Comparison of mail servers

The comparison of mail servers covers mail transfer agents (MTAs), mail delivery agents, and other computer software that provide e-mail services.

Unix-based mail servers are built using a number of components because a Unix-style environment is, by default, a toolbox[1] operating system. A stock Unix-like server already has internal mail; more traditional ones also come with a full MTA already part of the standard installation. To allow the server to send external emails, an MTA such as Sendmail, Postfix, or Exim is required. Mail is read either through direct access (shell login) or mailbox protocols like POP and IMAP. Unix-based MTA software largely acts to enhance or replace the respective system's native MTA.

Microsoft Windows servers do not natively implement e-mail, thus Windows-based MTAs have to supply all the necessary aspects of e-mail-related functionality.

Feature comparison

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OS support Protocol support Features Storage License
Mail server Linux/Unix Windows macOS SMTP POP3 IMAP JMAP IDLE SMTPS POP3S IPv6 SSL DANE Webmail ActiveSync Sieve IDN/UTF8 Database File-based
agorum core Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No No No No Yes No Yes No No ? Yes No GPLv2
Apache James Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? No No Yes ? Yes Yes ASLv2
Axigen Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Ajax, Basic & Mobile Yes Yes Yes Embedded, Optimized for Email & Groupware Yes Proprietary (free version: 5 domains, 5 users, 5 groups)
Citadel Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No Yes ? Yes No GPLv3
CommuniGate Pro Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Proprietary (Free for up to 5 users)
Courier Mail Server Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No maildrop Yes No maildir GPLv3+[2]
Cyrus IMAP Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No[3] Indexes only Yes BSD 4-clause[4]
DBMail Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No GPLv2
Dovecot Yes[5] No Yes Yes[6] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes maildir, mbox, dbox, mdbox, obox[7] Mixed: MIT and LGPL-2.1[8]
Eudora Internet Mail Server No No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? No No ? No ? No No ? ? No No Proprietary
Exim Yes Yes (via Cygwin) Yes Yes No No ? No Yes No Yes Yes Yes[9] No No Yes Yes Yes Yes GPLv2+[10]
FirstClass Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Proprietary
Gordano Messaging Suite Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes No ? Yes Yes Proprietary
GroupWise Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes No Proprietary
Halon Yes No No Yes No No ? No Yes No Yes Yes Yes[11] No No ? Yes Yes Yes Proprietary
Haraka Yes Yes Yes Yes No No ? No Yes No Yes Yes ? No No ? Yes Yes Yes MIT
hMailServer No Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No ? No Yes Yes GNU AGPL
HCL Domino Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes [12] No Yes Yes No Proprietary
IceWarp Mail Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No ? Yes Yes Proprietary
Ipswitch IMail Server No Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes (since v12.2)[13] Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? No Yes Proprietary
Kerio Connect Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? No Yes Proprietary
Kolab Yes No No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes GPLv3
Kopano Yes No No postfix, etc.[14] Yes Yes No Yes postfix Yes Yes Yes postfix Yes z-push No Yes SQL Yes AGPLv3, paid[15]
KumoMTA Yes No No Yes No No ? No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No Lua Yes Yes Yes ASLv2
Mailsite No Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Proprietary
Mailtraq No Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes No ? ? Yes Yes Proprietary
MDaemon No Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Not IMAP No Yes Proprietary
Mercury Mail Transport System No Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No No No Yes Proprietary donationware
Microsoft Exchange Server No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes[16][17] Yes Yes Yes [18] Yes No Yes Yes 3rd Party support Not IMAP Yes Yes Proprietary
NetMail Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes No ? ? Yes No Proprietary
OpenSMTPD Yes No Yes Yes No No No No Yes No Yes Yes No[19] No No No No via custom backends Yes ISC
Open-Xchange Yes No No Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes No Proprietary/SaaS, with open-source parts[20]
Oracle Communications Messaging Server Yes No No Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes No ? Yes Yes Yes Proprietary
Postfix Yes No Yes Yes No No ? No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes IBM Public License
qmail Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No with ucspi-ssl, with patch with ucspi-ssl s/qmail, via Qsmtp with ucspi-ssl, with patch s/qmail No No No s/qmail (cdb) Yes Public domain
Qpopper Yes Yes (via Cygwin) Yes No Yes No ? No No Yes ? Yes ? No No ? ? No Yes BSD-style (GPL-incompatible)[21]
Scalix Yes No No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes (via Stunnel) Yes (via Stunnel) ? Yes (via Stunnel) ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Proprietary with OSS parts, a community (Freeware) and 3 paid editions (SMB, Enterprise, Hosting)
Sendmail Yes No Yes Yes No No ? No Yes No Yes Yes Yes (since 8.16)[22] No No No Yes ? Yes Sendmail License
SparkEngine Yes Yes Yes Yes No No ? No Yes No ? Yes ? No No ? ? Yes Yes Proprietary
UW IMAP Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes ? Yes No Yes Yes Yes No WebPine No No ? Yes (Indexes) Yes Apache License 2.0[23]
WinGate No Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes No Yes ? Yes No ? ? No Yes Proprietary
Zarafa Yes No No postfix etc.[14] Yes Yes No Yes postfix Yes Yes Yes postfix Yes z-push No No SQL Yes AGPLv3, paid[15]
Zentyal Yes No No Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes No Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Proprietary, 45-day trial
Zimbra Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes ZPL and proprietary editions[24]
Mail server Linux/Unix Windows macOS SMTP POP3 IMAP JMAP IDLE SMTPS POP3S IPv6 SSL DANE Webmail ActiveSync Sieve IDN/UTF8 Database File-based License

