Comparison of email clients
The following tables compare general and technical features of notable email client programs.
General
[edit]Basic general information about the clients: creator/company, O/S, license, and interface.
Client | Author/Developer | Operating system | Software license | User Interface |
---|---|---|---|---|
Alpine | University of Washington | Cross-platform | Apache-2.0 | TUI |
Apple Mail | Apple | macOS, iOS, watchOS | Proprietary | GUI (Cocoa) |
Balsa | Stuart Parmenter | Linux | GPL-2.0-or-later | GUI (GTK3) |
Becky! Internet Mail | Rimarts | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
BlitzMail | Dartmouth College | BSD licenses | GUI | |
Canary Mail | Cartasec Pte. Ltd. | Cross-platform | Proprietary | GUI |
Citadel | citadel.org | Unix-like | GPL-3.0-only | Webmail |
Claws Mail | the Claws Mail team | Cross-platform | GPL-3.0-or-later | GUI (GTK2) |
Courier (formerly Calypso) | Micro Computer Systems, Inc., continued by Rose City Software | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
Elm | Dave Taylor, Sydney Weinstein, Bill Pemberton, Michael Elkins, Kari Hurtta | Unix-like | BSD-like[1] | TUI |
eM Client | eM Client Inc. | Windows, macOS, Android, iOS | Proprietary | GUI |
EmailTray | Internet Promotion Agency S.A. | Windows, Android | Proprietary | GUI |
Eudora OSE | Qualcomm | Windows, macOS | Open source | GUI |
Evolution | The GNOME Project | Unix-like | LGPL-2.1-only or LGPL-3.0-only | GUI (GTK) |
FirstClass | Open Text | Proprietary | GUI | |
Forté Agent | Mark Sidell | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
Geary | The GNOME Project (formerly Yorba Foundation) | Unix-like | LGPL-2.1-or-later | GUI (GTK) |
GNUMail | Ludovic Marcotte and others | Unix-like, macOS | GPL-2.0-or-later | GUI |
Gnus | Gnus team | Cross-platform | GPL-3.0-or-later | TUI and GUI |
GroupWise | Micro Focus (formerly Novell) | Cross-platform | Proprietary | GUI |
Hiri | Hiri | Cross-platform | Proprietary | GUI |
i.Scribe, InScribe | Memecode | Windows, macOS, Linux | GPL-3.0-only | GUI |
HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and IBM Lotus Notes) | HCL Technologies (formerly IBM and Lotus Software), HCL Technologies | Windows, macOS, Linux | Proprietary | GUI (Notes), Web (Verse, iNotes) and Mobile (Traveler) |
IMP | Horde LLC | Cross-platform | GPL-2.0-only | Webmail |
K-9 Mail | K-9 Dog Walkers: cketti, et al. | Android | Apache-2.0 | GUI |
KMail | KDE | Cross-platform | GNU General Public License | GUI (Qt) |
Mail (Windows) | Microsoft | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
Mailbird | Mailbird | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
Mailpile | Mailpile | Windows, macOS, Linux | AGPL-3.0-or-later | 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 | MPL-2.0 | GUI (XUL) |
Mulberry | Cyrus Daboo (formerly Cyrusoft International, Inc./ISAMET) | Cross-platform | Apache-2.0 | GUI |
Mutt | Michael Elkins | Cross-platform | GPL-2.0-or-later | TUI (ncurses) |
Netscape Messenger | Netscape Communications | ? | GUI | |
Netscape Messenger 9 | Netscape Communications | Mozilla Public License | GUI | |
Nylas Mail | Nylas | Windows, macOS, Linux | MIT | 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 | Freeware[2] | TUI |
Pocomail | Poco Systems | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
RoundCube | The RoundCube Team | Cross-platform | GPL-3.0-or-later | Webmail |
Samsung Email | Samsung Electronics | Samsung, Android 8+ | Proprietary | GUI |
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | SeaMonkey Council | Cross-platform | MPL-2.0 | GUI (XUL) |
Spark | Readdle | macOS | Proprietary | GUI |
SquirrelMail | The SquirrelMail Project Team | Cross-platform | GPL-2.0-or-later | Webmail |
Superhuman | Rahul Vohra | Cross-platform | Proprietary | Webmail |
Sylpheed | Hiroyuki Yamamoto | Cross-platform | Sylpheed: GPL-2.0-or-later LibSylph: LGPL-2.1-or-later | GUI (GTK2) |
The Bat! | RitLabs | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
Trojitá | KDE | Cross-platform | GPL-2.0-only or GPL-3.0-only[Note 1] | GUI (Qt) |
Turnpike | Thus PLC (Demon Internet) | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
Vivaldi | Vivaldi Technologies AS | Cross-platform | Proprietary | GUI (Chrome) |
Windows Live Mail | Microsoft | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
Windows Mail (Vista) | Microsoft | Windows | Proprietary | GUI |
YAM | YAM Open Source Team and contributing authors | AmigaOS | GPL-2.0-or-later | GUI |
Zimbra Desktop | Zimbra | Cross-platform | Mozilla Public License for server and ZPL for client | GUI |
Client | Author/Developer | Operating system | Software license | User interface |
- ^ Or LicenseRef-KDE-Accepted-GPL: "Any later version accepted by the membership of KDE e.V. (or its successor approved by the membership of KDE e.V.), which shall act as a proxy defined in Section 14 of version 3 of the license."
