The following tables compare general and technical features of notable email client programs.
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 | TUI | ||
Apple Mail | Apple | macOS, iOS, watchOS | GUI (Cocoa) | ||
Balsa | Stuart Parmenter | Linux | GUI (GTK3) | ||
Becky! Internet Mail | Rimarts | Windows | GUI | ||
BlitzMail | Dartmouth College | GUI | |||
Canary Mail | Cartasec Pte. Ltd. | Cross-platform | GUI | ||
Citadel | citadel.org | Unix-like | Webmail | ||
Claws Mail | the Claws Mail team | Cross-platform | GUI (GTK2) | ||
Courier (formerly Calypso) | Micro Computer Systems, Inc., continued by Rose City Software | Windows | GUI | ||
Elm | Dave Taylor, Sydney Weinstein, Bill Pemberton, Michael Elkins, Kari Hurtta | Unix-like | [1] | TUI | |
eM Client | eM Client Inc. | Windows, macOS, Android, iOS | GUI | ||
EmailTray | Internet Promotion Agency S.A. | Windows, Android | GUI | ||
Eudora OSE | Qualcomm | Windows, macOS | GUI | ||
Evolution | The GNOME Project | Unix-like | GUI (GTK) | ||
FirstClass | Open Text | GUI | |||
Forté Agent | Mark Sidell | Windows | GUI | ||
Geary | The GNOME Project (formerly Yorba Foundation) | Unix-like | GUI (GTK) | ||
GNUMail | Ludovic Marcotte and others | Unix-like, macOS | GUI | ||
Gnus | Gnus team | Cross-platform | TUI and GUI | ||
GroupWise | Micro Focus (formerly Novell) | Cross-platform | GUI | ||
Hiri | Hiri | Cross-platform | GUI | ||
i.Scribe, InScribe | Memecode | Windows, macOS, Linux | GUI | ||
HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and IBM Lotus Notes) | HCL Technologies (formerly IBM and Lotus Software), HCL Technologies | Windows, macOS, Linux | GUI (Notes), Web (Verse, iNotes) and Mobile (Traveler) | ||
IMP | Horde LLC | Cross-platform | Webmail | ||
K-9 Mail | K-9 Dog Walkers: cketti, et al. | Android | GUI | ||
KMail | KDE | Cross-platform | GUI (Qt) | ||
Mail (Windows) | Microsoft | Windows | GUI | ||
Mailbird | Mailbird | Windows | GUI | ||
Mailpile | Mailpile | Windows, macOS, Linux | Webmail | ||
mailx | Unix-like | TUI | |||
Microsoft Entourage | Microsoft | macOS | GUI | ||
Microsoft Outlook | Microsoft | Windows, macOS | GUI | ||
Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | Mozilla Foundation | GUI (XUL) | |||
Mozilla Thunderbird | Mozilla Foundation | Cross-platform | GUI (XUL) | ||
Mulberry | Cyrus Daboo (formerly Cyrusoft International, Inc./ISAMET) | Cross-platform | GUI | ||
Mutt | Michael Elkins | Cross-platform | TUI (ncurses) | ||
Netscape Messenger | Netscape Communications | GUI | |||
Netscape Messenger 9 | Netscape Communications | GUI | |||
Nylas Mail | Nylas | Windows, macOS, Linux | GUI | ||
nmh / MH | RAND Corporation | Unix-like | CLI | ||
Opera Mail | Opera Software | Cross-platform | GUI | ||
Outlook Express | Microsoft | Windows | GUI | ||
Pegasus Mail | David Harris | Windows | GUI | ||
Pine | University of Washington | Cross-platform | [2] | TUI | |
Pocomail | Poco Systems | Windows | GUI | ||
RoundCube | The RoundCube Team | Cross-platform | Webmail | ||
Samsung Email | Samsung Electronics | Samsung, Android 8+ | Proprietary | GUI | |
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | SeaMonkey Council | Cross-platform | GUI (XUL) | ||
Spark | Readdle | macOS | GUI | ||
SquirrelMail | The SquirrelMail Project Team | Cross-platform | Webmail | ||
Superhuman | Rahul Vohra | Cross-platform | Webmail | ||
Sylpheed | Hiroyuki Yamamoto | Cross-platform | GUI (GTK2) | ||
The Bat! | RitLabs | Windows | GUI | ||
Trojitá | KDE | Cross-platform | GUI (Qt) | ||
Turnpike | Thus PLC (Demon Internet) | Windows | GUI | ||
Vivaldi | Vivaldi Technologies AS | Cross-platform | GUI (Chrome) | ||
Windows Live Mail | Microsoft | Windows | GUI | ||
Windows Mail (Vista) | Microsoft | Windows | GUI | ||
YAM | YAM Open Source Team and contributing authors | AmigaOS | GUI | ||
Zimbra Desktop | Zimbra | Cross-platform | GUI | ||
Client | Author/Developer | Operating system | Software license | User interface |
A brief digest of the release histories.
