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Comparison of e-mail clients
From EDeskWiki
The following tables compare general and technical information between a number of e-mail client programs. Please see the individual products articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date.
Contents |
General
Basic general information about the clients: creator/company, license/price etc.
| e-mail program | Creator | USD) | Software license |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citadel | citadel.org | free | GPL |
| Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed-Claws) | the Claws Mail team | free | GPL |
| Courier (formerly Calypso) | Micro Computer Systems, Inc., continued by Rose City Software | free (as of version 3.5) | Proprietary |
| Cone | Courier Mail Server developers | free | GPL |
| Insight (e-mail client) | Arachne developer group | free | GPL |
| Eudora | Qualcomm | Free (Light), Free (Pro, with ads), $20 (Pro) | Proprietary *Next release will be Penelope (e-mail client)|Penelope, free-open based on Mozilla Thunderbird |
| Gnus | Gnus team | free | GPL |
| GroupWise | Novell | Included with GroupWise mailbox license | Proprietary |
| Infotrope Polymer | Dave Cridland | free | GPL |
| Lotus Notes | Lotus Software / IBM | nonfreeonline pricelist | Proprietary |
| KMail | KDE | free | GPL |
| Apple Inc. | Part of Mac OS X | Proprietary | |
| Mail Commander | InternetSoft Corporation | nonfree$50 | Proprietary |
| MailCOPA Multi User Email Program | InterVations, Inc. | nonfree$40 | Proprietary |
| Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | Mozilla Foundation | free, part of Mozilla Application Suite | MPL, MPL/GNU General Public License|GPL/GNU Lesser General Public License|LGPL tri-license |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | Mozilla Foundation | free | MPL, MPL/GNU General Public License|GPL/GNU Lesser General Public License|LGPL tri-license |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | Microsoft | nonfreePart of Microsoft Office, $109 stand-alone | Proprietary |
| Microsoft Entourage | Microsoft | nonfreePart of Microsoft Office for Mac | Proprietary |
| Mulberry | Cyrus Daboo (previously Cyrusoft International, Inc./ISAMET | free (as of version 4.0.5) | Proprietary |
| Mutt | Michael Elkins | free | GPL |
| Novell Evolution | Ximian | free | GPL |
| Open-Xchange | Open-Xchange | free | GPL |
| Opera Mail | Opera Software | Opera | Proprietary |
| Outlook Express | Microsoft | Part of Microsoft Windows | Proprietary |
| Pegasus Mail | David Harris | free | Proprietary |
| Pine | University of Washington | free | Pine License (old versions), Apache License (Alpine) |
| PC Pine | University of Washington | free | Pine License |
| i.Scribe / InScribe | Memecode | Free/$20 | Proprietary |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | SeaMonkey Council | free, part of SeaMonkey | MPL, MPL/GNU General Public License|GPL/GNU Lesser General Public License|LGPL tri-license |
| Sylpheed | Hiroyuki Yamamoto | free | GPL/GNU Lesser General Public License|LGPL |
| The Bat! | RitLabs | nonfree$45 | Proprietary |
| Windows Live Mail Desktop | Microsoft |
Adware[1] | Proprietary |
| Windows Mail | Microsoft | Part of Microsoft Windows | Proprietary |
| Zimbra | Zimbra | free | MPL on server and ZPL (attribution clause)on client |
Release history
A brief overview of the release history.