Authentication

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Antispam features

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Mahoney, Michael S. "The Unix Oral History Project: Release.0, The Beginning". Archived from the original on January 19, 2010. To me one of the lovely features of pipes is the way it reinforces the notion of toolbox…
  2. ^ "COPYING". GitHub: svarshavchik/courier-libs. August 19, 2013. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved February 26, 2022. This software is released under the GPL, version 3 (see COPYING.GPL).
  3. ^ "RFCs Supported by Cyrus IMAP". Cyrus IMAP 3.4.3 (stable) documentation. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
  4. ^ "Get Cyrus". Cyrus IMAP 3.4.3 (stable) documentation. Archived from the original on July 22, 2017. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  5. ^ Dovecot Operating System Compatibility. Retrieved on 2008-09-03.
  6. ^ a b Dovecot Submission Service. Retrieved on 2010-07-15.
  7. ^ "Dovecot Object Storage support". Retrieved 2021-01-25.
  8. ^ "Dovecot licensing information: COPYING". Retrieved 2008-09-03.
  9. ^ "Exim 4.91 spec: Encrypted SMTP connections using TLS/SSL / 15. DANE". exim.org. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  10. ^ See NOTICE file in the distribution
  11. ^ "Halon DANE support". Halon Security AB. Retrieved 2015-12-17.[self-published source]
  12. ^ "Using HCL Traveler". HCL Traveler documentation. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  13. ^ "IMail v12.2 Release Notes". docs.ipswitch.com.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Zarafa Collaboration Platform architecture diagram. Retrieved on 2011-12-10.
  15. ^ a b "Kopano Pricing - Subscription Plans - Kopano Partners".
  16. ^ Archiveddocs (23 January 2017). "Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 RFC and Support for Standards: Exchange 2007 Help". technet.microsoft.com.
  17. ^ Archiveddocs (23 July 2014). "Exchange 2010 Support for RFC Standards: Exchange 2010 Help". technet.microsoft.com.
  18. ^ Archiveddocs (23 January 2017). "IPv6 Support in Exchange 2007 SP1 and SP2: Exchange 2007 Help". technet.microsoft.com.
  19. ^ "OpenSMTPD, current state of affairs: Lookup layer change" (PDF). OpenBSD.org. Retrieved 2018-07-24.[self-published source]
  20. ^ "Licenses-OX-APP-Suite - Open-Xchange". www.open-xchange.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
  21. ^ Contains jurisdiction selection and IPL-style indemnification clause.
  22. ^ Sendmail Release Notes. Retrieved on 2021-01-08.
  23. ^ "UW IMAP software--UW IMAP Server Documentation". www.washington.edu.
  24. ^ "Licenses and Terms of Use". www.zimbra.com. Archived from the original on September 1, 2014. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  25. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o CRAM-MD5 to Historic, 20 November 2008.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g h Moving DIGEST-MD5 to Historic, July 2011.
  27. ^ "DovecotFeatures - Dovecot Wiki". wiki.dovecot.org.
  28. ^ "Authentication - Dovecot Wiki". wiki.dovecot.org.
  29. ^ "HSL - Halon SMTP server". Halon Security AB. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  30. ^ "HCL Domino Documentation - Using Internet password lockout". help.hcl-software.com. 30 June 2024.
  31. ^ "How to Configure Exchange to Allow AUTH LOGIN to work". support2.gwava.com.
  32. ^ "Documentation for built-in ClamAV-Mailet". Retrieved 2013-03-19.
  33. ^ a b c d "Index of /~gordon/courier-pythonfilter". phantom.dragonsdawn.net.
  34. ^ Two DKIM filters can be found in Courier-MTA's links page
  35. ^ With "zdkimfilter".
  36. ^ Considered and rejected by developers in 2013. Fawcett, John (July 3, 2013). "[Dovecot] dnsbl feature for dovecot". dovecot.org. Archived from the original on February 25, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  37. ^ "HCL Domino Documentation - Restricting SMTP inbound routing". help.hcl-software.com. 30 June 2024.
  38. ^ "Configuring the Domino SMTP server to reduce spam". help.hcl-software.com. 5 June 2024.
  39. ^ "Configuring DKIM signing for messages routed to external Internet domains". help.hcl-software.com. 5 June 2024.
  40. ^ Inc., Ipswitch. "IMail Secure Mail Server - Ipswitch". www.imailserver.com. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  41. ^ Inc., Ipswitch. "Your IMail Software Upgrades and Patches - Ipswitch IMail Server". www.imailserver.com. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  42. ^ With "filter-dkimsign". or "filter-rspamd". GitHub. 15 October 2022.
  43. ^ With "filter-rspamd". GitHub. 15 October 2022.
  44. ^ a b "OpenDKIM". www.opendkim.org.
  45. ^ a b "Trusted Domain Project - About Us". www.trusteddomain.org.