Client | First public Date | First public Version | First stable Date | First stable Version | data-sort-type="text" | Latest stable release |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alpine | 2006-11 | 0.8 | 2007 December | 1.00 | ||
Apple Mail | 2001-03-24 | ? | ? | ? | ||
Becky! Internet Mail | 1996 | 1 | ||||
Canary Mail | 15 June 2017 | 1.0 | 15 June 2017 | 1.0 | 4.01 (5th June, 2023) | |
Citadel | 1987 | 1988 | 1.00 | |||
Claws Mail | 2001-05 | 0.4.67 | 2005-01 | 1.0.0 | ||
Courier | 2004-06 | 3.5 | discontinued | discontinued | ||
Elm | 1986 | 1987-03 | 2 | |||
eM Client | 2007-11 | 1.0 | 2007-11 | 1.0 | ||
EmailTray | 2010-10 | 2.0 | 2011-03 | 3.11 | ||
Eudora | 1988[3] | 1988 | ||||
Evolution | 2000-05-11 | 0.0 | 2001-12-03 | 1.0 | ||
Forté Agent | ||||||
Geary | 2012 | 0.1 | 2012 | 0.1 | ||
Gnus | 1987[4] | 1988-02-01 | 2.0 | 2015-04-06 | ||
GroupWise | 1986 | 1.0 | ||||
Hiri | 2014-02 | 0.4 | 2016-06 | 1.0 | ||
i.Scribe / InScribe | 1999 | 1.00 | ||||
HCL Notes (formerly IBM Lotus Notes) | 1989 | 1.0 | 1989 | 1.0 | ||
IMP | 1998 | 1.0 | ||||
K-9 Mail | ||||||
KMail | 1998-10 | Alpha | 1999-02 | 1.0.17 | ||
Mailbird | 2013-04-01 | Public Beta | ||||
Mailpile | 2011-11 | [5] | [6] | [7] | ||
Microsoft Entourage | ||||||
Microsoft Office Outlook | 1997 | 97 | 1997 | 97 | ||
Mozilla Thunderbird | 2003-07-28 | 0.1 | 2004-12-07 | 1.0 | ||
Mulberry | 1996-09-20 | 1.0 | 1996-09-20 | 1.0 | ||
Mutt | 1995 | |||||
Netscape Messenger | ||||||
Netscape Messenger 9 | 2007-11-15 | 9.0a1 | discontinued | discontinued | 2007-11-15 | |
nmh / MH | 1979 | |||||
Opera Mail | 1996-09 | 2.1b1 | 1996-12 | 2.1 | ||
Outlook Express | 1996 | 3.0 | ||||
Pegasus Mail | 1990 | 1990 | ||||
Pine | 1992-01-15 | 2.00 | 1992-01-15 | 2.00 | ||
Pocomail | 1999 | |||||
RoundCube | 2006 | 0.1-rc1 | 2014-04-07 | 1.0.0 | ||
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | 2005-09-15 | 1.0a | 2006-01-30 | 1.0 | ||
SquirrelMail | 1999-12 | 0.1 | 2001-01 | 1.0 | ||
Sylpheed | 2000-01 | 0.1.0 | 2004-12 | 1.0.0 | ||
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 | ||
Vivaldi | 2015-11-03 | Beta 1 | 2022-06-09 | 1.0 | ||
Windows Live Mail | 2007-11-06 | 12 | 2007-11-06 | 12 | ||
Windows Mail | 2007-01-01 | |||||
YAM | 1995 | 1.0 | 1995 | 1.0 | ||
Zimbra | 2005-11 | Beta | 2006-03 | 3.5 | ||
The operating systems on which the clients can run natively (without emulation).