| Client | First public release | First stable release | Latest stable release | Latest testing release | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Version | Date | Version | Date | Version | Date | Version | |
| Citadel | 1987 | ? | 1988 | 1.00 | December 2005 | 6.61 | ? | ? |
| Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws) | May 2001 | 0.4.67 | January 2005 | 1.0.0 | March 6 2007 | 2.8.1 | ? | ? |
| Eudora | 1988[2] | ? | 1988[2] | ? | October 11 2006 | 7.1 (Windows), 6.2.4 (OS X) | ? | ? |
| Lotus Notes | 1989 | 1.0 | 1989 | 1.0 | September 29 2006 | 7.0.2 | September 25 2006, March 10 2007 | 7.0.2 Mac Beta 1, Lotus Notes 8 Beta 2 |
| KMail | ? | ? | ? | ? | October 11 2006 | 1.9.5 | ? | ? |
| ? | ? | ? | ? | June 27 2006 | 2.1 (752/752.2) | ? | ? | |
| Mail Commander | 1998 | 1.0 | 1998 | 1.0 | March 28 2007 | 8.60 | ||
| MailCOPA Multi User Email Program | 1999 | 1.01 | 1999 | 1.01 | March 23 2007 | 8.01 | ||
| Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | December 7 1998 | "Preview" | March 19 1999 | M3 | April 21 2006 | 1.7.13 | ||
| Mozilla Thunderbird | July 28 2003 | 0.1 | December 7 2004 | 1.0 | March 1 2007 | 2.0.0.0 | April 18 2007 | None (yet) availble |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | 1997 | 97 | 1997 | 97 | January 30 2007 | 12.0.4518.1014 | ? | ? |
| Mulberry | September 20 1996 | 1.0 | September 20 1996 | 1.0 | September 20 2006 | 4.0.6 | ? | ? |
| Mutt | 1995 | ? | ? | ? | July 14 2006 | 1.4.2.2 | February 23 2007 | 1.5.14 |
| Novell Evolution | 11 May 2000 | 0.0 | 3 December 2001 | 1.0 | 9 April 2007 | 2.10.1 | 26 February 2007 | 2.9.92 |
| Open-Xchange | ? | ? | ? | ? | April 2006 | 0.8.2 | ? | ? |
| Opera Mail | September 1996 | 2.1b1 | December 1996 | 2.1 | April 11 2007 | 9.20 | ? | ? |
| Outlook Express | 1996 | 3.0 | ? | ? | October 25 2001 | 6.0 | ? | ? |
| Pegasus Mail | 1990 | ? | 1990 | ? | July 16 2006 | 4.41 | ? | ? |
| Pine | January 15 1992 | 2.00 | ? | ? | September 28 2005 | 4.64 | ? | ? |
| i.Scribe/InScribe | 1999 | 1.00 | ? | ? | November 2005 | 1.88 | Feburary 2007 | 1.89 |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | September 15 2005 | 1.0a | January 30 2006 | 1.0 | January 18 2007 | 1.1 | N/A | None |
| Sylpheed | January 2000 | 0.1.0 | December 2004 | 1.0.0 | January 16 2007 | 2.3.1 | February 15 2007 | 2.4.0beta4 |
| The Bat! | March 1997 | 1.0 Beta | March 1998 | 1.00 Build 1310 | March 5 2007 | 3.98.04 | March 10 2007 | 3.98.05 |
| Windows Live Mail Desktop | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | July 2006 | 8.0.0783 |
| Windows Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | November 8, 2006 | 6.0.6000.16386 | ? | ? |
| Zimbra | November, 2005 | Beta | March, 2006 | 3.5 | March 2007 | 4.5 | ? | ? |
Operating system support
The operating systems on which the clients can run natively (without emulation).
| Microsoft Windows | Mac OS X | Linux | BSD | Unix | DOS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citadel | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws) | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| Correo | no | yes | no | no | no | no |
| Courier | yes | no | no | no | no | no |
| Eudora | yes | yes | no | no | no | no |
| Gnus | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ? |
| Infotrope Polymer | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| Insight | no | no | no | no | no | yes |
| Lotus Notes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no |
| KMail | via cygwin | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| no | included | no | no | no | no | |
| Mail Commander | yes | no | no | no | no | no |
| MailCOPA Multi User Email Program | yes | no | no | no | no | no |
| Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | terminated (1.7.13) | terminated (1.7.13) | terminated (1.7.13) | terminated (1.7.13) | terminated (1.7.13) | no |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | yes | no | no | no | no | no |
| Microsoft Entourage | no | Yes | no | no | no | no |
| Mulberry | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| Mutt | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes [3] |
| Netscape Messenger | terminated (4.80) | terminated (4.80) | terminated (4.80) | terminated (4.80) | terminated (4.80) | no |
| Novell Evolution | yes (beta) | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| Opera Mail | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| Outlook Express | included (up to XP) | no | no | no | yes (SPARC Solaris and RS6000 HP/UX) | no |
| Pegasus Mail | yes | no | no | no | no | terminated |
| Pine | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | terminated (3.96) [4] |
| i.Scribe/InScribe | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| Sylpheed | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| The Bat! | yes | no | no | no | no | no |
| Windows Live Mail Desktop | yes | no | no | no | no | no |
| Windows Mail | included (Vista) | no | no | no | no | no |
| Zimbra | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
Protocol Support
What e-mail and related protocols and standards are supported by each client.
