Mail User Agents (MUAs) for Linux

maintained by Rick Moen

Last changed: 2019-03-13
Entries: 122

Pointer-highlighted () entries are the most-popular (which of course doesn't necessarily signify merit). Note: For reviews, you'll have to look elsewhere. This page has summaries of feature sets, toolkit/language architectures, code maturity, and licensing -- with only brief comments.

I must also admit to being sloppy in two details, below: "SMTP" merely means the program either does SMTP itself or can invoke (variously) local SMTP agents or remote ones (smarthosts), and "OpenPGP" encompasses legacy PGP support. I am gradually correcting this imprecision.

MUAs (Mail User Agents), graphical, open source:

• Adora: http://www.sourcefiles.org/Internet/Mail/Clients/Tcl_Tk/, formerly at http://www.sover.net/~senecal/adora.html. Written in Tcl/Tk. Alpha release. Does SMTP, POP3, mbox. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2007.


• Aethera: http://sourceforge.net/projects/aethera/ Qt-based, written in C++. PIM (integrating with KOrganizer) and Personal Data Repository: e-mail, contacts, notes, tasks, TO-DOs, and journals. Does POP3, IMAP, SMS mail, SSL; supports multiple identities. Python-based scripting language. Plug-in interface: Optional proprietary Jabber and other plug-ins are available. Aethera is The Kompany's fork of Magellan. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2005.


• Aileron: http://ucsu.colorado.edu/%7Enwanua/Aileron/ (Internet Archive link) WINGs toolkit-based, written in C. Inspired by (and closely emulates) NeXTStep's Mail.app: Appearance/operation resembles Window Maker. Fairly light, small, and fast. Supports POP, IMAP, mh. Formerly named "Aeleron". Maintainer suggests using GNUMail.app instead of Aileron, since GNUStep is now sufficiently mature (rendering WINGs obsolescent). GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2002.


• Althea: http://althea.sourceforge.net/ GTK+-based, written in C++. Designed to fill the perceived need for a stable, feature-rich IMAP client similar to Eudora, Outlook, and Mulberry. Supports IMAP, SSL, XML-based configuration file. Beta release. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2002.


• AMC: http://faceprint.com/~axion/ (Internet Archive link) GTK+-based, written in C++. Calls external POP3. Supports IMAP, SMTP, OpenPGP software. Pre-alpha release. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 1999.


• Arrow: https://sourceforge.net/projects/arrow/ Was formerly a gratis-usage, Linux-i386 proprietary binary published at http://www.newplanetsoftware.com/arrow/ . Coded in C++ and based on proprietary JX Application Framework. Supports mbox and POP3. Displays each mailbox and message in a separate window. GNU GPLv2. a/o 2015, latest is from 2010.


• Balsa: http://pawsa.fedorapeople.org/balsa/ GTK+-based, written in C. Design is similar to Eudora's. Highly configurable, fast, light. Multiple character sets for reading/editing, spelling checker. Optional multi-threaded mail retrieval. Address book integrates with GnomeCard. Requires libESMTP, bonobo, GNOME libs. Supports POP3, IMAP (CRAM-MD5 and Kerberos/GSS), internal SMTP or local MTA, LDAP, SSL, GNOME features, mh, mbox, Maildir, nested mailboxes. Program uses a library version of the Mutt mailer as its "engine". If this list's maintainer were to switch to a graphical mailer, Balsa would be his pick. GNU GPL. a/o 2016, latest is from 2015.


• Chandler: Site http://www.osafoundation.org/ vanished. GTK+/wxWidgets-based, written in Python. Mitch Kapor's PIM. Does scheduling, Jabber instant messaging, RSS feeds, contact-management, with much additional functionality yet to be coded. Pre-alpha release. GNU GPL. Codebase vanished when Open Source Application Foundation folded.


• Claws Mail: http://www.claws-mail.org/ GTK+-based, written in C. Forked from Sylpheed, and originally characterised as "Sylpheed-Claws", a development release of Sylpheed. Small, fast, light. Appearance and user interface are a cross between Outlook Express and emacs (keybindings, all commands being keyboard-accessible). Supports POP3, POP before SMTP, APOP, IMAP4rev1, IMAP over SSH, IMAP CAPABILITY, mh, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, NNTP, SSL/TLS, full OpenPGP support, external editors, filtering, muliple identities. Good multilanguage and character set support. GNU GPL. a/o 2016, latest is from 2016.


• CMC Mail Client: http://www.swi.com.br/~chaos/cmc/ (Internet Archive link) GTK+-based, written in Perl. Supports mbox: Intended to invoke fetchmail as an external mail-delivery agent, and SMTP via local MTA. Formerly named Chaos Mail Checker. Pre-alpha. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2001.


• Columba: http://sourceforge.net/projects/columba/ Java/AWT source and bytecode. Requires Sun JRE 1.3 or above (or compatible). Supports POP3, IMAP, mbox, SMTP, multiple accounts, filters, vFolders, multilanguage code, GNOME features. XML-based configuration file. Beta release. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2007.


• Cronos II: http://sourceforge.net/projects/cronosii/ GTK+-based, written in C. Fast, light-weight, very configurable. Requires GNOME libs. Supports POP3, APOP, SMTP, multiple accounts/mailboxes, filters, GNOME features, plug-ins. Stores mail in its own database. Provides network-usage monitor. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2002.


