE Applications and Platform 4.14.3". KDE. 11 November 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
- ^ "Thunderbird — Release Notes (128.0.1esr)". Mozilla Foundation. 2024-07-18. Retrieved 2024-07-25.
- ^ "The Mutt E-Mail Client". Stable. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
- ^ "Opera 12 and Opera Mail security update". 2016-02-16.
- ^ "SeaMonkey 2.53.10.2 released". 2021-12-28. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
- ^ https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Zimbra_Releases
- ^ "Other Programming Projects and Downloads". Retrieved 2007-04-06.
- ^ "PC-PINE-3.96 README". Retrieved 2007-04-06.
- ^ Write to LDAP still missing after 10 years, Mozilla bug 86405
- ^ Add-ons include MesQuilla ExQuilla Exchange Web Services (alpha) (see also ExQuilla for Microsoft Exchange) and Provider for Microsoft Exchange
- ^ "will be available allegedly with version 9.02".
- ^ Sort Your Emails by Conversation in Outlook 2010 - How-To Geek
- ^ "List of features of The Bat! email client".
- ^ "The Bat! with Hardware Tokens".
- ^ http://www.google.com/search?q=kmail+colors&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.ubuntu:en-US:unofficial&client=firefox-a
- ^ MuttWiki: UserCases/SearchingMail
- ^ http://community.pmail.com/forums/post/17967.aspx
- ^ "Starting with the version 6.0 The Bat! supports IDN (Internationalized Domain Names))".
External links
- T&B : Email : Clients (of historical interest—last updated in 1999)
- Mail User Agents for Linux Based Platforms (includes many email clients not listed in the above tables)
- Remail - research by The Collaborative User Experience group at IBM