| Client | Post Office Protocol|POP3 | Internet Message Access Protocol|IMAP4 | Simple Mail Transfer Protocol|SMTP | Network News Transfer Protocol|NNTP | Lightweight Directory Access Protocol|LDAP | IMSP | Application Configuration Access Protocol|ACAP | Web feed|Feeds | iCalendar | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| fetch all messages | selected by filter | selected by user | v2 | v3 | RSS 0.91 | RSS 1.0 | RSS 2.0 | ATOM | |||||||
| Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws) | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | ? | ? | no | Yes
(RSSyl plugin required) | Yes
(RSSyl plugin required) | Yes
(RSSyl plugin required) | Yes
(vCalendar plugin required) | |
| Courier | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| Eudora | yes | no | no | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | no | yes | no | no | no | no | no |
| Infotrope Polymer | no | no | no | yes | yes | no (Only for posting) | no | no | no | yes (Full support) | no | no | no | no | no |
| yes | no | no | yes | yes | no | ? | ? | ? | ? | no | no | no | no | no | |
| Mail Commander | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| MailCOPA Multi User Email Program | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | ||||||||||
| Gnus | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | |||||
| KMail | yes | no | no | yes | yes | KDENNTP | yes | ? | ? | KDEFeeds | KDEFeeds | KDEFeeds | KDEFeeds | KDEiCal | |
| Lotus Notes | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | NotesRSS | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | partial | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | Yes
(with extension) | |
| Mulberry | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | yes | |
| Mutt | yes | No (possible with POP3 browser) | No (possible with POP3 browser) | yes | No (uses sendmail) | no (slrn looks alike) | partial (resolve real names through NSS) | ? | ? | no | no | no | no | no | |
| Opera Mail | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | no | no | ? | ? | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | yes | no | no | yes | yes | no | yes | ? | ? | OutlookFeeds | OutlookFeeds | OutlookFeeds | OutlookFeeds | Yes refun|OutlookiCal | |
| Novell Evolution | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | no | no | no | no | yes |
| Outlook Express | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | ? | ? | no | no | no | no | no | |
| Pegasus Mail | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||||||||
| Pine | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| i.Scribe/InScribe | yes | no | yes | yes | yes | no | Yes
(Plugin required) | Yes
(Plugin required) | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| TheBat! | yes | SelectiveDownload | MessageDispatcher | yes | yes | Yes
(MyGate plugin required) | yes | no | no | no | Yes
(plugin rss2mail or rss2pop3 required) | Yes
(plugin rss2mail or rss2pop3 required) | Yes
(plugin rss2mail or rss2pop3 required) | Yes
(plugin rss2mail or rss2pop3 required) | no |
| Windows Live Mail Desktop | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | |||
| Windows Mail | yes | no | no | yes | yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Zimbra | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ? | ? | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
- note|KDENNTP KDE supports Newsgroups (NNTP) by the use of KNode
- note|KDEFeeds KDE supports feeds by the use of Akregator
- note|KDEiCal KDE supports iCal by the use of KOrganizer
- note|NotesRSS Studio Blog Reader is one RSS reader application for Lotus Notes.
- note|OutlookFeeds Support of feeds is available in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.
- note|OutlookiCal Microsoft Outlook support of iCalendar varies by version.
- note|SelectiveDownload 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.
- note|MessageDispatcher 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.
