Version history
| Developer(s) | Kopano BV |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 8.7.25 / February 23, 2022 |
| Written in | C++2014 |
| Operating system | Linux, OpenBSD |
| Type | Groupware |
| License | AGPL-3 |
| Website | kopano |
| Developer(s) | Kopano BV |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 5.3.2 / May 25, 2023 |
| Written in | PHP |
| Operating system | Linux, OpenBSD, Windows, Macintosh |
| License | AGPL-3 |
| Developer(s) | Kopano BV |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 2.7 / May 8, 2020 |
| Written in | C++ |
| Operating system | Linux, Windows, Macintosh |
| License | AGPL-3 |
| Developer(s) | Kopano BV |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 2.1 / November 8, 2019 |
| Written in | C# |
| Operating system | Windows |
Kopano is an open-source groupware application suite originally based on Zarafa. The initial version of Kopano Core (KC) was forked from the then-current release of (the open-source parts of) Zarafa Collaboration Platform, and superseded ZCP in terms of lineage as ZCP switched to maintenance mode with patches flowing from KC. Kopano WebApp similarly descended from Zarafa WebApp. Since October 2017, Kopano Core is also known more specifically as Kopano Groupware Core, since Kopano B.V. developed more products that were not directly requiring groupware components.
The original goal of ZCP was to be a replacement for Microsoft Exchange, [1] so that users could retain Outlook as a client application. While Kopano's business strategy has shifted towards providing a comprehensive office collaboration suite in its own right, Kopano Core supports connections from Outlook clients either via Z-push/ActiveSync, or the last Windows MAPI plugin from Zarafa. [2]
The Kopano Outlook Extension add-in for Outlook provides the Outlook functionality that ActiveSync alone doesn't support. This includes (for example) support for Out of Office or Public Folders. ActiveSync and Kopano Outlook Extension together are therefore able to fully integrate the Kopano backend within Outlook in a corporate environment.
WebApp plugins exist to perform advanced group tasks such as accessing cloud based storage solutions (e.g. owncloud / nextcloud), for integrated video conference (webmeetings) or for handling S/MIME email within WebApp.
A desktop application, DeskApp, is also available. This is the same look and feel as WebApp but integrates directly with the user's desktop and it is available for Windows, Linux or Mac.
All server-side components (Kopano Core) and WebApp are published under the Affero General Public License (AGPL).
Microsoft Outlook, as well as Kopano/Zarafa clients, uses MAPI at the source code level. So-called MAPI providers (essentially plugins) abstract and take care of the underlying transport mechanism. Kopano-server exposes its functionality over stream sockets and uses the HTTP protocol, with data being serialized using SOAP/XML. The commands sent in the XML data are specific to Kopano/Zarafa. Conversely, the Kopano MAPI provider implements this protocol on the client side. These HTTP connections can be secured with TLS/SSL and be proxied if desired.
Because Exchange instead uses MAPI/RPC on the wire, the stock Outlook connector for Exchange could not be used and traditionally required the Windows version of the Zarafa MAPI provider (a product that is proprietary and unsupported since 2016–04). Outlook versions 2013 and 2016, support ActiveSync, a protocol also used by many mobile clients, and by using the Z-push software on the server side, ActiveSync requests can be translated and such clients can effectively talk to a Kopano server as well.
Kopano Core generally stores its data in a MySQL-compatible database. Attachments can be saved on the filesystem, Amazon S3, or the database may be used to place chunked blobs. The server can get its user information from LDAP/Active Directory, Unix user accounts or the MySQL database. Additional gateways for the IMAP, POP3 and iCalendar/CalDAV protocols are provided.
Kopano WebApp (and DeskApp which is the equivalent stand-alone application) are full-featured applications which include support for mail, calendars, group calendars, public folders and many more functionalities. WebApp can be integrated with many plugins which can be added to the installation. Kopano provides several plugins such as Files (cloud and storage access within WebApp), WebMeetings (video conference) and S/MIME (which allows reading and sending encrypted email).
Any developer can, however, write additional plugins using the WebApp plugin API.
Kopano is available as a freely downloadable community edition. The community edition gives the users access to the main branch builds which includes the very latest code as overnight builds. The Kopano community edition includes all the advanced and premium features such as WebMeetings (Video Conferencing), Kopano Files (cloud storage access) and the S/MIME plugin (which allows sending or receiving encrypted email).