Release history
[edit]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 | 2.26[3] 2 June 2022 | ||||||||
Apple Mail | 2001-03-24 | ? | ? | ? | ( | )||||||||
Becky! Internet Mail | 1996 | 1 | ? | ? | 2.81.06[4] 28 February 2024 | ||||||||
Canary Mail | 15 June 2017 | 1.0 | 15 June 2017 | 1.0 | 4.01 (5th June, 2023) | ||||||||
Citadel | 1987 | ? | 1988 | 1.00 | 997[5] 29 January 2024 | ||||||||
Claws Mail | 2001-05 | 0.4.67 | 2005-01 | 1.0.0 | 4.3.0[6] 10 June 2024 | ||||||||
Courier | 2004-06 | 3.5 | discontinued | discontinued | 3.5 (June 2004) [±] | ||||||||
Elm | 1986 | ? | 1987-03 | 2 | 2.5.8[7] 18 August 2005 | ||||||||
eM Client | 2007-11 | 1.0 | 2007-11 | 1.0 | 10.0.2382.0 (May 10, 2024[±] | )||||||||
EmailTray | 2010-10 | 2.0 | 2011-03 | 3.11 | 4.0 (July 2, 2012[±] | )||||||||
Eudora | 1988[8] | ? | 1988[8] | ? | 7.1 (Windows), 6.2.4 (Mac OS) (October 11, 2006[±] | )||||||||
Evolution | 2000-05-11 | 0.0 | 2001-12-03 | 1.0 | 3.54.2[9] 22 November 2024 | ||||||||
Forté Agent | ? | ? | ? | ? | 8 (October 20, 2014[±] | )||||||||
Geary | 2012 | 0.1 | 2012 | 0.1 | 46.0[10] 20 May 2024 | ||||||||
Gnus | 1987[11] | ? | 1988-02-01[11] | 2.0 | 2015-04-06 | ||||||||
GroupWise | ? | ? | 1986 | 1.0 | 18.4[12] 14 March 2022 | ||||||||
Hiri | 2014-02 | 0.4 | 2016-06 | 1.0 | 1.0.11 (June 10, 2017[±] | )||||||||
i.Scribe / InScribe | 1999 | 1.00 | ? | ? | 2.3.18 (March 30, 2021[±] | )||||||||
HCL Notes (formerly IBM Lotus Notes) | 1989 | 1.0 | 1989 | 1.0 | 14.0.0[13] 7 December 2023 | ||||||||
IMP | ? | ? | 1998 | 1.0 | 6.2.27[14] 27 August 2020 | ||||||||
K-9 Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | 6.804[15] 7 June 2024 | ||||||||
KMail | 1998-10 | Alpha | 1999-02 | 1.0.17 | 5.24.3[16] 9 November 2023 | ||||||||
Mailbird | 2013-04-01 | Public Beta | ? | ? | 2.9.29 (April 22, 2021[±] | )||||||||
Mailpile | 2011-11 | [17] | [18] | [19] | 1.0.0rc6 (September 4, 2019[20]) [±] | ||||||||
Microsoft Entourage | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2008 (12.3.6) (March 12, 2013[±] | )||||||||
Microsoft Office Outlook | 1997 | 97 | 1997 | 97 |
| ||||||||
Mozilla Thunderbird | 2003-07-28 | 0.1 | 2004-12-07 | 1.0 | 132.0.1[25] 12 November 2024 | ||||||||
Mulberry | 1996-09-20 | 1.0 | 1996-09-20 | 1.0 | 4.0.8 (February 21, 2007[±] | )||||||||
Mutt | 1995 | ? | ? | ? | 2.2.13[26] 9 March 2024 | ||||||||
Netscape Messenger | ? | ? | ? | ? | 7.2 (August 17, 2007[±] | )||||||||
Netscape Messenger 9 | 2007-11-15 | 9.0a1 | discontinued | discontinued | 2007-11-15 | ||||||||
nmh / MH | 1979 | ? | ? | ? | 1.5 (June 11, 2012[±] | )||||||||
Opera Mail | 1996-09 | 2.1b1 | 1996-12 | 2.1 | 1.0.1044[27] (February 16, 2016 ) [±] | ||||||||
Outlook Express | 1996 | 3.0 | ? | ? | |||||||||
Pegasus Mail | 1990 | ? | 1990 | ? | 4.80[28] 14 February 2022 | ||||||||
Pine | 1992-01-15 | 2.00 | 1992-01-15 | 2.00 | 4.64[29] 28 September 2005 | ||||||||
Pocomail | 1999 | ? | ? | ? | 4.8 build 4400 (April 6, 2009[±] | )||||||||
RoundCube | 2006 | 0.1-rc1 | 2014-04-07 | 1.0.0 | 1.6.9[30] 1 September 2024 | ||||||||
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | 2005-09-15 | 1.0a | 2006-01-30 | 1.0 | 2.53.19[31] 4 September 2024 | ||||||||
SquirrelMail | 1999-12 | 0.1 | 2001-01 | 1.0 | |||||||||
Sylpheed | 2000-01 | 0.1.0 | 2004-12 | 1.0.0 | 3.7[32] 31 January 2018 | ||||||||
The Bat! | 1997-03 | 1.0 Beta | 1998-03 | 1.00 Build 1310 | |||||||||
Trojitá | 2009-08 | 0.1 | 2012-12 | 0.3.90 | |||||||||
Turnpike | 1996 (circa) | 1.0 | 1996 (circa) | 1.0 | 6.06 (May 23, 2006[±] | )||||||||
Vivaldi | 2015-11-03 | Beta 1 | 2022-06-09 | 1.0 | |||||||||
Windows Live Mail | 2007-11-06 | 12 | 2007-11-06 | 12 | 2012 (v16.4.3528.0331) (November 4, 2014[±] | )||||||||
Windows Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2007-01-01 | ||||||||
YAM | 1995 | 1.0 | 1995 | 1.0 | 2.9[33] 24 December 2013 | ||||||||
Zimbra | 2005-11 | Beta | 2006-03 | 3.5 | 8.6.0[34] (December 15, 2014 ) [±] |
Operating system support
[edit]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 |
Apple Mail | No | Included | No | No | No | No | No |
Balsa | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Becky! Internet Mail | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Canary Mail | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Citadel | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Claws Mail | Yes | 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 | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
EmailTray | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Eudora | Yes | Yes | 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 | No |
GroupWise | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Hiri | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | 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 |
Mailbird | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Mailpile | Yes [Note 2] | Yes [Note 2] | Yes | Yes [Note 3] | Yes [Note 3] | No [Note 4] | No [Note 4] |
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[35] | 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 | NetWare NLM |
Pine | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Terminated (3.96)[36] | 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 |
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 |
