Employees need to access their email from wherever they happen to be – on the road, at customer sites, remote offices, and at home. WebMail clients allows receiving and sending email messages using POP3 and SMTP protocols through both local and remote mail servers. Providing secure filtering of unsafe content while viewing HTML-formatted email messages. WebMail clients can operate under different popular web platforms (PHP, ASP.NET, ruby on rails, java).

Today i wanted to share with you 10 AJAX-based & PHP webmail client that delivers the look and feel, usability and performance of a desktop application. Some of the webmail clients listed below are open source code that can be easily modified to better suit user’s needs, while others are not. So You must check their license to know the rules.

RoundCube Webmail is a browser-based multilingual IMAP client with an application-like user interface. It provides full functionality you expect from an e-mail client, including MIME support, address book, folder manipulation, message searching and spell checking. RoundCube Webmail is written in PHP and requires a MySQL or Postgres database. The user interface is fully skinnable using XHTML and CSS 2.

Zimbra provides open source email and calendar groupware software, with a browser-based AJAX client to deliver a rich experience with a message conversation view and visual search builder that makes multi-gigabyte inboxes easier to use. They also integrate 3rd party applications as “mash-ups” via web services so you can view CRM data, maps, or anything else without leaving the context of a message.

3. Xuheki

Xuheki is a fast IMAP client which has a browser-based AJAX client so you can access it from anywhere to read your email. It has most features that you would expect from a fine “Mail User Agent”. Xuheki is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

SquirrelMail is a standards-based webmail package written in PHP. It includes built-in pure PHP support for the IMAP and SMTP protocols, and all pages render in pure HTML 4.0 (with no JavaScript required) for maximum compatibility across browsers.

AtMail, a free lightweight Ajax Webmail client software that is written in PHP that allow end user receive email via web browser and WAP devices. This webmail client software can be installed on variety platform like Windows and Linux. Plus more, it support various email technology like IMAP/POP3 mailboxes, and an optional email-server mode that uses Exim as the MTA.

AfterLogic WebMail Lite PHP is easy-to-use webmail script with modern interface, supports AJAX and skins. Users can receive, view, delete, compose, and send mail through web interface (POP3 and SMTP supported). Multiple attachments, multiple mail accounts and domains, preview panel, web-based administration. Easy installation, supports PHP 4.1 and above. Open source and completely free. Can be upgraded to Pro version with extended features….

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Hastymail is a full featured IMAP/SMTP client written in PHP. Compatible with PDAs, phones, text browsers, and with all mainstream browsers. Hastymail has a powerful plugin system that PHP developers can use to alter the way it works. Plugins can add pages within the Hastymail application (including css files), alter existing pages by inserting XHTML, modify internal data structures within Hastymail, make AJAX callbacks using their AJAX system, and even communicate with a configured SQL server.

Mailr is an open source webmail application written in Ruby which uses Ruby On Rails web application framework. The application is tested with Courier-IMAP but it should be possible to use it with any other IMAP server.

9. Claros inTouch

Claros inTouch is an Ajax communication suite with key features such as webmail, address book, post-it notes, calendar (in progress), webdisk (in progress), built-in instant messenger and rss reader. It is the first open source web application which features built in spam protection and instant messaging capabilities together with web 2.0 technologies. Built with Java, utilizes JSP/Servlets with the well known J2EE technologies & uses MySQL database.

Postaci is a PHP based POP3/IMAP e-mail client that is very simple and easy to use. It supports SMTP authentication. It can handle both protocols and the defaul protocol can be changed from a single configuration file. Postaci is platform independent, it can work on any operating system which supports PHP. Postaci is also database independent, it can be used with MySQL, mSQL, Microsoft SQL, Sybase, PostgreSQL.