History: Webmail and groupware comparison
Preview of version: 9
This page is mainly to compare all active and mature Open Source (thus self-hostable) webmail solutions that you can install and manage email from any server with standard email protocols (IMAP, SMTP, JMAP). The assumption is that you already have at least one mail server (and often more than one) and you just want to install a webmail, and perhaps replace a desktop email solution like Thunderbird.
Here are the main Open Source standalone webmail options:
- Roundcube
- SnappyMail (RainLoop fork)
- Cypht
Special cases:
- Nextcloud Mail requires Nextcloud (And in Nextcloud, you can pick other options like the module for SnappyMail)
- Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware (which bundles Cypht)
Some related solutions are added because they have a close connection with one of the solutions above
- Kolab is added because it is behind Roundcube.
- Virtualmin is added because it is the mail stack of WikiSuite (And Tiki is also a WikiSuite component)
Not included (yet), and why?
- RainLoop: Activity level is too low: https://openhub.net/p/rainloop-webmail/commits/summary, and has been forked into SnappyMail
- YunoHost is an interesting platform to manage apps. It's a full mail server and you can pick between Roundcube, Rainloop, Cypht etc. Not including below because it doesn't offer a distinct webmail client.
- Horde IMP: Activity level is too low: https://openhub.net/p/horde/commits/summary
- SOGo: Full mail distro. Is the webmail available in standalone to connect to other email servers?
- SquirrelMail: Activity level too low: https://openhub.net/p/squirrelmail/commits/summary
- OpenPaaS is interesting and supports JMAP but AFAICT webmail client is not available to run as standalone: https://github.com/linagora/openpaas-esn/tree/master/modules/linagora.esn.messaging.email
- https://github.com/afterlogic/webmail-lite-8 should be analyzed
| Roundcube | Kolab | SnappyMail (RainLoop fork) | Nextcloud | Cypht | Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware | Virtualmin | |
| Type | Webmail in PHP | Full mail server back-end and front-end | Webmail in PHP and Node.JS | Multi-feature system which offers plugins/modules, and some of those do mail client | Pluggable Webmail in PHP with aggregator mindset | Multi-feature system which offers all the functionality in one app (bundles Cypht Webmail) | Admin panel for shared hosting which includes mail accounts and its own webmail (You can also install Cypht, Roundcube, etc.) |
| Mail server | None | Cyrus IMAP | None | None | None | None | Dovecot |
| Webmail client | Yes | uses Roundcube | Yes | Nextcloud mail | Yes | Uses Cypht | Usermin Webmail. |
| How does it deal with mail accounts? | Only 1 external account at a time | Only own accounts? | Multiple external accounts | ? | Multiple external accounts | Multiple external accounts (via Cypht) | Only own accounts? |
| Calendar | ? | Yes | ? | Nextcloud calendar | super basic | Tiki Calendar | No |
| Contacts | Yes | uses Roundcube | Yes | Yes? | Yes | Tiki Contacts | Yes |
| Manage Sieve | plugin? | Yes? | ? | ? | Yes | Via Cypht | No (uses Procmail instead) |
| Calendar invitations by email | ? | Yes | ? | Yes? | No | Yes | No |
| Uses Bootstrap | Yes | yes, via Roundcube | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Mail: Search throughout all folders | Yes | Yes, via Roundcube | Yes | ? | Missing | Missing (via Cypht) | ? |
Wishlists
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Features
- This Roundcube blog is great: https://kolabian.wordpress.com/