Vivaldi | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 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 | AmigaOS AROS MorphOS |
Zimbra | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Client | Microsoft Windows | macOS | Linux | BSD | Unix | DOS | Other |
- ^ Development stopped in 2008
- ^ a b Packaging planned
- ^ a b Free Software project, source available.
- ^ a b Free Software porting tangible provided OS has web browser.
Protocol support
[edit]Communication and access protocol support
[edit]What email and related protocols and standards are supported by each client.
Client | POP3 fetch all messages (RFC 1939) | POP3 selected by filter (RFC 1939) | POP3 selected by user (RFC 1939) | IMAP4 (RFC 3501) | SMTP (RFC 5321) | NNTP (RFC 3977) | LDAP v2 (RFC 4511) | LDAP v3 (RFC 4511) | EWS | IPv6 (RFC 2460) | MAPI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alpine | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? |
Apple Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? |
Becky! Internet Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 1] | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Canary Mail | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
Citadel | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Claws Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? |
Courier | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
Elm | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
eM Client | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
EmailTray | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Evolution | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | plug-in | ? | plug-in |
Gnus | Yes | Yes | Yes[37] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Plug-in[38] |
GroupWise | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Hiri | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
i.Scribe / InScribe | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [Note 2] | Yes [Note 2] | No | No | Yes |
HCL Notes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
KMail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No [Note 3] | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Mailbird | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? |
Mailpile | Yes | No | No | 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 | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Mozilla Thunderbird | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial[39] | extensible[40] | Yes | 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 4] | 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 | ? |
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 5] | Yes [Note 6] | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 7] | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Trojitá | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
Turnpike | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Vivaldi | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | 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 (RFC 1939) | POP3 selected by filter (RFC 1939) | POP3 selected by user (RFC 1939) | IMAP4 (RFC 3501) | SMTP (RFC 5321) | NNTP (RFC 3977) | LDAP v2 (RFC 4511) | LDAP v3 (RFC 4511) | EWS | IPv6 (RFC 2460) | MAPI |
Integration protocol support
[edit]Client | IMSP ([3]) | ACAP (RFC 2244) | RSS 0.91 Feeds | RSS 1.0 Feeds | RSS 2.0 Feeds | ATOM Feeds | iCalendar (RFC 5545) | MAPI/RPC | CalDAV (RFC 4791) | CardDAV (RFC 6352) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alpine | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Apple Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes |
Becky! Internet Mail | ? | ? | Yes [Note 8] | Yes [Note 8] | Yes [Note 8] | Yes [Note 8] | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Canary Mail | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Citadel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Claws Mail | ? | ? | No | Yes [Note 9] | Yes [Note 9] | Yes [Note 9] | Yes [Note 10] | ? | ? | ? |
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 | ? | ? | ? |
Evolution | No | No | No [Note 11] | No [Note 11] | No [Note 11] | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Gnus | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[41] | Yes[42] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
GroupWise | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
Hiri | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
i.Scribe / InScribe | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? | ? |
IBM Lotus Notes | No | No | Yes [Note 12] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
KMail | ? | ? | Yes [Note 13] | Yes [Note 13] | Yes [Note 13] | Yes [Note 13] | Yes [Note 14] | ? | Yes | Yes |
Mailpile | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Microsoft Entourage | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
Microsoft Office Outlook | ? | ? | Yes [Note 15] | Yes [Note 15] | Yes [Note 15] | Yes [Note 15] | Yes [Note 16] | Yes | No | No |
Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Mozilla Thunderbird | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 17] | Yes [Note 18] | Yes | Yes |
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 4] | Yes [Note 4] | Yes [Note 4] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