Authentication Support
| Client | Regular | MSN (NTLM)
browser login | Compuserve
(RPA) | MD5 APOP refun|APOP | CRAM-HMAC refun|HMAC | DIGEST-MD5 | with hardware token
PKCS|PKCS #11 | Biometric | SMTP Auth refun|SMTPAUTH | SSL/TLS Client Certificate | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOGIN | PLAIN | MD5 | SHA1 | RIPEMD | |||||||||
| Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws) | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | ||||||||
| Courier | yes | yes | no | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | yes | no |
| Eudora | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | yes | |
| ? | yes | MailNTML | ? | ? | MailCRAM | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | yes | ||
| Mail commander | yes | yes | no | no | yes | yes | no | no | yes | no | no | yes | no |
| MailCOPA Multi User Email Program | yes | no | yes | yes | |||||||||
| Gnus | yes | yes | ? | ? | ? | yes | yes | ? | yes | ? | ? | yes | ? |
| Infotrope Polymer | yes | yes | no | no | no | yes | no | no | yes | no | no | yes | no |
| KMail | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | no | no | yes | no | no | yes | |
| Lotus Notes | yes | yes | no | no | no | yes | no | yes | |||||
| Mozilla Thunderbird | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | no | no | no [1] | no | no | 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 | Not yet (1.5.15+ will) | yes |
| Novell Evolution | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | no | no | yes | no | no | yes | |
| Opera Mail | yes | yes | no | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | yes | |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | yes | no | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | yes | |
| Outlook Express | yes | no | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | yes | |
| Pegasus Mail | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | yes | no | |
| Pine | yes | no | no | no | yes | no | no | yes | |||||
| i.Scribe / InScribe | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | no | no | yes | no | no | yes | no |
| TheBat! | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no | yes | yes | yes | |
| Windows Live Mail Desktop | yes | no | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | |
| Windows Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Zimbra | yes | yes | ? | ? | yes | yes | ? | ? | ? | yes | ? | ||
- note|SMTPAUTH Description: RFC-2554
- note|APOP Description: RFC-1734
- note|HMAC Description: RFC-2195
- note|MailCRAM10.1.3 Apple adds SSL and CRAM-MD5 support to Mail
- note|MailNTMLApple supports NTML v2 in Mail as of 10.4 release
SSL and TLS Support
| Client | Secure POP3 | Secure IMAP4 | Secure SMTP | Secure NNTP | Secure LDAP | OCSP refun|OCSP | CRL refun|CRL | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SSL | IMAPPOP | SSL | IMAPPOP | SSL | SMTPTLS | SSL | TLS | SSL | TLS | |||
| Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws) | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||
| Courier | no | no | n/a | n/a | no | no | n/a | n/a | no | no | no | no |
| Eudora | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | yes | yes | ||
| yes | ? | yes | yes | yes | ? | no | no | yes | ? | |||
| Mail Commander | no | no | n/a | n/a | no | no | n/a | n/a | no | no | no | no |
| MailCOPA Multi User Email Program | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||||||||
| Gnus | ? | ? | yes | yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| KMail | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | ||||
| Lotus Notes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||||
| Mozilla Thunderbird | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||
| Mulberry | ||||||||||||
| Mutt | yes | yes | yes | yes | Not yet (1.5.15+ will support) | Not yet (1.5.15+ will support) | ||||||
| Novell Evolution | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | ? | ? | ||
| Opera Mail | yes | M2STLS | yes | M2STLS | yes | M2STLS | yes | no | no | no | ||
| Microsoft Office Outlook | yes | no | yes | no | yes | no | ||||||
| Outlook Express | yes | no | yes | no | yes | no | ||||||
| Pegasus Mail | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||||||||
| Pine | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | ||
| i.Scribe / InScribe | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | n/a | n/a | no | no | n/a | n/a |
| TheBat! | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| Windows Live Mail Desktop | yes | no | yes | no | yes | no | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Windows Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Zimbra | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||
- note|SMTPTLS Description: RFC-2487
- note|IMAPPOP Description: RFC-2595
- note|M2STLS Opera Mail does not support STARTTLS command on special ports, like 995 for pop3 connection
- note|OCSP Online Certificate Status Protocol - Description: RFC-2560
- note|CRL Certificate Revocation List - Description: RFC-3280
Features
Information on what features each of the clients support.
