Comparison of e-mail clients

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 1 General 2 Release history 3 Operating system support 4 Protocol Support 4.1 Authentication Support 4.2 SSL and TLS Support 5 Features 5.1 Messages features 5.2 Database, folders and customization 5.3 Templates, scripts and programming languages 6 List of e-mail clients 6.1 Graphical 6.2 Text-based 6.3 Web-based 6.4 Historical 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] General

Basic general information about the clients: creator/company, license/price etc.

e-mail program	Creator	Cost (USD)	Software license
Citadel	citadel.org	Free	GPL
Courier (formerly Calypso)	Micro Computer Systems, Inc., continued by Rose City Software	Free (as of version 3.5)	Proprietary
Insight(e mail client)	Arachne developper group	DOS ONLY	GNU GPL
Eudora	Qualcomm	Free (Light), Free (Pro, with ads), $20 (Pro)	Proprietary *Next release will be Penelope, free-open based on Mozilla Thunderbird
Gnus	Gnus team	Free	GPL
GroupWise	Novell	Included with GroupWise mailbox license	Proprietary
Lotus Notes	Lotus Software / IBM	online pricelist	Proprietary
KMail	KDE	Free	GPL
Mail	Apple Inc.	Part of Mac OS X	Proprietary
Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups	Mozilla Foundation	Free, part of Mozilla Application Suite	MPL, MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license
Mozilla Thunderbird	Mozilla Foundation	Free	MPL, MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license
Microsoft Office Outlook	Microsoft	Part of Microsoft Office, $109 stand-alone	Proprietary
Microsoft Entourage	Microsoft	Part 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	Free, Part of Opera	Proprietary
Outlook Express	Microsoft	Part of Microsoft Windows	Proprietary
Pegasus Mail	David Harris	Free	Proprietary
Pine	University of Washington	Free	Pine License
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/GPL/LGPL tri-license
Sylpheed	Hiroyuki Yamamoto	Free	GPL/LGPL
Claws Mail (formerly called Sylpheed-Claws)	Sylpheed Claws team	Free	GPL
The Bat!	RitLabs	$45	Proprietary
Windows Live Mail Desktop	Microsoft	Free Adware[1]	Proprietary
Windows Mail	Microsoft	Part of Microsoft Windows	Proprietary
Zimbra	Zimbra	Free	MPL + special attribution clause

[edit] 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	?	?
Eudora	1996[verification needed]	?	1988[verification needed]	?	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	?	?
Mail	?	?	?	?	June 27, 2006	2.1 (752/752.2)	?	?
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	1.5.0.10	January 23, 2007	2.0b2
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	12 March 2007	2.10.0	26 February 2007	2.9.92
Open-Xchange	?	?	?	?	April 2006	0.8.2	?	?
Opera Mail	September 1996	2.1b1	December 1996	2.1	December 15, 2006	9.10	?	?
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
Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws)	May 2001	0.4.67	January 2005	1.0.0	March 6, 2007	2.8.1	?	?
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	?	?	?	?	March 2007	4.5	?	?

[edit] Operating system support

The operating systems on which the clients can run natively (without emulation).

	Microsoft Windows	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD	Unix
Citadel	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Correo	No	Yes	No	No	No
Courier	Yes	No	No	No	No
INSIGTH	DOS ONLY	No	No	No	No
Eudora	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Gnus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lotus Notes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
KMail	via cygwin	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mail	No	Included	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)
Mozilla Thunderbird	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Office Outlook	Yes	No	No	No	No
Microsoft Entourage	No	Yes	No	No	No
Mulberry	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mutt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Netscape Messenger	Terminated (4.80)	Terminated (4.80)	Terminated (4.80)	Terminated (4.80)	Terminated (4.80)
Novell Evolution	Yes (alpha)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Opera Mail	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Outlook Express	Included (up to XP)	No	No	No	Yes (SPARC Solaris and RS6000 HP/UX)
Pegasus Mail	Yes	No	No	No	No
Pine	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
i.Scribe/InScribe	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sylpheed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
The Bat!	Yes	No	No	No	No
Windows Live Mail Desktop	Yes	No	No	No	No
Windows Mail	Included (Vista)	No	No	No	No
Zimbra	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

[edit] Protocol Support

What e-mail and related protocols and standards are supported by each client.

