Mail app versus competitors

[Mer0me]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Nextcloud official Mail app is now pretty good, but lacks some major features (imap search, nextcloud users as contacts...). Alternatives exist, but have their own limitations.
There is some sort of frustration because Nextcloud is about to be a game changer in the groupware world, it could certainly be an MS Exchange / Office alternative.

Describe the solution you'd like

Ideally, we should have (at least) one mail client offering all major features needed in a professional environment.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Here is a comparison of 3 mail/groupware solutions usable with a Nextcloud backend :

Features	Nextcloud Mail 2.0.3	SnappyMail 2.19.1	Thunderbird
Nextcloud users as contact	No (!)	Yes	Yes
Nextcloud Contacts	Yes	Yes	Yes
Contacts Avatars	Yes	No	No
Circles	No	No	No
Send from Nextcloud Files App (in the context menu)	No	No	No
Send from Netxcloud Files storage	Yes	Yes	No (unless sync client)
Send link from Nextcloud Files storage	Yes	No	No
Save attachments to Nextcloud Files storage	Yes	Yes	No (unless sync client)
Save individual .EML to Nextcloud Files storage	No (unless sync client)	Yes	No (unless sync client)
Save multiple .EML to Nextcloud Files storage	No	No	No (unless sync client)
Nextcloud theme integration	*****	***	/
Unified search on Subject	Yes	Yes	No
Unified search on Sender	No (only with full email address and from: keyword)	Yes	No
Advanced Search	No (work in progress)	Yes (**)	Yes (*****)
Messages display filter	No	No	Yes
Messages sorting	No	Yes	Yes
.ICS to Nextcloud calendar	Yes	No	Yes
UI speed and responsiveness	**	****	*****
Rich text editing	***	****	*****
Rich text signature	Yes	Yes	Yes
1 signature by identity	No	Yes	Yes
Complex copy/paste from MSWord	No	No	Yes
Local/cloud folders	No	No	Yes (off cloud)
.EML opening from Files App	No	No	Yes
SIEVE Filter /Out of Office	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multiple compose windows	No	No	Yes
Message context menu	No	No	Yes
Junk mail detection	No	No	Yes
Display modes	*	***	*****

Additional context

I hope this contribution can help the community to choose the right solution for their needs and the developers to focus on the most waited improvements

[Extarys]

You can maybe also add:

• Clicking on attachment for viewing

In Mail you must download the attachments before viewing it when reading emails. You cannot open an attachment when you compose to double-check you attached the right file. In Thunderbird, you can do both.

[the-djmaze]

@Extarys then there are multiple features.

• View email attachments
• preview before attach to new message
• preview after attach to new message

And there are so much more features in each.
I also mentioned to Mer0me the differences in handling PGP/MIME and S/MIME because Mailvelope can't do a lot.

Would be nice if everyone could extend the list.

[Extarys]

@the-djmaze hehe you're right. Yesterday I watched a video of Mail 2.0 for Nextcloud 25, and it seems you can now click an attachment to view it when reading emails 💯 I'm waiting for the next iteration of 25 before upgrading though so the contributors have more time to clean a few bugs without me being frustrated 😆

Side note: For EML, I had a family member who is used to Outlook at her previous job and sorts emails by folder directly on her computer, which is smart in a way as it free up space in her mailbox and still can access them years later. Right now I suggested to her to duplicate folders (ie: one folder in her computer for her files related to that person and one folder in Mail and drag-and-drop the emails in the corresponding folder) - Still trying if there is a way for me to configure something to directly download the eml file for her :/

[miaulalala]

For the junk mail detection - we do offer a config option in the backend but you'd have to use your own Spam / Ham endpoint, and you'd also have to configure your junk filter in IMAP.

But the way Thunderbird does Junk filtering is also quite interesting: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-junk-spam-messages

[the-djmaze]

Still trying if there is a way for me to configure something to directly download the eml file for her :/

Thunderbird and SnappyMail can. She can even drag/drop the saved EML into a mailbox of them.
I have no clue if Nextcloud Mail can do that too.

[jiriks74]

• Snappy mail can

Send link from Nextcloud Files storage

Screenshot

• It can also pgp sign, encrypt and decrypt emails. (Know that the Mailvelope extension exists but it's really annoying as it appears in almost any text box and can be rendered over some UI elements).
• It also fetches emails faster (I don't feel this falls under UI speed and responsiveness)
• It has user friendly SIEVE filter setup

Screenshot

---

Also as this is meant to

help the community to choose the right solution for their needs

I want to say that NC Mail has proved to be quite a lot unreliable (I've been trying it out for cca the last 3 years) and what's worse there's many issues with basic email client functionality.

• Reading emails:
  • Old mails deleted on other clients still show up as unread in Mail, when opened "Not found" #8223
  • This is making the Mail app basically unusable. It mostly seems to be solved now but the issue is not completely gone.
  • I still run into this every now and then but a button was added that repairs the mailbox folder. This was previously only accessible when Nextcloud ran in debug mode. You click it and have to wait until Mail does it's thing until you can see messages as they are on the SMTP server.
• Sending emails with attachments
  • Mail attachment does not work / header problems #10066
  • I just now encountered this one. I needed to copy everything from that email, delete it, open another email client and recreate that email.
• Large inboxes are unusable
  • Probably Does not render even moderately large mailbox #7644
  • I have a friend who doesn't like to archive their messages which results in a large inbox. Every now and then I tell them about some improvements in Mail, they go try it and it doesn't even load their inbox making it completely unusable for them.

This is not a comprehensive list (I mostly forgot about the bugs I encountered 2-3 years ago) but these are 100% deal breakers. If the Mail client isn't able to send emails or show you your inbox (because of either phantom emails which have been archived elsewhere or not loading your inbox outright) I think that it's not worth your time to deal with this.

Of course if you don't have these issues

there are many things to like about Mail. The unified inbox with smart tagging (automatically marking emails as important based on your previous tags), delayed sending, snoozing, etc. are something that I quite like but again the basic functionality doesn't work for me so I just can't rely on it.

I encounter these with my email providers with my mailboxes.

If it works for you and you like the app - I'm happy for you. It just doesn't for me and it isn't work the trouble it's been repeatedly causing me.