Comparison of mail servers

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This is a comparison of mail servers: mail transfer agents, mail delivery agents, and other computer software which provide e-mail services.

[edit] Feature comparison

Mail server Server OS support Features Storage License
Linux/Unix Windows Mac OS X SMTP POP3 IMAP SMTP over TLS POP over TLS NNTP SSL Webmail Database Filesystem Other
Alt-N MDaemon No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Proprietary
Apache James Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Open Source/ASLv2
ArGoSoft MS .NET No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes No Proprietary
Axigen Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Proprietary
BincIMAP Yes No Yes No No Yes No No  ? Yes No No Yes No Open source/GPL
Citadel/ Webcit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Open source/GPL
CommuniGate Pro Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Proprietary
Courier Mail Server Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No Open Source
Eudora Internet Mail Server No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No Yes Proprietary
Exim Yes via Cygwin Yes Yes No No Yes No  ? Yes No No Yes No Open Source/GPL
GroupWise Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes No No Proprietary
Hexamail Server Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Proprietary
hMailServer No Yes No Yes Yes Yes V 5.0 V 5.0 No V 5.0 Yes Yes No No GNU GPL (V5.0 Proprietary)
IBM Lotus Domino Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Proprietary
Kerio MailServer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No Proprietary
Mail Enable 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 Yes Yes Yes Proprietary
Meldware Mail Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No Open source/LGPL
Merak Mail Server Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Proprietary
Mercury Mail Transport System No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Proprietary/freeware
Microsoft Exchange Server No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ESE only No No Proprietary
NetMail Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes No No Proprietary
Postfix Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Open source/IBM Public License
PostPath Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes ? Yes ? Proprietary
PowerMTA Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No No No No No Yes No Proprietary
qmail Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No  ? No No No Yes No Public domain
QmailToaster Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes free-to-use
Sendmail Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No ? Yes ? Open source/Sendmail License
SparkEngine Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Proprietary
Sun Java System Messaging Server Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Proprietary
UW IMAP Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes WebPine No Yes No Open Source/Apache license
WinGate No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes No Yes No Proprietary
WorkgroupMail No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No  ? Yes Yes Yes No No Proprietary
Zarafa Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No Proprietary
Zimbra Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No Open Source/Proprietary
Mail server Linux/Unix Windows Mac OS X SMTP POP3 IMAP SMTP over TLS POP over TLS NNTP SSL Webmail Database Filesystem Other License
Server OS support Features Storage

[edit] Authentication

Mail server Login Authentication
SMTP AUTH POP before SMTP APOP Filesystem Database LDAP Other
Alt-N MDaemon Yes Yes Yes No Yes  ? Active Directory, PLAIN, CRAM-MD5, LOGIN
Apache James Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes Yes  ?
Axigen Yes No Yes No No Yes GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, APOP, CLRTXT, LOGIN, PLAIN, LDAP, Internal
Citadel / WebCit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes CLRTXT, CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, APOP, GSSAPI, NTLM, MSN, WEBUSER, Full feature Mail server & client.
CommuniGate Pro Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes CLRTXT, CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, APOP, GSSAPI, NTLM, MSN, WEBUSER
Courier Mail Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Pluggable Authentication Modules, userdb, CRAM, LDAP, MySQL, vchkpw/vpopmail, PostgreSQL(beta)
Eudora Internet Mail Server Yes No Yes Yes No No CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, PLAIN, LOGIN
Exim Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Cyrus SASL, Dovecot SASL, CRAM-MD5, PLAIN, LOGIN, SPA
GroupWise Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes eDirectory, Any LDAPv3-compliant source
Hexamail Server Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Active Directory,Any LDAPv3-compliant source,CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, PLAIN, LOGIN
Kerio MailServer Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Active Directory, Apple Open Directory, ActiveSync, Pluggable Authentication Modules
Mailtraq Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes NT Domain, Active Directory, Local Directory
Meldware Mail Server Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
Merak Mail Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes PLAIN, CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, NT Domain, Active Directory, any LDAP-compatible source
Mercury Mail Transport System Yes Yes Yes Yes No  ? Internal, LOGIN, PLAIN, CRAM-MD5, Netware, LDAP?, partial NT Domain
Microsoft Exchange Server Yes  ? Yes No No Yes Active Directory
NetMail Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes eDirectory, LDAP
Postfix Yes No No Yes Yes Yes  ?
PostPath Yes  ?  ? No No Yes Active Directory
PowerMTA Yes No No Yes No No CRAM-MD5, PLAIN
WinGate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No NT Domain, Active Directory, CRAM-MD5, SASL PLAIN, SASL LOGIN
WorkgroupMail Yes No No No Yes Yes NT Domain, Active Directory
Zarafa Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes Internal, Active Directory, any LDAP-compatible source, Unix
Zimbra Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Internal, LDAP, Open LDAP, Active Directory

[edit] See also