Client	POP3			IMAP4	SMTP	NNTP	LDAP		IMSP	ACAP	Feeds				iCalendar
	fetch all messages	selected by filter	selected by user				v2	v3			RSS 0.91	RSS 1.0	RSS 2.0	ATOM
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
Mail	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	?	?	?	?	No	No	No	No	No
Gnus	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes					Yes	Yes	Yes	No
KMail	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No †	Yes		?	?	No †	No †	No †	No †	No †
Lotus Notes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes †	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		?	?	Yes †	Yes †	Yes †	Yes †	Yes †
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
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)
TheBat!	Yes	Yes †	Yes †	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	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

• ↑  KDE supports Newsgroups (NNTP) by the use of KNode
• ↑  KDE supports feeds by the use of Akregator
• ↑  KDE supports iCal by the use of KOrganizer
• ↑  Studio Blog Reader is one RSS reader application for Lotus Notes.
• ↑  Support of feeds is available in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.
• ↑  Microsoft Outlook support of iCalendar varies by version.
• ↑  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.

[edit] Authentication Support

Client	Regular		MSN (NTLM) browser login	Compuserve (RPA)	MD5 APOP †	CRAM-HMAC †			DIGEST-MD5	with hardware token PKCS #11	Biometric	SMTP Auth †	SSL/TLS Client Certificate
	LOGIN	PLAIN				MD5	SHA1	RIPEMD
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
Mail	?	Yes	Yes†	?	?	Yes†	?	?	?	?	?	Yes
Gnus	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?	?	Yes	?
KMail	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
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	No
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
Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws)	Yes				Yes	No						Yes
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	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

• ↑  Description: RFC-2554
• ↑  Description: RFC-1734
• ↑  Description: RFC-2195
• ↑ 10.1.3 Apple adds SSL and CRAM-MD5 support to Mail
• ↑ Apple supports NTML v2 in Mail as of 10.4 release

[edit] SSL and TLS Support

Client	Secure POP3		Secure IMAP4		Secure SMTP		Secure NNTP		Secure LDAP		OCSP †	CRL †
	SSL	TLS †	SSL	TLS †	SSL	TLS †	SSL	TLS	SSL	TLS
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
Mail	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	No	No	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	Partial †	Yes	Partial †	Yes	Partial †	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
Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
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	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

• ↑  Description: RFC-2487
• ↑  Description: RFC-2595
• ↑  Opera Mail does not support STARTTLS command on special ports, like 995 for pop3 connection
• ↑  Online Certificate Status Protocol - Description: RFC-2560
• ↑  Certificate Revocation List - Description: RFC-3280

[edit] 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	Junk filtering		Thread view	PGP support	S/MIME support
				local	server-side			protocol	OCSP	CRL	certificates on tokens, smartcards support
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	Yes †	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes
KMail	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes (GPG)	Yes
Mail	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes (with the GPGMail-plugin	Yes
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	Yes †	Yes †
Mutt	Partial †	Yes	Yes (no support for images)	Yes		Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes (with GPGME)
Novell Evolution	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes	Yes
Opera Mail	Partial †	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	Partial †	Yes	Yes	No		Yes		Yes
i.Scribe / InScribe	Partial †	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)	Partial †	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes	Yes
The Bat!	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial †	Partial †	Yes †
Windows Live Mail Desktop	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Phishing filter also included)		Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Mail	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Zimbra	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	?	?
Client	HTML e-mail	UTF-8 support	Image blocking	Junk filtering		Thread view	PGP support	S/MIME support
				local	server-side			protocol	OCSP	CRL	certificates on tokens, smartcards support

• ↑  HTML handling is read-only (cannot compose HTML e-mails).
• ↑  First release 6.0 (September 2003), enhancements introduced in release 7.0 (August 2005)
• ↑  PGP/GPG and S/MIME support require a free (included) plugin.
• ↑  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.
• ↑  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.

[edit] Messages features

Client	Label Messages				Spell Checking	Signatures	Native images preview
	with Colors	with flag	antidelete	add note			jpeg	gif	bmp	png	others
Courier	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Citadel
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	Yes[specify]
Mail	Yes	Yes			Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[specify]
Mozilla Thunderbird	Yes	Yes			Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	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	Yes †	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, 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
Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws)	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes
The Bat!	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	ico, emf
Windows Live Mail Desktop	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Mail
Zimbra
Client	Label Messages				Spell Checking	Signatures	Native images preview
	with Colors	with flag	antidelete	add note			jpeg	gif	bmp	png	others

• ↑  Opera supports full integration with GNU Aspell, which is its requirement for spell checking.