What email and related protocols and standards are supported by each client.
Client | Regular | MSN (NTLM)browser login | Compuserve(RPA) | MD5 APOP | CRAM-HMAC | DIGEST-MD5 | SCRAM | with hardware tokenPKCS#11 | Biometric | SMTP Auth | X.509 Client certificate | OAuth | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LOGIN | PLAIN | MD5 | SHA1 | RIPEMD | ||||||||||||
Alpine | ||||||||||||||||
Apple Mail | ||||||||||||||||
Becky! Internet Mail | ||||||||||||||||
Canary Mail | ||||||||||||||||
Citadel | ||||||||||||||||
Claws Mail | ||||||||||||||||
Courier | ||||||||||||||||
Elm | ||||||||||||||||
eM Client | ||||||||||||||||
EmailTray | ||||||||||||||||
Eudora | ||||||||||||||||
Evolution | ||||||||||||||||
Gnus | ||||||||||||||||
GroupWise | ||||||||||||||||
Hiri | ||||||||||||||||
i.Scribe / InScribe | ||||||||||||||||
IBM Lotus Notes | ||||||||||||||||
KMail | ||||||||||||||||
Mailpile | ||||||||||||||||
Microsoft Entourage | ||||||||||||||||
Microsoft Office Outlook | ||||||||||||||||
Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | ||||||||||||||||
Mozilla Thunderbird | [16] | |||||||||||||||
Mulberry | ||||||||||||||||
Mutt | ||||||||||||||||
Netscape Messenger | ||||||||||||||||
Netscape Messenger 9 | ||||||||||||||||
nmh / MH | ||||||||||||||||
Opera Mail | ||||||||||||||||
Outlook Express | ||||||||||||||||
Pegasus Mail | ||||||||||||||||
Pine | ||||||||||||||||
Pocomail | ||||||||||||||||
RoundCube | ||||||||||||||||
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | ||||||||||||||||
SquirrelMail | ||||||||||||||||
Sylpheed | ||||||||||||||||
The Bat! | ||||||||||||||||
Trojitá | ||||||||||||||||
Turnpike | ||||||||||||||||
Windows Live Mail | ||||||||||||||||
Windows Mail | ||||||||||||||||
YAM | ||||||||||||||||
Zimbra | ||||||||||||||||
Client | Regular | MSN (NTLM)browser login | Compuserve(RPA) | MD5 APOP | CRAM-HMAC | DIGEST-MD5 | SCRAM | with hardware tokenPKCS#11 | Biometric | SMTP Auth | SSL/TLS Client Certificate | OAUTH | ||||
LOGIN | PLAIN | MD5 | SHA1 | RIPEMD |
Client | Secure POP3 | Secure IMAP4 | Secure SMTP | Secure NNTP | Secure LDAP | SNI | OCSP | CRL | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SSL | TLS | SSL | TLS | SSL | TLS | SSL | TLS | SSL | TLS | |||||
Alpine | ||||||||||||||
Apple Mail | ||||||||||||||
Becky! Internet Mail | ||||||||||||||
Canary Mail | ||||||||||||||
Citadel | ||||||||||||||
Claws Mail | ||||||||||||||
Courier | ||||||||||||||
Elm | ||||||||||||||
eM Client | ||||||||||||||
EmailTray | ||||||||||||||
Eudora | ||||||||||||||
Evolution | ||||||||||||||
Gnus | ||||||||||||||
GroupWise | ||||||||||||||
Hiri | ||||||||||||||
i.Scribe / InScribe | ||||||||||||||
IBM Lotus Notes | ||||||||||||||
KMail | ||||||||||||||
Mailpile | ||||||||||||||
Microsoft Entourage | ||||||||||||||
Microsoft Office Outlook | ||||||||||||||
Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | ||||||||||||||
Mozilla Thunderbird | ||||||||||||||
Mulberry | ||||||||||||||
Mutt | ||||||||||||||
Netscape Messenger | ||||||||||||||
Netscape Messenger 9 | ||||||||||||||
nmh / MH | ||||||||||||||
Opera Mail | ||||||||||||||
Outlook Express | ||||||||||||||
Pegasus Mail | ||||||||||||||
Pine | ||||||||||||||
Pocomail | ||||||||||||||
RoundCube | ||||||||||||||
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | ||||||||||||||
SquirrelMail | ||||||||||||||
Sylpheed | ||||||||||||||
The Bat! | ||||||||||||||
Trojitá | (system) | (system) | ||||||||||||
Turnpike | ||||||||||||||
Windows Live Mail | ||||||||||||||
Windows Mail | ||||||||||||||
YAM | ||||||||||||||
Zimbra | ||||||||||||||
Client | Secure POP3 | Secure IMAP4 | Secure SMTP | Secure NNTP | Secure LDAP | SNI | OCSP | CRL | ||||||
SSL | TLS | SSL | TLS | SSL | TLS | SSL | TLS | SSL | TLS |
Information on what features each of the clients support.