• CSCMail (CyberSpace Cowboy Mail): /http://www.cscmail.net/index2.shtml/ (Internet Archive link) GTK+-based, written in Perl and C. Does colour-highlighting of nested quotations. Supports POP3, mbox, Maildir, filters, multiple accounts, OpenPGP. Project is apparently dead: Former Web site at www.cscmail.net is gone. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2001.


• EC: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/mail/mua/ and http://sourceforge.net/projects/ecmail/ Perl/Tk-based, written in Perl. Supports POP3, filters. SMTP via smarthost. Perl Artistic Licence. Unmaintained since 2002.


• Eucalyptus: http://sourceforge.net/projects/eucalyptus/ GTK+-based, written in C. Being rewritten from the BeOS original; stresses support for multimedia file types and full MIME support. Supports POP3, SMTP, unlimited folders, addresses, filters. Can use internal or external viewer apps. Can use multiple POP servers. Requires GNOME libs. Address book integrates with GnomeCard. Alpha release. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2000.


• Eudora OSE (Open Source Edition) (formerly Penelope, formerly Eudora): http://wiki.mozilla.org/Eudora_OSE The new codebase for Qualcomm's Eudora, which starting with Eudora 8.0 is a rewrite from scratch of the Eudora user interface as 100% open source XUL extensions to Mozilla Thunderbird. Technically, Eudora OSE will be the extensions to Thunderbird, and the composite package will still be called Eudora. Thunderbird itself is Mozilla XPToolkit-based, written in C++. Supports POP3, IMAP, SMTP, NNTP, LDAP, SSL/TLS, OpenPGP, S/MIME, filters, multiple identities, Bayesian spam filters. Beta code as of 2009. MPL. a/o around 2010, Qualcomm ceased developing it, and it worked only with an old version of Thunderbird -- but extensions remain available for Thunderbird that closely emulate Eudora.


• Evolution (formerly Ximian Evolution): https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evolution GTK+-based. PIM similar in many respects to Microsoft Outlook: e-mail, calendar, and address book. Requires bonobo, GNOME libs, many other libs. Supports POP3, IMAP, SMTP, mbox, mh, Maildir, Outlook Express mailbox format, OpenPGP, SSL/SASL/TLS, multiple identities, filters, vfolders, PalmOS conduits. As of 2003-03, still doesn't add Mail-Followup-To header, and doesn't handle Reply-To correctly. With proprietary Ximian Connector add-on, can be a client to Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 servers that have Outlook Web Access enabled. Was developed by Ximian, Inc., formerly Helixcode, Inc. GNU GPL. a/o 2016, latest is from 2015.


• flap: http://flap.sourceforge.net/ Java source or bytecode. Requires Sun JRE 1.4 or above, or equivalent. Supports IMAP, filters. Full-featured macro language (using BeanShell). XML-based configuration file. Alpha release. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2002.


• fruMailer: http://frumailer.sourceforge.net/ Versions for Perl and for Java/Swing. Toolbar-and-windows user interface layout is modeled after The GIMP's. Perl version is beta release; Java version is pre-alpha release. Perl Artistic Licence. Unmaintained since 2002.


• Gaml: http://forge.ocamlcore.org/projects/gaml/ Written in OCaml. Provides a local command-line interface to a GMail account, working over IMAP commands, and supporting search and folder functionality. Beta code. BSD Licensed. Unmaintained since 2010.


• Geary: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Geary GTK+-3.0/glib2/libgee06/gio/gmime/libcanberra/libnotify/webkitgtk-3.0/unique-3.0/gnome-keyring-1/gthread/intltool/SQLite3/gobject-introspection-based, written in Vala, which is based on WebKitGTK+. Caches mail and text-search metadata in SQLite, provides its own fully asynchronous IMAP client library, Includes integration for Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and similar sites. WYSIWYG editor, threaded/converation views, (GNOME) desktop notification, support for multiple accounts, offline mode, generic support for popular IMAP servers including Dovecot. Developed by Yorba Foundation. Supports IMAP, SMTP. GNU LGPL 2.1. a/o 2016, latest is from 2015. (Since 2015, there's been a separate fork named Pantheon Mail, created by the Elementary OS community. For now, I'm not creating a separate entry for that fork.)


• Gmail: http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/926285/com/gmail-0.6.0-5.i386.rpm.html GTK+-based, written in C. Experimental SQL-based vfolder mailer, using MySQL, with caching. vfolders are SQL queries. Requires GNOME libraries. Supports POP3, SMTP, GNOME addressbook. Beta release (no longer maintained). GNU GPL.


• GNUMail.app: http://www.collaboration-world.com/gnumail/(Internet Archive link). GNUStep-based, written in Objective-C. Reimplementation of NeXTStep's Mail.app. Uses Pantomime Objective-C classes for mail-handling. Cross-platform, in that it can be alternatively compiled on Mac OS X using the Apple Cocoa (formerly NeXTStep) libs. Supports POP3, APOP, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, IMAP, mbox, OpenPGP, SSL, external calls to SpamAssassin and similar filters. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2007.


• Grendel: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Grendel/ Java/AWT-based rewrite of Netscape Mail/News. Requires Sun JRE 1.2 or later, or equivalent, and Sun Javamail class library, JavaBeans Activation Framework, Java XML classes. Requires the NPLed Mozilla Java SDK, and the Apache-licensed ORO Matcher regex engine. Supports POP3, IMAP, SMTP, mbox, LDAP, filters. Code is functional near beta level, but must be checked out of CVS. Mozilla Foundation cancelled the project after 3 years of development, but outside coders then took it over. MPL. Unmaintained since 2005.