[edit] Database, folders and customization

Client	Message file format	Encrypted database	Virtual folders	Scheduled backup	Ticker notification	Customizable interface	Customizable keybindings	Fragmented messages †	Database search with regular expressions support	Indexed search	Search folders †	IMAP search
Citadel
Courier	proprietary	Yes (weak)	Yes	Yes		Yes (layout)	No		No	No	Yes	n/a
Eudora	mbox	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes [specify]	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lotus Notes	proprietary	Yes[specify]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (called truncated document)	Yes [specify]	Yes	Yes
KMail		No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No			Yes
Mail	mbox		Yes							Yes (with Spotlight OSX 10.4)	Yes (Called "Smart Folders" OSX 10.4)
Mozilla Thunderbird	mbox		Yes					No		No	Yes	Yes
Mulberry	mbox †	†	†	†		Yes			Yes [specify]	†	No	Yes
Mutt	mbox, MMDF, 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	Yes †	Yes	No	?	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 (in beta)	Yes
Outlook Express	proprietary	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes		No
Pegasus Mail	proprietary
Pine	mbox
i.Scribe/InScribe		No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups	mbox											Yes
Sylpheed
Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws)		No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
The Bat!	proprietary	Yes (RC2 128 bit) (with Pro and Voyager version) †	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		?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Client	Message file format	Encrypted database	Virtual folders	Scheduled backup	Ticker notification	Customized interface	Customizable keybindings	Fragmented messages †	Database search with regular expressions support	Indexed search	Search folders †	IMAP search

• ↑  Mulberry is a dedicated IMAP client; If the IMAP server has these abilities, Mulberry can use them.
• ↑  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.
• ↑  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.
• ↑  Editable keybindings is part of GNOME, provided "Editable menu accelerators" is enabled in GNOME's "Menus & Toolbars" control applet.
• ↑  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
• ↑  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.

[edit] 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	print		PascalScript	JavaScript	VBScript	PHP Scripts	Python	Regular Expressions
Citadel
Eudora	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes				No	No	No	No	No
i.Scribe / InScribe	Yes	Yes	Yes	No				No	Yes	No	No	No	No
KMail	No	No	No	No	No	No	none	No	?	No	No	No	?
Lotus Notes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes				No	Yes	No	No	No
Mail
Mozilla Thunderbird
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
Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes				No	No	No	No	No
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	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?
Client	Message templates						Message templates individual for	Support in message templates scripts, programming languages
	new	reply	forward	read confirmation	save	print		PascalScript	JavaScript	VBScript	PHP Scripts	Python	Regular Expressions

[edit] List of e-mail clients

The following is a list of e-mail clients.

[edit] Graphical

• acme Mail - interface for upas
• Aethera
• Apple Mail
• Balsa
• Becky!
• Bloomba
• Citadel
• Claris Em@iler
• DreamMail
• Eudora
• Forté Agent
• FoxMail
• INSIGHT MAIL (ARACHNE BROWSER)
• IncrediMail
• i.Scribe/InScribe
• KMail
• Lotus Notes
• Opera M2
• Microsoft Entourage
• Microsoft Office Outlook
• Outlook Express
• Mail
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups
• Mulberry
• Netscape
• Novell Evolution
• Novell GroupWise
• Pegasus Mail
• SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups
• Sylpheed
• Claws Mail (formerly Sylpheed Claws)
• The Bat!
• Windows Live Mail Desktop
• YAM (Yet Another Mailer)
• Modest
• Tinymail

[edit] Text-based

• Cone^[2] – part of the Courier project
• Elm
• Elmo
• Gnus
• mailx – one of the traditional mail(1) implementations
• MH
• Mutt
• Pine
• Upas – e-mail filesystem for Plan 9 from Bell Labs

[edit] Web-based

• 24SevenOffice
• BlogMail
• Citadel
• edeskonline
• Horde IMP
• Hula project
• OpenWebmail
• RoundCube Webmail
• Skweezer Mail
• SquirrelMail
• Zimbra
• WebPine

[edit] Historical

• Calypso/Courier
• Cc:Mail
• Windows Messaging
• Microsoft Internet Mail and News
• Netscape Communicator

[edit] See also

• Unicode and e-mail
• List of personal information managers
• Comparison of layout engines

[edit] References

1. ^ Microsoft info Page on Windows Live Mail Desktop Accessed on February 3, 2007
2. ^ Cone: COnsole Newsreader and Emailer (2004-05-30).

[edit] External links

• UAlbany ITS: Email Services - Email Choices: Mail Client Comparison Summary Tables
• E-mail client comparison
• T&B : Email : Clients (of historical interest--last updated in 1999)
• imap.org's list of products supporting IMAP
• Remail - research by The Collaborative User Experience group at IBM