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 | 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 | |||||||||||||||
Apple Mail | |||||||||||||||
Becky! Internet Mail | |||||||||||||||
Canary Mail | |||||||||||||||
Citadel | |||||||||||||||
Claws Mail | |||||||||||||||
Courier | |||||||||||||||
Elm | |||||||||||||||
eM Client | |||||||||||||||
EmailTray | |||||||||||||||
Eudora | |||||||||||||||
Evolution | |||||||||||||||
Gnus | |||||||||||||||
GroupWise | |||||||||||||||
Hiri | |||||||||||||||
i.Scribe / InScribe | |||||||||||||||
HCL Notes | (4.1.2+) | [17] | |||||||||||||
KMail | (with GPG) | (1.5+, with GPGME) | |||||||||||||
Mailbird | |||||||||||||||
Mailpile | |||||||||||||||
Microsoft Entourage | |||||||||||||||
Microsoft Office Outlook | (2010+)[18] | ||||||||||||||
Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | |||||||||||||||
Mozilla Thunderbird | |||||||||||||||
Mulberry | |||||||||||||||
Mutt | Yes (no support for images) | (with GPGME) | |||||||||||||
Netscape Messenger | |||||||||||||||
Netscape Messenger 9 | |||||||||||||||
nmh / MH | |||||||||||||||
Opera Mail | |||||||||||||||
Outlook Express | |||||||||||||||
Pegasus Mail | Yes (sending is broken) | ||||||||||||||
Pine | (with Pine Privacy Guard) | ||||||||||||||
Pocomail | |||||||||||||||
RoundCube | (depends on antivirus) | ||||||||||||||
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | |||||||||||||||
SquirrelMail | (depends on antivirus) | ||||||||||||||
Sylpheed | |||||||||||||||
The Bat! | |||||||||||||||
Trojitá | |||||||||||||||
Turnpike | |||||||||||||||
Windows Live Mail | |||||||||||||||
Windows Mail | |||||||||||||||
YAM | |||||||||||||||
Zimbra | (depends on antivirus) | ||||||||||||||
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 |
Client | Message file format | Encrypted database | Virtual folders | Scheduled backup | New mail notification | Customizable interface | Customizable keybindings | Fragmented messages | Database search with regular expressions support | Indexed search | Search folders | IMAP | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ticker | tray icon | tooltip | sound | Search | IDLE | |||||||||||||
Alpine | mbox, mbx, MIX, maildir (with patches), MMDF, tenex, mtx, MH, mx, news, phile | |||||||||||||||||
Becky! Internet Mail | mbox | |||||||||||||||||
Canary Mail | ||||||||||||||||||
Citadel | ||||||||||||||||||
Claws Mail | MH, mbox (plugin) | |||||||||||||||||
Courier | Proprietary | (weak) | (layout) | |||||||||||||||
Elm | ||||||||||||||||||
eM Client | Proprietary (sqlite) | |||||||||||||||||
EmailTray | Proprietary | |||||||||||||||||
Eudora | modified mbox | |||||||||||||||||
Evolution | maildir, mbox, MH | |||||||||||||||||
Gnus | babyl, maildir, mbox, MMDF, news, rnews, SOUP, outlook, oe-dbx | |||||||||||||||||
GroupWise | Proprietary | |||||||||||||||||
Hiri | Proprietary | |||||||||||||||||
IBM Notes | Proprietary | [21] | ||||||||||||||||
KMail | mbox, maildir | |||||||||||||||||
Mailbird | Proprietary | |||||||||||||||||
Mailpile | ||||||||||||||||||
Microsoft Entourage | Proprietary (Personal Storage Table) | |||||||||||||||||
Microsoft Office Outlook | Proprietary (Personal Storage Table) | |||||||||||||||||
Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | mbox | |||||||||||||||||
Mozilla Thunderbird | mbox, maildir | (as of 3.0) | ||||||||||||||||
Mulberry | ||||||||||||||||||
Mutt | mbox, MMDF, MH, maildir | (with compressed folders patch[22]) | (has limit command) | |||||||||||||||
Netscape Messenger | mbox | |||||||||||||||||
Netscape Messenger 9 | mbox | |||||||||||||||||
nmh / MH | MH | |||||||||||||||||
Opera Mail | mbox, MH, Proprietary | (all folders are virtual) | ||||||||||||||||
Outlook Express | Proprietary | |||||||||||||||||
Pegasus Mail | Proprietary (mbox-like) | [23] | ||||||||||||||||
Pine | mbox, mbx, MIX, maildir (with patches), MMDF, tenex, mtx, MH, mx, news, phile | |||||||||||||||||
Pocomail | mbox | |||||||||||||||||
RoundCube | [IMAP Server] | |||||||||||||||||
i.Scribe / InScribe | Proprietary (sqlite) | |||||||||||||||||
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | mbox | |||||||||||||||||
SquirrelMail | [IMAP Server] | |||||||||||||||||
Sylpheed | MH | |||||||||||||||||
The Bat! | Proprietary | Yes (AES 128 bit)(with Pro and Voyager version) | (PCRE 6.2) | |||||||||||||||
Trojitá | IMAP | |||||||||||||||||
Turnpike | Proprietary | |||||||||||||||||
Windows Live Mail | File System (.eml) | |||||||||||||||||
Windows Mail | ||||||||||||||||||
YAM | mbox, maildir, oe-dbx | |||||||||||||||||
Zimbra | File system | |||||||||||||||||
Client | Message file format | Encrypted database | Virtual folders | Scheduled backup | New mail notification | Customizable interface | Customizable keybindings | Fragmented messages | Database search with regular expressions support | Indexed search | Search folders | IMAP | ||||||
ticker | tray icon | tooltip | sound | Search | IDLE |
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 | any | ||||||||||||||
Becky! Internet Mail | any account folder | ||||||||||||||
Canary Mail | |||||||||||||||
Citadel | |||||||||||||||
Claws Mail | account folder | ||||||||||||||
Courier | |||||||||||||||
Elm | |||||||||||||||
eM Client | account | ||||||||||||||
Eudora | any | ||||||||||||||
Evolution | |||||||||||||||
Gnus | |||||||||||||||
GroupWise | |||||||||||||||
Hiri | any | ||||||||||||||
i.Scribe / InScribe | any | ||||||||||||||
IBM Notes | [24] | ||||||||||||||
KMail | none | ||||||||||||||
Mailpile | |||||||||||||||
Microsoft Entourage | |||||||||||||||
Microsoft Office Outlook | |||||||||||||||
Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups | |||||||||||||||
Mozilla Thunderbird | profile | ||||||||||||||
Mulberry | |||||||||||||||
Mutt | any | ||||||||||||||
Netscape Messenger | |||||||||||||||
Netscape Messenger 9 | |||||||||||||||
nmh / MH | |||||||||||||||
Opera Mail | |||||||||||||||
Outlook Express | |||||||||||||||
Pegasus Mail | |||||||||||||||
Pine | any | ||||||||||||||
Pocomail | |||||||||||||||
RoundCube | |||||||||||||||
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups | |||||||||||||||
SquirrelMail | |||||||||||||||
Sylpheed | |||||||||||||||
The Bat! | account folder address book group contact | ||||||||||||||
Turnpike | |||||||||||||||
Windows Live Mail | |||||||||||||||
Windows Mail | |||||||||||||||
YAM | |||||||||||||||
Zimbra | any | ||||||||||||||
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) |
The Bat! supports Email Address Internationalization (EAI).[25]
As of October 2016, email clients supporting SMTPUTF8 included Outlook 2016,[26] mail for iOS, and mail for Android.