Kopano is also available as a paid-for product where official Kopano QA tested releases are provided and supported directly by Kopano.
Kopano was briefly available in a few Linux distributions. The package in e.g. Debian saw its last update in 2020/Q1, and openSUSE removed it in 2021/Q1 following build failures with contemporary toolchains.
An email client, email reader or, more formally, message user agent (MUA) or mail user agent is a computer program used to access and manage a user's email.
GNOME Evolution is the official personal information manager for GNOME. It has been an official part of GNOME since Evolution 2.0 was included with the GNOME 2.8 release in September 2004. It combines e-mail, address book, calendar, task list and note-taking features. Its user interface and functionality is similar to Microsoft Outlook. Evolution is free software licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft 365 software suites. Though primarily being popular as an email client for businesses, Outlook also includes functions such as calendaring, task managing, contact managing, note-taking, journal logging, web browsing, and RSS news aggregation.
Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) is an API for Microsoft Windows which allows programs to become email-aware. While MAPI is designed to be independent of the protocol, it is usually used to communicate with Microsoft Exchange Server.
SOGo is an open source collaborative software (groupware) server with a focus on simplicity and scalability.
Microsoft Exchange Server is a mail server and calendaring server developed by Microsoft. It runs exclusively on Windows Server operating systems.
Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format or TNEF is a proprietary email attachment format used by Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server. An attached file with TNEF encoding is most often named winmail.dat or win.dat, and has a MIME type of Application/MS-TNEF. The official (IANA) media type, however, is application/vnd.ms-tnef.
Kontact is a personal information manager and groupware software suite developed by KDE. It supports calendars, contacts, notes, to-do lists, news, and email. It offers a number of inter-changeable graphical UIs all built on top of a common core.
The following tables compare general and technical features of notable email client programs.
Kolab is a free and open source groupware suite. It consists of the Kolab server and a wide variety of Kolab clients, including KDE PIM-Suite Kontact, Roundcube web frontend, Mozilla Thunderbird and Mozilla Lightning with SyncKolab extension and Microsoft Outlook with proprietary Kolab-Connector PlugIns.
Zimbra Collaboration, formerly known as the Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) before 2019, is a collaborative software suite that includes an email server and a web client.
Push email is an email system that provides an always-on capability, in which when new email arrives at the mail delivery agent (MDA), it is immediately, actively transferred (pushed) by the MDA to the mail user agent (MUA), also called the email client, so that the end-user can see incoming email immediately. This is in contrast with systems that check for new incoming mail every so often, on a schedule. Email clients include smartphones and, less strictly, IMAP personal computer mail applications.
Bynari is a defunct company based in Dallas, developing server and email software, mainly known for its Insight Family, similar to Microsoft Exchange Server with Outlook.
Z-Push is a FOSS implementation of the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol which is used to synchronize email, personal contacts and other items between a central server and a mobile device.
Windows Live Mail is a discontinued freeware email client from Microsoft. It was the successor to Windows Mail in Windows Vista, which was the successor to Outlook Express in Windows XP and Windows 98. Windows Live Mail is designed to run on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, but is also compatible with Windows 8 and Windows 10, even though Microsoft bundles a new email client, named Windows Mail, with the latter. In addition to email, Windows Live Mail also features a calendar, an RSS feed reader, and a Usenet newsreader.
Zarafa was an open-source groupware application that originated in the city of Delft in the Netherlands. The company that developed Zarafa, previously known as Connectux, is also called Zarafa. The Zarafa groupware provided email storage on the server side and offered its own Ajax-based mail client called WebAccess and a HTML5-based, WebApp. Advanced features were available in commercially supported versions. Zarafa has been superseded by Kopano.
Exchange ActiveSync is a proprietary protocol designed for the synchronization of email, contacts, calendar, tasks, and notes from a messaging server to a smartphone or other mobile devices. The protocol also provides mobile device management and policy controls. The protocol is based on XML. The mobile device communicates over HTTP or HTTPS.
Zentyal was a open source email and groupware solution based on Ubuntu Linux. It is currently considered abandonware, due to no activity despite promises.
MailEnable is a Windows-based, commercial email server distributed by MailEnable Pty. Ltd, an Australian-based software company which was established in 2002.
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