Note that for all of these clients, the concept of "HTML support" does not mean that they can process the full range of HTML that a web browser can handle. Almost all email readers limit HTML features, either for security reasons, or because of the nature of the interface. CSS and Javascript can be especially problematic. A number of articles describe these limitations per-email-client; see 1, 2, 3, and 4
| Client | HTML e-mail | UTF-8 support | Image blocking | e-mail spam|Junk filtering | Thread view | Pretty Good Privacy|PGP support | S/MIME support | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| local | server-side | protocol | OCSP | CRL | certificates on tokens, smartcards support | ||||||
| eDeskOnline | yes | yes | no | yes | ? | ? | yes | ? | |||
| Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws) | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||
| Courier | yes | no | no | yes | yes | no | |||||
| Citadel | yes | yes | no | Yes (plugs into SpamAssassin) | no | ||||||
| Eudora | yes | no | yes | Yes (Pro only) | yes | yes | |||||
| Gnus | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||
| Lotus Notes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | NotesThread | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
| KMail | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | Yes (GPG) | yes | ||||
| yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | Yes (with the GPGMail-plugin | yes | |||||
| Mail Commander | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||
| MailCOPA Multi User Email Program | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | no | no | |||
| Mozilla Thunderbird | yes | yes | yes | yes (Phishing filter added in 1.5.0.4) | no | yes | Yes (with Enigmail) | yes | |||
| Mulberry | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | MulberryEncryption | MulberryEncryption | |||
| Mutt | ReadonlyHTML | yes | Yes (no support for images) | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes (with GPGME) | |||
| Novell Evolution | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||||
| Opera Mail | ReadonlyHTML | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | ||||
| Microsoft Office Outlook | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||||
| Outlook Express | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | yes | ||||
| Pegasus Mail | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no | |
| Pine | ReadonlyHTML | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | |||||
| i.Scribe / InScribe | ReadonlyHTML | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | Yes (plugin for GnuPG required) | no | no | no | no |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | Yes (with Enigmail) | yes | ||||
| Sylpheed | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||||||
| Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws) | ReadonlyHTML | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||||
| The Bat! | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | TBCRL | TBCRL | TBTOKEN |
| Windows Live Mail Desktop | yes | yes | yes | yes (Phishing filter also included) | yes | yes | yes | ||||
| Windows Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Zimbra | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ? | yes | |||
| Client | HTML e-mail | UTF-8 support | Image blocking | e-mail spam|Junk filtering | Thread view | Pretty Good Privacy|PGP support | S/MIME support | ||||
| local | server-side | protocol | OCSP | CRL | certificates on tokens, smartcards support | ||||||
- note|ReadonlyHTML HTML handling is read-only (cannot compose HTML e-mails).
- note|NotesThread First release 6.0 (September 2003), enhancements introduced in release 7.0 (August 2005)
- note|MulberryEncyption PGP/GPG and S/MIME support require a free (included) plugin.
- note|TBCRL The Bat! supports two modes of S/MIME: Internal Implementation and via Microsoft Crypto API. CRLs and OCSP are only supported in the latter mode.
