When comparing AfterLogic WebMail vs RainLoop, the Slant community recommends RainLoop for most people. In the question“What are the best self-hosted webmail clients?” RainLoop is ranked 1st while AfterLogic WebMail is ranked 5th.
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Pros
Pro Branding
In admin panel you can supply separate logos for login screen and for top-left corner of main interface.
Pro Multilanguage, with autodetection
Interface is available in over 30 languages. WebMail attempts to determine your system language and open the interface in it.
Pro Autorefresh
Configurable autoreload of email message list every N minutes
Pro Drag 'N Drop
Mails can be dragged into a different folder, contacts can be added into group, events in calendars can be tossed around, etc. - all with drag 'n drop.
Pro Mobile version of interface
Open WebMail on your iOS or Android device to get a simplified mobile interface. And when run on iOS, it'll offer you to get iOS profile with settings for mail access, contacts and calendar sync.
Pro Plugins infrastructure
A few dozens of plugins, some of those created by community. Plugins are placed into data directory so they survive upgrades easily.
Pro External services integration
Twitter, Facebook, Google and Dropbox are supported. With last two, you can access their file storage; and you can use social account credentials to log into your WebMail acct.
Pro Sync with Windows, iOS, Android, etc.
Offers syncing through DAV with mobile devices, there are also mobile apps and Windows sync client.
Pro Multiple accounts
In WebMail Pro each user can have multiple accounts added to switch between them and use them separately.
Pro Available in multiple editions
In addition to commercial WebMail Pro, simplified free opensource WebMail Lite is available. Also there are MailSuite Pro (which is basically WebMail Pro integrated with mailserver software) and Aurora, extended with groupware features.
Pro Simple
Pro Two-factor authentication
Pro No database backend (except for contacts)
Except for contacts (which are optional), RainLoop does not require a database to run, allowing for easier management and configuration.
Pro Easy to apply your own branding
Not only can you change the title, description and logo with a simple form in the admin panel, you can also completely customize the look of the login screen by supplying your own custom stylesheet.
Pro Good UI
Good UI make it a pleasing experience
Pro Free for personal and non-profit use
RainLoop is licensed under Creative Commons. Commercial use costs $85/yr.
Pro Client-side OpenPGP
RainLoop supports an easy to use client-side OpenPGP encryption. It allows setting up, importing and generating keys from the admin panel. OpenPGP keys are stored in the browser's local storage.
Pro Easy to update
RainLoop can be updated from the admin panel. It does not require manually downloading, overwriting or configuring anything with each update.
Pro Social network authentication
RainLoop integrates with Facebook, Google, and Twitter for authentication. You can find out how to set up each of the services here.
Pro Configurable multi-level caching system
RainLoop caches messages to allow quicker access to your mailbox and to alleviate the strain put on the server. You can choose to disable it completely if you don't want it. Or, you can configure cache settings such as an additional caching key, browser-level cache, caching message user IDs while searching, etc. Even changing memcache hosts and ports and caching system data is possible.
Pro Add multiple accounts
You can add multiple accounts and switch between them.
Pro Keyboard shortcuts
Pro Dropbox integration
RainLoop allows attaching files from Dropbox. To enable this feature, go to Dropbox's developer apps page to register your app. You'll receive the app key value to enter in the admin panel.
Pro Drag & drop support
RainLoop supports attaching files simply by dragging and dropping them in.
Pro Multilingual
Pro Plugin support
RainLoop has an easy to use plugin system. You can find the full list of plugins in the admin panel (or see their code on GitHub). From the admin panel, you can, in a simple, user-friendly way, manage them - install, uninstall, update. Unfortunately, a number of plugins and the related documentation, currently, is somewhat lacking.
Pro Google Drive integration
You can integrate Google Drive via API-Key for selecting attachments.
Pro RainLoop plus Xeams
Complimented modern user interface to deliver mail from Xeams. Setting up both applications takes less than an hour on private server.
Cons
Con Horrible instructions
They don't proceed in any logical order, omit significant steps and contain useless stuff like:
"Another critical part of setting up the product is configuring database settings. It's assumed that you already have a database created, fill in the connection details, press Save, then you can Create Tables."
Con Not responsive at all
3 layers of Mail section overlying each other. Totally not supported by mobile. Very bad mobile interface.
Con No Unified inbox
They planned it for a while, but for now, it's still working with one account at a time.
Con No CardDAV support in free version
CardDav Sync is not available in AfterLogic WebMail Lite, which is the free version.
Con Abandoned
Use Snappymail instead which replaces this. It is bad to be recommending RainLoop in 2023
Con Lack of API documentation
Most "closed" open source ever seen.
Con Very little bug fixes
Bugs aren't getting fixed.
Con Small community
No community forums, etc. This makes it difficult to find community help or just discuss techniques.
Con Lack of documentation on plugin development
RainLoop sends the user to a plugin example that is nonexistent (which they state will be filled in later), which means the user has to figure out what the process is on their own.
Con Slow development
As of writing, the last update is quite a while ago. New features/security is not updated regularly
Con Too many js and ajax calls
Con Lack of documentation
Wiki is almost blank and no real installation instructions.
Con Free version very limited
You can't change nothing with free version. Neither add your image logo on login screen. You can't change the templates, can't change the form to send mail.
Con Questionable start
The developer created RainLoop while working at AfterLogic. You can read more about it here.
Con No unified account view
Con Security
Missing .htaccess file for the data folder.
Con Raises security concerns since it's written in PHP
The language itself and the library ecosystem has a bad security track record.