What is Horde Webmail and what are the benefits?

Although communication via email has lost significance due to new services like messengers and social networks such as Facebook or Instagram, they still represent a de facto standard in many areas. They have also taken over the function of written messages such as letters or faxes in wide areas, especially when it comes to legal processes like contract conclusion or termination. Simple and centralized management through webmail applications like Horde or its competitors Roundcube and SquirrelMail is therefore equally sensible and useful to enable universal access from different devices. Here you can find web hosting offers with Horde as a webmailer.

What sets Horde apart from other webmail software?

Although Horde is often mentioned in the same breath as alternatives like SquirrelMail and Roundcube, it has a different background. In reality, it is not a single application, but rather a framework written in the programming language PHP, with its core being the Internet Messaging Program (IMP). It was designed in the summer of 1998 for the management of emails and quickly gained popularity with demands for new and advanced features, prompting the responsible developer to change the entire concept. The difference and resulting benefits lie in the fact that this design provides connected and external programmers with a significantly greater degree of freedom to implement their own ideas and extensions.

What are the advantages of Horde as a webmail interface?

Unlike other applications, Horde early on adopted a very universal concept that allowed for participation and individual development by external programmers. For this reason, it now offers a significantly broader range of functions, enabling an extremely high degree of customisation and integration of tasks that, in this case, are not carried out - as with Roundcube web hosting - through the integration of external software and information, but rather through its own routines. This results in numerous advantages that distinguish Horde from its competitors:

• Highly customisable design and available functions
• Extensive options for additional extensions
• Seamless integration of all components into the framework
• Direct integration for extras such as calendars, text editors, spam filters, and more
• Installation and configuration through tools like Plesk, cPanel, DirectAdmin, or Webmin
• Easy development of custom modules and extensions within the environment
• Free software for commercial and private use under an LGPL license
• Active community, detailed documentation, and regular updates

Due to its advantages, Horde has now established itself as the preferred solution for providers looking to offer their customers professional web hosting with access to other options beyond this core area. The software allows desired features to be unified in a single user interface for general use, rather than being limited to webmail.

What alternatives to Horde are available?

Essentially, Horde is undoubtedly suitable for personal use or organising messages in a small, medium-sized, or globally operating company - despite its simple installation and configuration, it does not necessarily provide an optimal solution. If the focus is solely on accessing and composing emails, Horde appears to be oversized and causes unnecessary effort and resource consumption. In these cases, it is advisable to use a lightweight webmail application such as Roundcube. For personal virtual and dedicated servers with few users, where simple installation and configuration are key, SquirrelMail is also a simple alternative. We have compiled a list of the best webmailers in the Webmailer Comparison.

If you are looking for web hosting with your webmail app directly, check here:

Web Hosting Comparison with SquirrelMail
Web Hosting Comparison with Horde
Web Hosting Comparison with Roundcube

Photo: Daria Nepriakhina on Pixabay