Comparison of email clients
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The following tables compare general and technical features of notable standalone (offline) email client programs.
General
[edit]Basic general information about the clients: creator/company, O/S, license, and interface.
No longer in active development
| Client | Author/Developer | Operating system | Software license | User interface |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BlitzMail | Dartmouth College | Windows | BSD licenses | GUI |
| Elm | Internet Promotion Agency S.A. | Windows, Android | BSD licenses | 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 Lotus Notes) | HCL Technologies (formerly IBM and Lotus Development), 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 (now known as Thunderbird Mobile) | 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[1] | 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 |
- ↑ 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[2]  2 June 2022 | ||||||||||
| Apple Mail | 2001-03-24 | ? | ? | ? | () | ||||||||||
| Becky! Internet Mail | 1996 | 1 | ? | ? | 2.83.02[3] 31 March 2026 | ||||||||||
| Canary Mail | 2017-06-15 | 1.0 | 2017-06-15 | 1.0 | 4.01 (5 June 2023) | ||||||||||
| Citadel | 1987 | ? | 1988 | 1.00 | 997[4] 29 January 2024 | ||||||||||
| Claws Mail | 2001-05 | 0.4.67 | 2005-01 | 1.0.0 | 4.4.0[5] 9 March 2026 | ||||||||||
| Courier | 2004-06 | 3.5 | discontinued | discontinued | 3.5 (June 2004) [±] | ||||||||||
| Elm | 1986 | ? | 1987-03 | 2 | |||||||||||
| eM Client | 2007-11 | 1.0 | 2007-11 | 1.0 | 10.1.5131.0 (February 13, 2025) [±] | ||||||||||
| EmailTray | 2010-10 | 2.0 | 2011-03 | 3.11 | 4.0 (July 2, 2012) [±] | ||||||||||
| Eudora | 1988[6] | ? | 1988[6] | ? | 7.1 (Windows), 6.2.4 (Mac OS) (October 11, 2006) [±] | ||||||||||
| Evolution | 2000-05-11 | 0.0 | 2001-12-03 | 1.0 | 3.60.2[7] 22 May 2026 | ||||||||||
| Forté Agent | ? | ? | ? | ? | 8 (October 20, 2014) [±] | ||||||||||
| Geary | 2012 | 0.1 | 2012 | 0.1 | 46.0[8] 20 May 2024 | ||||||||||
| Gnus | 1987[9] | ? | 1988-02-01[9] | 2.0 | 2015-04-06 | ||||||||||
| GroupWise | ? | ? | 1986 | 1.0 | 18.4[10] 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[11] 7 December 2023 | ||||||||||
| IMP | ? | ? | 1998 | 1.0 | 6.2.27[12] 27 August 2020 | ||||||||||
| K-9 Mail | ? | ? | ? | ? | 20.0[13] 23 June 2026 | ||||||||||
| KMail | 1998-10 | Alpha | 1999-02 | 1.0.17 | 24.11.90[14] 27 November 2024 | ||||||||||
| Mailbird | 2013-04-01 | Public Beta | ? | ? | 2.9.29 (April 22, 2021) [±] | ||||||||||
| Mailpile | 2011-11 | [15] | [16] | [17] | 1.0.0rc6 (September 4, 2019[18]) [±] | ||||||||||
| 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 | 155.0[22] 1 September 2026 | ||||||||||
| Mulberry | 1996-09-20 | 1.0 | 1996-09-20 | 1.0 | 4.0.8 (February 21, 2007) |