• gtkmail: http://gtkmail.sourceforge.net/ GTK+/gtkmm/gnomemm-based, written in C++. Supports POP3, OpenPGP, SSL. Requires OpenSSL and the gdk-pixbuf and libsigc++ libraries. XML-based configuration file. GNU GPL.


• ICEMail: http://www.icemail.org (Internet Archive link) http://www.trustice.com/java/icemail/ Java/Swing source and bytecode, using Sun Javamail class libraries. Supports POP3, IMAP, SMTP, mbox, mh. Requires Sun JRE 1.2 or later, or equivalent, and several other proprietary libraries. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2003.


• Infusion Communications Client: http://www.shadowcom.net/Software/infusion/ Qt-based, written in C++. Client for the Citadel/UX Communications Server BBS/groupware system, though SMTP/POP3/IMAP/LDAP will also be added. Design and user interface resemble MS-Outlook. Beta release. BSD-type licence, GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2001.


• Ishmail: http://ishmail.sourceforge.net/ Motif/Lesstif-based, written in C++. Very polished. Supports IMAP, POP3, OpenPGP, mbox, mh, MMDF, external editors, regex searching/filtering, multiple identities. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2001.


• JMail: http://www.ultim8team.com/~nono/ (Internet Archive link) Java source and bytecode. Supports POP3, SMTP, LDAP. XML-based configuration files. Requires Sun JRE 1.4 or later, or equivalent, and Sun Javamail class library and Java Application Framework Java bean. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2004.


• Kiltdown: http://kiltdown.sourceforge.net/ Qt-based, written in C++. Supports POP3, mbox, and SMTP (IMAP soon). Beta release. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2001.


• KMail: http://userbase.kde.org/KMail Qt-based, written in C++. Requires kdelibs, procmail. Supports POP3 (with various authentication mechanisms including CRAM-MD5 and DIGEST-MD5), APOP, IMAP, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, SSL/TLS, mbox, Maildir, OpenPGP, filters, multiple identities. GNU GPL.


• Liamail: http://sourceforge.net/projects/liamail/ Qt-based, written in C++. Supports POP3, SMTP. Pre-alpha release. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2002.


• Magellan: Was at http://sourceforge.net/projects/magellan/, but that is now an unrelated database codebase. Qt-based, written in C++. PIM for KDE2 from Kalliance (which developer group is now defunct). Scheduling, e-mail, SMS. Project reached pre-alpha "milestone 1" and has been unmaintained since. See also "Aethera" for The Kompany's successor codebase. The KDE Project itself went with the Kolab PIM in 2002, then later Kontact. GNU GPL. Gone since around 2000.


• Mahogany: http://mahogany.sourceforge.net/ GTK+/wxWidgets-based, written in C++ and Python. Supports POP3, IMAP, mbox, mh, NNTP, PalmOS conduits, external editors, filters, incoming fax files. Extensible via Python. Beta release. GNU GPL. a/o 2016, latest is from 2012.


• Mail Harvester: http://harvester.sourceforge.net/ GTK+/GTK-Perl-based, written in Perl. Supports POP3, SMTP. Requires several Perl modules from CPAN. GNU GPL. No release versions have yet appeared a/o 2016.


• Mailliam: http://www.mailliam.org/ (Internet Archive link) Qt-based, written in C++. Will support POP3 and IMAP. Pre-alpha: No releases, yet, other than CVS. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2002.


• Mama Mua: http://www.lundqvist-zone.com/mamamua/ Tkinter-based, written in Python. Supports IMAP, SMTP, OpenPGP. Requires Pmw (Python megawidgets). Free-usage licence. Unmaintained since 2002.


• ML: http://smi-web.stanford.edu/projects/imap/ml/ (Internet Archive link) and http://ftp.rge.com/pub/mail/ml/ (Internet Archive link) Motif-based, written in C. Supports POP3, IMAP, NNTP, mbox, local MTA. BSD-like licence. Ancient and unmaintained since 1996.


• MMC (My Mail Client): http://mmc.sourceforge.net/ GTK+-based, written in C++. Supports POP3, IMAP, SMTP. Beta release. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2001.


• Mulberry: http://www.mulberrymail.com/ Supports POP3, IMAP4, IMAP2bis, mbox, SMTP, OpenPGP, SSL. Formerly from ISAMET, Inc., formerly Cyrusoft International, Inc., but bought back by author Cyrus Daboo, when that firm folded, and taken open source. Unmaintained since 2007.


• Oberon Mail: http://ssw.jku.at/Teaching/Projects/OberonMail/ Written in (and provided with Linz V4 Oberon. Supports SMTP, POP3. Hook for mail filters. Oberon License (BSD-ish). Unmaintained since 2000.


• Paranoy: http://paranox.sourceforge.net/ GTK+-based, written in C. Design goal is to make maximal use of encryption. Fast, light. There's also an ncurses version. Supports POP3, SMTP, SSL, OpenPGP, encrypted mailboxes and other files, multiple identities. Beta release. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2005.


• PMC (Perl/Gtk+ Mail Client): http://www.irs-net.com/ (Internet Archive link) GTK+-based, written in Perl. Supports POP3, SMTP, filters, multiple identities, OpenPGP. Stores mail and configuration in MySQL. Seems to be discontinued. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2001.


• Polarbar Mailer: http://www.polarbar.net/ Java source and bytecode. Requires Sun JRE 1.1 or later, or equivalent. Supports POP3, IMAP4, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, filters, OpenPGP, LDAP. Formerly named J Street Mailer. Free-usage licence. Unmaintained since 2003.


• Postilion: http://sourceforge.net/projects/postilion/ Written in Tk/Tcl. Forked from TkRat, but omits TkRat's multilanguage support, and was developed to more resemble NeXTStep's Mail.app. Full-featured and highly configurable. Supports POP3, IMAP, mh, OpenPGP. Beta release. GNU GPL, 3-clause BSD, and OpenContent licences. Unmaintained since 2000.


• Post Office: FLTK-based, written in C++. Web site www.tarball.net/postoffice/ has vanished, but maybe someone can find a replacement site or mirror. Meanwhile, I offer substitute download URL http://linuxmafia.com/pub/linux/apps/postoffice/. Author is Pim van Riezen, pi@vuurwerk.nl (but that mailbox is no longer valid: pi@madscience.nl is probably current). Supports POP3, IMAP4, NNTP. Small, fast. Uses GDBM database or similar. Compilation requires FLTK library source code (reported successful with FLTK v. 1.3.2), FLTK Editor Widget, and Fl_ToggleTree. The latter is included in the Post Office tarball. GNU LGPL. Unmaintained since 2003.


• Pronto!: http://muhri.net/pronto/ GTK+-based, written in Perl (forked from CSCMail when the latter recoded to C). Supports POP3, APOP, mbox, Maildir, SMTP, vFolders (MySQL), multiple identities, OpenPGP, themes. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2002.


• Pygmy: http://pygmy.sourceforge.net/ GTK+-based, written in Python. Supports POP3, IMAP, SMTP, OpenPGP, multiple identities, external editors. Requires GNOME libs and gnome-python. Beta release. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2002.


• Pyne: http://archive.debian.org/debian/pool/main/p/pyne/ Author's pages at http://www.moretom.net/pyne/ are vanished. GTK+-based, written in Python. Supports POP3, IMAP4, mbox, mh, SMTP, NNTP, filtering, news and mail expiry, full news threading. Requires python-gtk. Beta release. Unmaintained since 2002, although there is a fork for Maemo. GNU GPL.


• Sandmail: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/mail/mua/ GTK+-based, written in C. Supports POP3, SMTP. Alpha release, old, unmaintained since 1998. GNU GPL.


• SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups (formerly Mozilla Mail/News): http://www.seamonkey-project.org/ Mozilla XPToolkit-based, written in C++. Built atop Mozilla browser code. Supports POP3, IMAP, SMTP, NNTP, LDAP, SSL/TLS, OpenPGP, S/MIME, filters, multiple identities, Bayesian spam filters. MPL. a/o 2016, latest is from 2015.


• SoapyMailer: http://www.mtsystems.ch/SoapyMailer/ (Internet Archive link) GTK+/wxPerl/wxGTK-based, written in 4500 lines of Perl. Supports POP3, SMTP, multiple identities. Requires CPAN module DateManip. Beta release. GNU GPL. Orphaned and unmaintained since 2013, when it dropped off the Internet.


• Soma (Stefan's Own Mail App): http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/mail/mua/ XView toolkit-based, written in C. Supports mbox, SMTP. GNU GPL. Beta release, old, unmaintained since 1996.


• Spruce: http://spruce.sourceforge.net/ GTK+-based, written in C. Supports POP3, IMAP, mbox, external mail utilities, OpenPGP, filters. Small, fast. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2002.


• SQmail: http://cowlark.com/sqmail/ GTK+/pygtk-based, written in Python. Supports POP3, SMTP, vFolders, single-click reporting to Spamcop. Requires gnome-python and the mail-lock and mail-unlock utilities. Stores messages and other data in MySQL. GNU GPL. Alpha release, unmaintained since 2000.


• Stuphead: ftp://ftp.connect.org.uk/hpux/Networking/Mail/stuphead-0.5.3/ http://stuphead.asplinux.ru/stuphead/ (Internet Archive link) GTK+-based, written in C. Small, fast. Supports POP3, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, NNTP, NNTP AUTH. Good multilanguage and character set support, but primarily of interest to Russian language speakers, as much of the docs are in Russian. Forked from the Sylpheed project. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2001.


• Sylpheed: http://sylpheed.sraoss.jp/en/ GTK+-based, written in C. Small, fast, light. Appearance and user interface are a cross between Outlook Express and emacs (keybindings, all commands being keyboard-accessible). Supports POP3, APOP, IMAP4rev1, mh, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, NNTP, SSL/TLS, OpenPGP, external editors, filtering, muliple identities. Good multilanguage and character set support. GNU GPL. a/o 2016, latest is from 2016.


• Teak: http://teak.sourceforge.net/ GTK+/php-gtk-based, written in PHP. Supports IMAP, SMTP, LDAP, multiple identities. GNU GPL. Alpha release, unmaintained since 2002.


• Thunderbird: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Home_Page A rewrite of Mozilla Mail/News, as a standalone MUA. Mozilla XPToolkit-based, written in C++. Formerly named Minotaur. Supports POP3, IMAP, SMTP, NNTP, LDAP, SSL/TLS, OpenPGP, S/MIME, filters, multiple identities, Bayesian spam filters. MPL. a/o 2016, latest is from 2016.


• tkmr: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/mail/mua/ Tcl/Tk-based, written in Tck/Tk and C. Read-only mail browser only. Free-usage licence. Very old, unmaintained since 1995.


• TkRat: http://www.tkrat.org/ Tcl/Tk-based, written in Tcl/Tk and C. Supports POP3, APOP, IMAP, mbox, mh, filters / event notifiers / virtual folders, OpenPGP, multilanguage code. Formerly named Ratatosk. Free-usage licence. Unmaintained since 2006.


• TradeClient: http://tradeclient.sourceforge.net/ GTK+-based, written in C. Supports POP3, IMAP, mbox, SMTP, LDAP, filters, multiple identities. Includes calendar/PIM. GNU LGPL. Unmaintained since 2001.


• Trojitá: http://trojita.flaska.net/ Qt5-based, written in C++. Supports IMAP, Offline IMAP, OpenPGP and S/MIME, IMAP over SSH, SMTP. Dependencies are Qt Framework 5.2 or above, CMake 2.8.11 or above. Optional: zlib, ragel, QtKeychain, GpgME++, Mimetic. GNU LGPLv2 or later, BSD, GNU GPLv2 or later, GPLv2 or GPLv3 with provisions for KDE e.V. to relicense.


• XCmail: http://www.js-home.org/XCmail/ Xclasses-based, written in C++. Supports POP3, mbox, SMTP, filters/vfolders, OpenPGP, multiple identities. GNU GPL. a/o 2016, latest is from 2015.


• XFMail: http://sourceforge.net/projects/archimedes/XForms-based, written in C++ and C. supports POP3, IMAP, mbox, mh, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, LDAP, OpenPGP, filters, external editors. Misfeatures: setting X-Priority header on sent mail, failing to override Reply-To address when forwarding. XFMail will eventually re-emerge as Archimedes (GTK+). GNU GPL and LGPL. Unmaintained since 2001.


• xmail: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications and http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/mail/mua/ X toolkit-based, written in C. Supports mbox, SMTP. Simple X11 front-end to the system "mail" primitive. BSD-like licence with advertising clause. Very old, unmaintained since 1995.


• xmh, exmh: http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book// Tcl/Tk-based (exmh) or X toolkit-based (xmh), written in C and Tcl/Tk. Supports mh, SMTP, NNTP, LDAP, OpenPGP. Simple X11 front-ends to MH (RAND Message System). See also MH entry under MUAs, console, open source. BSD-like licence.


• xP: http://xpine.sourceforge.net/ XClass95-based, written in C and C++. Independent X11 front-end to Pine. Requires Pine, which is proprietary. GNU GPL and GNU LGPL. Unmaintained since 2001.


• YAMM (Yet Another Mail Manager): http://www.gjt.org/~fredde/yamm/ (Internet Archive link) Java/AWT source and bytecode. Requires Sun JRE 1.3 or above (or compatible). Supports POP3, SMTP, multiple identities. GNU GPL. Unmaintained since 2003.


• YPMail.app: http://www.blackraven.cx/ (Internet Archive link) http://www.sourcefiles.org/Internet/Mail/Clients/Other_X11/ WINGs toolkit-based, written in C. Inspired by NeXTStep's Mail.app: Appearance/operation resembles Window Maker. Small, fast. Supports POP, IMAP, mh. Requires U. of W. IMAP C-client library. Supports mbox, SMTP. GNU GPL. Beta release, unmaintained since 2000.


• Z-Mail: https://code.google.com/archive/p/zmail-2009/ Works using either text/tty or curses or Motif/Lesstif, written in C. Implemented as a wrapper for the open-source mush MUA. Supports scripting using a csh-like scripting language. Supports POP3, SMTP, mbox. Was originally proprietary code from from NetManage, Inc., which permitted author Dan Heller to re-release it. Apache Public License 2.0. a/o 2016, latest code commit was from 2012.

MUAs (Mail User Agents), graphical, proprietary:

• Applixware Office, formerly Anyware Mail Client: http://www.vistasource.com/page.php?id=86 Part of Applixware Office, formerly Anyware Office, formerly Applixware. From VistaSource, Inc. Discontinued after 2004.


• ayuMail: http://www.buildhigh.com/ayuMail/ayu_mail.php4 Java bytecode. Supports POP3, SMTP. Requires Sun JRE 1.3 or later, or equivalent. Proprietary by default for lack of any licence statement. Unmaintained since 2005.


• DART Mail: http://www.netaccent.com/ Java/Swing(?) bytecode. Supports IMAP, POP3, SMTP. From NetAccent, Inc. Discontinued in 1999.


• ENIP (E-mail Not In Pine): http://ungerware.dhs.org/~rich/enip/ Java/Swing bytecode using Sun Javamail class libraries, runnable either as a Web browser applet or as a client-side standalone interpreted app. Supports POP3, IMAP, SMTP, mbox. Uses Pine-format address book. Requires Sun Java2 (i.e., v1.2) JRE or equivalent. Gratis-usage binary. Unmaintained since 2005.


• Execmail: Gone from http://www.isode.com/ and http://www.esys.ca/ . From MessagingDirect Ltd., formerly Isode, formerly Execmail, Inc., formerly "Simeon" from Esys Corporation. Discontinued in 2000.


• jamail (Just Another e-Mail program): http://www.buildhigh.com/jamail.php4 Written in Java and in Kylix (two versions). Supports POP3, IMAP, filters. Gratis-usage Linux-x86 binary. Unmaintained since 2002.


• JM_MailtTool: http://home.t-online.de/home/mainzer/ Motif-based. Supports POP, SMTP, OpenPGP. Gratis non-commercial usage. Unmaintained since 1999.


• Linux Office Suite 99 Mail Client: www.netzwerk-database.de/Linux-Office-Suite-99-CD-15830.html Mail client component of ApplixWare, OEMed by SuSE GmbH. Discontinued in 2003.


• Mumail: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/mail/mua/ FWF toolkit-based. Supports mbox, SMTP. Proprietary available-source licence. Beta release. Unmaintained since 1994.


• Netscape Mail: http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/ Part of Netscape Communicator. From Netscape Communications Corporation. Discontinued in 1998.


• Nexor Defender for Motif: http://www.nexor.com/client_products.asp#defm Motif-based. Aimed primarily at the military/intelligence market. User interface resembles Outlook Express. Supports IMAP, SMTP, LDAP, numerous government-standard encryption frameworks. Literature doesn't clarify whether the product is binary-only or supplied in source code form: It just says "Unix workstations" and "Motif/CDE". From Nexor, Ltd. Discontiued in 2005.


• PMMail: http://www.pmmail2000.com/ Release for Linux was promised around year 2000, but seems to have never shipped, and vanished without a trace. PMMail was an MUA for MS-Windows and OS/2.


• PonyEspresso: http://www.i-planet.com/ Java/Swing(?)-based. Supports IMAP4, SMTP, SSL. From i-Planet, Inc. Discontinued around 1997.


• Samsung Contact Client: http://samsungcontact.com/ Part of Samsung's complete corporate mail system, "Contact", which was formerly HP's OpenMail. Vanished soon after introduction in 2002.


• Scribe: http://www.memecode.com/scribe.php Written in C++. Supports POP3, IMAP, SMTP. Gratis-usage Linux-x86 binary.


• spaces: http://www.dynamicobjects.com/ Java bytecode. PIM. Supports POP3, IMAP4, mbox, SMTP, SSL, filters, Alpha release, multilanguage code. Requires Sun JRE 1.4 or above, or equivalent, and the Sun Javamail class library. Unmaintained since 2003.


• Star Office Mailer: http://wwws.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/ Part of Sun Microsystems, Inc.'s Star Office. This MUA module was discontinued after v. 5.2 in 2000.


• TkMail: http://www.slac.stanford.edu/~raines/tkmail.html and ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/tcl/harbor/code/. Tcl/Tk-based, written in Tcl/Tk, C, and Perl. Supports mbox, SMTP. Gratis non-commercial usage. Very old, unmaintained since 1994.


• UMT (Ultimate Mail Tool): http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/mail/mua/ InterViews-based, written in C++. Supports POP3, SMTP, filters, multilanguage code. Gratis-usage Linux-x86 binary, of which the latest I've found self-deactivated as of 1996-06-30 for lack of a new "key". Old, unmaintained since 1996 and probably unusable.


• ZOË: http://guests.evectors.it/zoe/ Java source and bytecode. Offers unique design: local Web/POP3/SMTP servers, search/indexing engine for your mail. Intended to be used primarily as a proxy and search/navigation adjunct to another MUA. Supports POP, IMAP, SMTP, SSL. Gratis non-commercial usage. Discontinued after v. 0.6.3 in 2005.

MUAs, console, open source:

• af: http://www.thing.demon.co.uk/af/ Ncurses-based, written in C. Operation and user interface are emacs-like, by default, but are very configurable. (Emulations of ELM, mush, Pine, ream, and VM are included.) Extensive macro language. Supports POP3, SMTP via local MTA. A bit old and sparse. GNU GPL.


• Alpine: http://www.washington.edu/alpine/ Ncurses-based, written in C. Compilation depends on UW IMAP Toolkit, GNU gettexst, autotools. Supports POP3, IMAP4, SSL, mbox, Maildir, SMTP (integrated stub MTA or local MTA), LDAPv3, NNTP. Successor to the highly popular Pine mailer (name standing for Apache Licensed PINE), and includes Pine's pico text editor and Pilot file-picker module. Apache Public License v. 2.0.


• BlitzMail clients (Textblitz and Snail): http://www.dartmouth.edu/pages/softdev/blitz.html Generic terminal and ncurses-based, respectively, written in C. Clients for Dartmouth U.'s BlitzMail e-mail system. Supports BlitzMail protocol, only. 3-clause BSD licence.


• Civil War: http://sourceforge.net/projects/cwar/ Perl script. Supports POP3, SMTP. Beta release. GNU GPL.


• Cone (COnsole Newsreader and Emailer): http://www.courier-mta.org/cone/ Written in C++. Supports mbox, POP3, IMAP, NNTP. Beta release. GNU GPL.


• ELM (ELectronic Mail): http://www.instinct.org/elm/ Written in C. Obsolecent: See ELM ME+. Supports mbox, SMTP. Free-usage licence.


• ELM ME+: http://www.ozone.fmi.fi/KEH/ Written in C. Supports mbox, SMTP -- and adds full MIME, SSL, anonymous remailer, remailer chaining, delivery-status notification, and PGP/OpenPGP support to the original. Free-usage licence.


• elmo (ELectronic Mail Operator): http://elmo.sourceforge.net/ POP3, internal SMTP support, SMTP AUTH, Bayesian spam filter, OpenPGP, SSL. Full mbox support, IMAP, SSMTP, and S/MIME support are under development. Beta release. GNU GPL.


• emacs/xemacs-based MUAs:


• cmail: http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~fuku/cmail/ Written in elisp. Requires tm or semi. Can do automatic filing of e-mails, summaries for quick folder access, summary threading, address completion. Supports POP3, SMTP, PGP (with Mailcrypt), expiring of e-mails. Uses its own mail-store format; can import mbox or Rmail. GNU GPL.


• emacs-imap: http://www.tapsellferrier.co.uk/downloads/emacs-imap.el Written in elisp. An IMAP-only MUA by Nic Ferrier. GNU GPL.


• Gnus: http://www.gnus.org/ Written in elisp. Extremely full-featured mail/newsreader add-on for emacs: Treats e-mail as if it were netnews. Can do off-line reading, auto-replies, spam-detection. Can browse file directories, ftp sites. Can split incoming mail a la procmail. Supports POP3, SMTP, mbox, mh, NNTP, SSL (with w3-el-e2X), scoring (more flexible and adaptive than are killfiles), filtering. Gnus is Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen's rewrite of Masanobu Umeda's GNUS, and is packaged by default with xemacs but not GNU emacs. Highly configurable, rich, full-featured. GNU GPL.


• Mew (messaging in the emacs world): http://www.mew.org/ and ftp://ftp.mew.org/pub/Mew/ elisp variant of the mh (RAND Message Handler) system. Supports POP3, APOP, mh, SMTP, NNTP, and OpenPGP. 3-clause BSD licence.


• MH-E (Mail Handler - Emacs): http://mh-e.sourceforge.net/ and http://www.ics.uci.edu/~mh/book/ elisp-based implementation of the mh (RAND Message Handler) system. Feature set is apparently the same as mh's. GNU GPL.


• Rmail: http://www.gnu.org/manual/emacs-20.3/html_chapter/emacs_31.html and http://sunland.gsfc.nasa.gov/info/emacs/rmail.html emacs's built-in mail handling mode. Supports POP3, SMTP. Uses its own mail-store format. GNU GPL.


• Semi-gnus: http://emacs-20.ki.nu/semi-gnus.shtml Written in elisp. Fork of Gnus to better support Japanese character sets. Requires semi or tm libs for MIME support. GNU GPL.


• VM (View Mail): http://www.wonderworks.com/vm/ and ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/mail/vm/ Written in elisp. Full-featured mail add-on for emacs. Can do digest-creation, bursting, form-driven mails. Supports POP3, IMAP, internal SMTP (with smtpmail) or local MTA, filtering, vfolders. Packaged by default with xemacs but not GNU emacs. GNU GPL.


• wl (Wanderlust): http://www.gohome.org/wl/ Written in elisp. Good Japanese character set support. Requires semi or tm libs for MIME support. Supports POP3, IMAP4, mh, SMTP, NNTP, threaded sorting, virtual folders. GNU GPL.


• Ezimail: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ezimail/ Ncurses-based, written in C. Supports IMAP, SSL. Port of the Carnegie-Mellon Andrew Mail System's ezmail client, updated for IMAP support. Requires Cyrus SASL library. 3-clause BSD licence. Beta release.


• IM (Internet Message): http://tats.haun.org/im/ Written in Perl. Suite of console mail-handling commands and supporting modules. Can optionally be invoked from Mew as front-end. Native message store is mh format. Supports POP3, APOP, IMAP, SMTP, mbox, mh, Maildir, MMDF, NNTP. 3-clause BSD licence.


• FreeXP: http://www.fido.vmailer.net/about.html Written in Object Pascal. This package is primarily FidoNet "point" (private access point) software, but also supports Internet mail. Almost all of the documentation is German-language. Supports POP3, APOP, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, NNTP, UUCP-t and UUCP over IP. For Fido-technology networks, supports BinkP protocol (a la BinkleyTerm), EMSI, WaZOO, YooHoo, Fido/UUCP over IP, netmail, echomail, file requests, file attaches, dial-up sessions. This is the surviving fork/renaming (in 2002) of OpenXP (Open CrossPoint). GNU GPL.


• Jaro Mail: https://www.dyne.org/software/jaro-mail/ Written in C plus some ZShell scripts. Technically, this is not an MUA precisedly but rather a suite comprising mutt (MUA), fetchmail (MDA), vim (editor), gnupg (content encryption), mixmaster (anoymity aid), msmtp (MTA), notmuch (search engine), abook (addresss book), and elinks (HTML rendering), along with some glue code. Maintained by Denis Roio aka Jaromil. GNU GPL.


• mailutils, GNU: http://www.gnu.org/software/mailutils/mailutils.html Ncurses-based, written in C. Collection of cooperating mail-handling utilities, sharing a common library. Supports POP3, mbox, mh, maildir, IMAP4, SMTP via local MTA, filtering. This toolkit lends itself to creation of diverse front-end interfaces, including guimb (scheme-based), mailx-emulation, etc. GNU GPL.


• mh, nmh, xmh, exmh, Mew, MH-E (RAND Message Handler): ftp://ftp.ics.uci.edu/pub/mh/ and http://www.nongnu.org/nmh/ and http://www.ics.uci.edu/~mh/book/ Termcap-, curses-, or ncurses-based, written in C. (xmh and exmh are X11 interfaces. Mew and MH-E are Emacs interfaces.) Suite of individual console commands to do mail operations, manually or via scripts. Supports POP3, APOP, POP3 with Kerberos, Mobile POP, mh, SMTP via local MTA. Original mh is very old, unmaintained: Authors assert the package to be public domain. nmh is a significantly updated, mostly compatible mh with autoconf support: nmh is under a BSD-type licence. Also note that GNU mailutils (which see) also provides a modern mh implementation under GNU GPL.


• mr (Mail Reader): http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/mail/mua/ Ncurses-based, written in C. Design and user interface are based on the DOS GoldEd editor. Supports mbox, SMTP. Early beta release: old, unmaintained since 1998. GNU GPL.