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 17] | ? | ? | ? |
SquirrelMail | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
Sylpheed | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
The Bat! | No | No | Yes [Note 19] | Yes [Note 19] | Yes [Note 19] | Yes [Note 19] | 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 ([4]) | ACAP (RFC 2244) | RSS 0.91 Feeds | RSS 1.0 Feeds | RSS 2.0 Feeds | ATOM Feeds | iCalendar (RFC 5545) | MAPI/RPC | CalDAV (RFC 4791) | CardDAV (RFC 6352) |
- ^ Becky! requires FRNews or BkNews plugin installed for handling NNTP.
- ^ 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 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
[edit]Client | Regular | MSN (NTLM) browser login | Compuserve (RPA) | MD5 APOP [Note 1] | CRAM-HMAC [Note 2] | DIGEST-MD5 | SCRAM | 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 | ? |
Apple Mail | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Note 4] |
Becky! Internet Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? |
Canary Mail | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Citadel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Claws Mail | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | No | ? | Yes | No | 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 | Yes |
EmailTray | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
Eudora | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | No | No | No | ? | ? |
Evolution | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Gnus | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
GroupWise | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Hiri | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes |
i.Scribe / InScribe | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | ? | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
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 | ? |
Mailpile | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
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[43] | ? | 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 | 1.10.1 |
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[43] | ? | 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 | No |
The Bat! | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | Yes [Note 5] | Yes [Note 5] | 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 | No |
Windows Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes [Note 6] |
YAM | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | AmiSSL | ? |
Zimbra | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes [Note 7] | ? | ? |
Client | Regular | MSN (NTLM) browser login | Compuserve (RPA) | MD5 APOP [Note 1] | CRAM-HMAC [Note 2] | DIGEST-MD5 | SCRAM | with hardware token | Biometric | SMTP Auth [Note 3] | SSL/TLS Client Certificate | OAUTH | |||
LOGIN | PLAIN | MD5 | SHA1 | RIPEMD |
SSL and TLS support
[edit]Client | Secure POP3 | Secure IMAP4 | Secure SMTP | Secure NNTP | Secure LDAP | SNI | 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 | ? | ? | ? |
Apple Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Becky! Internet Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Canary Mail | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Citadel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Claws Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes |
Courier | No | 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 | ? | ? | ? |
Evolution | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No |
Gnus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
GroupWise | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Hiri | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
i.Scribe / InScribe | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | ? | No | No |
IBM Lotus Notes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
KMail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Mailpile | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
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 | 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 5] | Yes | Partial [Note 5] | Yes | Partial [Note 5] | 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 | 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 | Yes [Note 6] | Yes [Note 6] |
Trojitá | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes (system) | Yes (system) |
Turnpike | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Windows Live Mail | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Windows Mail | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
YAM | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Zimbra | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
Client | Secure POP3 | Secure IMAP4 | Secure SMTP | Secure NNTP | Secure LDAP | SNI | 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 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 CryptoAPI. CRLs and OCSP are only supported in the latter mode during TLS connections.
Features
[edit]Information on what features each of the clients support.
General features
[edit]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 | Read only | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
Apple Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Becky! Internet Mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |