Last Updated on October 10, 2018
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Email is arguably one of the most popular and useful functions of a Linux system. Fortunately, there is a wide selection of free email software available on the Linux platform which is stable, feature laden, and ideal for personal and business environments. Send and receive emails, run a mail server, filter spam, administer a mailing list are just some of the options explored in this article.
To provide an insight into the quality of software that is available, we have compiled a list of 42 high quality Linux email applications, covering a broad spectrum of uses. There’s a mix of desktop and server based applications included. Hopefully, there will be something of interest for all types of users.
Now, let’s explore the 42 email applications at hand. For each title we have compiled its own portal page, providing a screenshot of the software in action (where appropriate), a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant resources and reviews.
| Email Software | |
|---|---|
| Claws Mail | Lightweight yet powerful and full-featured client |
| Thunderbird | Popular free, cross-platform e-mail, RSS and newsgroup client |
| KMail | Email component of Kontact, a integrated personal information manager |
| Balsa | Email client for GNOME |
| Sylpheed | Simple, lightweight client |
| Alpine | Alternatively Licensed Program for Internet News and Email |
| Cone | console newsreader and emailer |
| Pine | Tool for reading, sending, and managing electronic messages |
| mutt | Small but very powerful text based client |
| SquirrelMail | Webmail package written in PHP |
| RoundCube | Browser-based multilingual IMAP client |
| Scalix | E-mail and groupware server |
| Evolution | Provides integrated mail, addressbook and calendaring functionality |
| OpenGroupware.org | Collaborative software server for multiple clients |
| Zimbra | Zimbra Collaboration Suite |
| Courier | Integrated mail/groupware server |
| DBMail | Enables storing and retrieving mail messages from a database |
| Dovecot | Secure POP3 server that supports mbox and maildir mailboxes |
| Exim | Highly configurable mail transfer agent |
| Postfix | Popular mail transfer agent |
| qmail | Written as a more secure replacement for the Sendmail program |
| Sendmail | Mail transfer agent for sophisticated mail configurations |
| fetchmail | SSL enabled POP3, APOP, IMAP mail gatherer/forwarder |
| getmail | Flexible, extensible mail retrieval system |
| Postfix Admin | Manage mailboxes, virtual domains and aliases |
| MailWatch | Web-based front-end to MailScanner written in PHP, MySQL and JpGraph |
| Enigmail | OpenPGP Email Security for Mozilla Applications |
| GnuPG | Encrypt and sign data and communication |
| Mailcrypt | Simple interface to public key cryptography with PGP |
| maildrop | Mail delivery agent with a mail filtering language |
| MailScanner | Virus scanner and spam detector |
| Postgrey | Postfix policy server implementing greylisting |
| procmail | Mail delivery agent |
| SpamAssassin | Perl-based spam filter using text analysis |
| SpamBayes | Bayesian anti-spam classifier written in Python |
| Vipul's Razor | Spam-catcher using a collaborative filtering network |
| CheckGmail | Gmail Notifier |
| GMail Notifier | An alternative to CheckGmail |
| Mail Notification | Monitors multiple mailboxes for new mail |
| ezmlm-idx | Highly automated mailing list manager |
| Mailman | Manage electronic mail discussion and e-newsletter lists |
| Majordomo | Perl based mailing list manager |
 Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. |