• Mutt: http://www.mutt.org/ S-Lang or ncurses-based (specified at compile time), written in C. Default keybindings are similar to ELM's. Supports POP3, IMAP (plain, Kerberos, or SSL), mbox, mh, Maildir, MMDF, SMTP, SSL, urlview, colour-highlighting, threaded sorting, key remapping, list reply, strict and non-strict threading, message postponing, PGP and OpenPGP, NFS locking. (This MUA list's author uses and prefers Mutt.) GNU GPL.


• NeoMutt: https://neomutt.org/ S-Lang or ncurses-based (specified at compile time), written in C. Default keybindings are similar to ELM's. Supports POP3, IMAP (plain, Kerberos, or SSL), mbox, mh, Maildir, MMDF, SMTP, SSL, urlview, colour-highlighting, threaded sorting, key remapping, list reply, strict and non-strict threading, message postponing, PGP and OpenPGP, NFS locking. This MUA is a fork of the Mutt MUA adding features and fixes unmerged for long periods by Mutt's maintainers, including Sidebar and numerous others GNU GPL.


• Paranoy: http://paranox.sourceforge.net/ Ncurses-based, written in C. Design goal is to make maximal use of encryption. There's also a GTK+ version. Supports POP3, SMTP, SSL, OpenPGP, encrypted mailboxes and other files. Beta release. GNU GPL.


• pemail (Perl e-mail): http://www.the-den.org/main.shtml Perl script. Supports POP3, SMTP. So far, allows reading, deleting, and entering e-mails (optionally with BASE64 attachments), but not replying or forwarding. Requires CPAN modules Mail::POP3Client and MIME::Lite. Formerly named ppop3. GNU GPL.


• pms (Python Message System, aka PythonMS): http://archive.debian.org/debian/pool/main/p/pms/pms_0.2.19.orig.tar.gz. Maintainer's site at http://pythonms.sourceforge.net/ has vanished. Written in Python. Set of Python modules, utilities, and a shell-like environment for managing mail. Supports POP3, mh, mh over SSH, Maildir, PMS Mail Exchange Protocol (similar to IMAP), SMTP via local MTA, filters, scripting using Python. Author asserts it to be public domain. Unmaintained since 2002.


• Sup: http://sup.rubyforge.org/ Ncurses-based, written in Ruby. (Also known as "sup-mail" and, rarely, as "sup-mailer".) Supports multiple accounts, mbox, mbox over SSH, IMAP, IMAP-SSL, Maildir, POP3 (pending), mh (pending), and Gmail (pending). Designed to handle very large amounts of mail. Does fast full-text search, GMail-style threading, multiple buffers, thread-centric operation, automatic contact-list management, custom code insertion via a hook system, organising e-mail with user-defined labels, automatically tracking recent contacts. Project was initially called "Redwood". Beta release at 2007-07-01. GNU GPLv2.


• TTY-Grin: http://www.arbornet.org/~dlbeer/tty-grin/ S-Lang-based, written in C++. Supports IMAP4, mbox, NNTP, killfile with regex pattern matching, OpenPGP. Beta release. GNU GPL.

System primitives "mail" and "mailx" also qualify, if barely -- as does the "nail" improved version of mailx.

Oft-cited codebase Notmuch is not included on this page because it is simply not an MUA, but rather an (extremely good and flexible) mail indexer and displayer, highly suitable for combination with a good MUA and other associated programs.

MUAs, console, proprietary:

• GyikSoft Mailer: http://contrib-test-vip.andrew.cmu.edu/pub/scene.org/mirrors/flerp/groups.hun/ESP-team/linux/ (mirror), long gone from original sites http://esp-team.scene.hu/ and ftp://esp-team.scene.hu/esp-team/linux/ . Written in C. Supports mbox, SMTP. Licence terms unstated, so proprietary by default operation of copyright law. Unmaintained since 1999.


• MM (Columbia Mail Manager: Gone from ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/mail/mm/ Ncurses-based, written in C. Supports mbox, mh, SMTP. Very old, unmaintained since around 1992. Gratis non-commercial usage. I cannot find a current source for this program.


• mmr (MIME Mail Reader): http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/mail/mua/, long gone from http://www.devolution.com/~slouken/projects/mmr/ . Ncurses-based, written in C++. Supports mbox, SMTP. Old, unmaintained since 1997. Gratis non-commercial usage.


• mush (Mail User's Shell): http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/usenet/ftp.uu.net/comp.sources.unix/volume14/mush6.0/ (seemingly now the best source). http://www.well.com/user/barts/mush.html is the author's page but pretty all the functional links are now broken. Ncurses-based (optionally), written in C. Supports POP3, SMTP. Gratis usage; redistribution restricted. Unmaintained since circa 2001.


• Pine (Program for Internet News and E-mail) : http://www.cac.washington.edu/pine/ Easy user interface and provides easy editor, pico. Supports IMAP, SMTP, mbox, NNTP. Gratis usage. Note: Pine has been discontinued and is unmaintained since v. 4.6.4 in 2005. Its intended successor is the from-scratch, open-source, compatible rewrite, Alpine (which please see).


• POSTIE: http://www.infradig.com/ Command-line mail-handling utility, intended to serve as a back-end to graphical mail programs, schedule programs, Web CGIs, and other programs. Supports POP3, IMAP4, HTTP, SMTP, NNTP, OpenPGP. Linux-x86 binary. Non-Windows versions were discontinued after 2013.

Note: Webmail MUAs comprise another entire mammoth category of options, which are not included in the above listing.

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Copyright (C) 2002-2017, Rick Moen, rick@linuxmafia.com.

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