- note|TBTOKEN The Bat! supports two modes of S/MIME: Internal Implementation and via Microsoft Crypto API. Internal implementation only supports Token,iKey10xx, ePass2000 Token USB and ePass3000 Token USBtokens 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 | Spell checker|Spell Checking | Signature block|Signatures | Native images preview | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| with Colors | with flag | antidelete | add note | jpeg | gif | bmp | png | others | |||
| Citadel | |||||||||||
| Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws) | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | date=April 2007 |
| Courier | yes | yes | no | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no |
| Eudora | yes | no | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
| IBM Lotus Notes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | |||
| KMail | no | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | date=December 2006 |
| yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | any QuickTime support format | |||
| Mail Commander | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | date=April 2007 | ||
| MailCOPA Multi User Email Program | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | date=April 2007 |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ICO (icon image file format)|ico | ||
| Mulberry | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | |||
| Mutt | yes | yes | no | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no |
| Novell Evolution | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||
| Opera Mail | no | yes | no | no | M2SpellCheck | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| Microsoft Outlook | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||||||
| Outlook Express | no | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ICO (icon image file format)|ico, art |
| Pegasus Mail | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||
| Pine | yes | yes | Yes (using aspell or other external speller) | yes | no | no | no | no | no | ||
| i.Scribe / InScribe | yes | no | no | yes | Yes (with plugin) | yes | Yes (with libjpeg) | yes | yes | Yes (with libpng) | ico, tiff |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | yes | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
| Sylpheed | |||||||||||
| The Bat! | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ICO (icon image file format)|ico, Windows Metafile|emf |
| Windows Live Mail Desktop | no | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
| Windows Mail | |||||||||||
| Zimbra | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | date=April 2007 |
| Client | Label Messages | Spell Checking | Signatures | Native images preview | |||||||
| with Colors | with flag | antidelete | add note | jpeg | gif | bmp | png | others | |||
- note|M2SpellCheck Opera supports full integration with GNU Aspell, which is its requirement for spell checking.
Database, folders and customization
| Client | Message file format | Encrypted database | Virtual folders | Scheduled backup | Ticker notification | Customizable interface | Customizable keybindings | FragmentedMessages | Database search with regular expressions support | Indexed search | Searchfolders | IMAP search |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citadel | ||||||||||||
| Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws) | MH, mbox | no | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||
| Courier | proprietary | yes (weak) | yes | yes | yes (layout) | no | no | no | yes | n/a | ||
| Eudora | mbox | no | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | date=January 2007 | yes | yes | yes |
| Lotus Notes | proprietary | date=December 2006 | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes (called truncated document) | date=January 2007 | yes | yes | |
| KMail | no | yes | no | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | yes | ||
| mbox | yes | yes (with Spotlight OSX 10.4) | yes (Called "Smart Folders" OSX 10.4) | |||||||||
| Mail Commander | mbox | no | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| MailCOPA Multi User Email Program | proprietary | yes | yes | no | no | yes | no | yes | yes | yes | ||
| Mozilla Thunderbird | mbox | yes | no | no | yes | yes | ||||||
| Mulberry | MulberryMBox | MulberryDB | MulberryDB | MulberryDB | yes | date=January 2007 | MulberryDB | no | yes | |||
| Mutt | MH, maildir | no | ? (has limit command) | no | ? | yes | yes | yes | ? (has header cache) | No (easily integrated with mairix) | yes | |
| Novell Evolution | no | yes | ? | no | partial | Keybindings | yes | yes | ? | yes | yes | |
| Opera Mail | mbox | no | yes (all folders are virtual) | no | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | ||
| Microsoft Office Outlook | proprietary | No
(when Best Encryption is used, .pst file cannot be read by a hex editor) | yes | yes | yes | yes | Yes (Office 2007|in beta) | yes | ||||
| Outlook Express | proprietary | no | no | no | no | no | no | yes | no | |||
| Pegasus Mail | proprietary | |||||||||||
| Pine | mbox | |||||||||||
| i.Scribe/InScribe | proprietary (documented) | no | no | no | no | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | mbox | yes | ||||||||||
| Sylpheed | ||||||||||||
| The Bat! | proprietary | Yes (RC2 128 bit)
(with Pro and Voyager version) Refun|TBEncryptedDB | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes
(PCRE 6.2) | no | yes | yes |
| Windows Live Mail Desktop | no | no | no | no | yes | no | yes | yes | yes | |||
| Windows Mail | ||||||||||||
| Zimbra | Filesystem | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Client | Message file format | Encrypted database | Virtual folders | Scheduled backup | Ticker notification | Customized interface | Customizable keybindings | FragmentedMessages | Database search with regular expressions support | Indexed search | Searchfolders | IMAP search |
- Note|MulberryDB Mulberry is a dedicated IMAP client; If the IMAP server has these abilities, Mulberry can use them.
- Note|MulberryMBox 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.
- Note|Searchfolders Search Folders are virtual folders that contain views of all e-mail items matching specific search criteria. Search Folders display the results of previously defined search queries.
- Note|Keybindings Editable keybindings is part of GNOME, provided "Editable menu accelerators" is enabled in GNOME's "Menus & Toolbars" control applet.
- Note|FragmentedMessages Fragmented messages makes possible, for example, to send a large audio message as several partial messages, and still have it appear to the recipient as a simple audio message rather than as an encapsulated message containing an audio message. RFC 2046
- Note|TBEncryptedDB 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 | PascalScript | JavaScript | VBScript | PHP Scripts | Python | Regular Expressions | |||
| Citadel | |||||||||||||
| Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws) | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | ||||
| Eudora | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | ||||
| i.Scribe / InScribe | yes | yes | yes | no | no | yes | no | no | no | no | |||
| KMail | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no | none | no | ? | no | no | no | ? |
| Lotus Notes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | no | no | no | ||||
| Mail Commander | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | ||
| MailCOPA Multi User Email Program | yes | yes | yes | no | no | yes | any | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | yes | ||||||||||||
| Microsoft Office Outlook | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||||||||
| Mulberry | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | ||||
| Mutt | yes | yes | yes | any | |||||||||
| Novell Evolution | yes | yes | yes | yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
| Opera Mail | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | none | no | no | no | no | no | |
| Outlook Express | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||||||||
| Pegasus Mail | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||||||||
| Pine | |||||||||||||
| SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | |||||||||||||
| Sylpheed | |||||||||||||
| The Bat! | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | account folder address book group contact | no | yes
(with JavaScript Macro plugin) | yes
(with plugin XMP) | yes
(with plugin XMP) | yes
(with plugin TBPyxie) | yes
(PCRE 6.2) |
| Windows Live Mail Desktop | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||||||||
| Windows Mail | |||||||||||||
| Zimbra | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | any | no | 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 | PascalScript | JavaScript | VBScript | PHP Scripts | Python | Regular Expressions | |||
List of e-mail clients
The following is a list of e-mail clients.
Graphical
- acme (Plan 9)|acme Mail - interface for upas
- Aethera
- Apple Mail
- Balsa (e-mail client)|Balsa
- Becky!
- Bloomba
- Citadel/UX|Citadel
- Claris Em@iler
- Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws)
- DreamMail
- Eudora (e-mail client)|Eudora
- Forté Agent
- FoxMail
- INSIGHT MAIL (ARACHNE BROWSER)
- IncrediMail
- Scribe Mail|i.Scribe/InScribe
- KMail
- Lotus Notes
- M2 (e-mail client)|Opera M2
- Microsoft Entourage
- Microsoft Office Outlook
- Outlook Express
- Mail (application)|Mail
- Mail Commander
- MailCOPA Multi User Email Program
- Mozilla Thunderbird
- Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups
- Mulberry (e-mail client)|Mulberry
- Netscape (web browser)|Netscape
- Novell Evolution
- Novell GroupWise
- Pegasus Mail
- SeaMonkey|SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups
- Sylpheed
- The Bat!
- Windows Live Mail Desktop
- YAM (Yet Another Mailer)
- Modest
- Tinymail
Text-based
- Elm (e-mail client)|Elm
- Elmo (Electronic Mail Operator)|Elmo
- Gnus
- mailx – one of the traditional mail(1) implementations
- MH Message Handling System|MH
- Mutt (e-mail client)|Mutt
- Pine (e-mail client)|Pine
- Upas – e-mail filesystem for Plan 9 from Bell Labs
Web-based
- 24SevenOffice
- BlogMail
- Citadel/UX|Citadel
- Horde IMP
- Hula (software)|Hula project
- OpenWebmail
- RoundCube Webmail
- Skweezer|Skweezer Mail
- SquirrelMail
- Zimbra
- Pine (e-mail client)|WebPine
Historical
- Courier (e-mail client)|Calypso/Courier
- Cc:Mail
- Windows Messaging
- Microsoft Internet Mail and News
- Netscape Communicator
See also
- Unicode and e-mail
- List of personal information managers
- Comparison of layout engines
Category:Software comparisons|E-mail clients
Category:E-mail clients|*
