Roundcube

Roundcube is a browser-based IMAP email client written in PHP, with address book, search, plugins and skins, for any existing mail server.

7.3k stars, 1.8k forks PHP On GitHub since May 2012

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

Roundcube at a glance

Open sourceYes, GPL-3.0No paid parts in the repository
Health86 of 100Actively developed
Self-hostingDockerOne-click in YunoHost, TrueNAS and 1 more
Interface57 languagesIncluding English, German and French
Issue repliesWithin ~11 hoursMedian first reply; 76% of recent issues answered

What is Roundcube?

Roundcube Webmail gives users a desktop-style email interface in the browser on top of an IMAP server you already run. It handles MIME messages, folders, contacts, search and spell checking. The server side is PHP and JavaScript, with an IMAP library derived from IlohaMail, and it stores its own data in MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite. A plugin API extends its features, and skins change the whole look. Translation files cover 57 interface languages. Releases follow semantic versioning, and the browser client targets current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari and Opera.

Good fit if

  • Your mailboxes are already served over IMAP and you want web access to them without a hosted mail provider.
  • You host email for users in many countries and need the interface in their language.
  • You want to add features or branding through plugins and skins.

Look elsewhere if

Before you adopt it

Roundcube is licensed under GPL version 3 or later, with an exception that lets plugins and skins calling its functions avoid being treated as modifications, so they can carry their own terms. No paid parts or contributor agreement turned up. Contributors are volunteers: 18 people committed in the last 90 days, though one of them wrote about three quarters of those commits. The latest release is 1.7.5 from October 2026. The README warns that the Git repository is a development snapshot, so install a tagged release and follow INSTALL.md and UPGRADING.md. You need a web server with PHP, a database and a separate IMAP server.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 7 November 2026. Report a correction

How to run Roundcube yourself

One-click install

Not listed in Umbrel, CasaOS, Runtipi, Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts and Coolify. Checked against each panel’s app catalog on 12 November 2026.

Ways to install

Docker files
Dockerfile or compose file in the repository
Docker image
roundcube/roundcubemail: 23M pulls · x86, x86-64, ARMv6, ARMv7, ARM64 · 267 MB download
Compose file
None in the repository
Setup effort
Not rated: no compose file to judge from
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Packages
Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, EPEL, Arch Linux, AUR, openSUSE, Gentoo and 4 more versions on Repology
Desktop and mobile
No app builds in GitHub releases
Interface languages
57 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish
Show all 57

Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Japanese, Kazakh, Khmer, Korean, Kyrgyz, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Malay, Malayalam, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Romansh, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh

Install instructions: roundcube.net or the README on GitHub. Docker images and packages are checked weekly.

Roundcube health: is it still maintained?

86 of 100, actively developed

Release rhythmEvery ~14 daysLatest: 1.7.6, 9 November 2026
Issue repliesWithin ~11 hoursMedian first reply; 76% of recent issues answered
Bus factorMedium riskThe most active of 16 authors wrote 79% of recent commits
  • Activity
    116 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 11 November 2026.
    25 / 30
  • Contributors
    16 people wrote the latest 100 commits; the most active wrote 79% of them.
    17 / 20
  • Releases
    14+ releases in the last 12 months; the latest, 1.7.6, on 9 November 2026.
    19 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 76% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 11 hours.
    18 / 20
  • Security practices
    OpenSSF Scorecard 6.8 of 10.
    7 / 10

Read from GitHub on 12 November 2026. How the score works

Roundcube security

Security advisories are the vulnerabilities the maintainers disclosed on GitHub, with the versions that fix them; many advisories can mean careful disclosure as much as weak code. OpenSSF Scorecard checks how a project is developed and released: reviews, protected branches, pinned dependencies, signed releases. It does not audit the code itself.

Security advisoriesNone publishedNo advisories in the repository’s Security tab
OpenSSF Scorecard6.8 of 10How the project is built and released
Security policyYesExplains how to report a vulnerability
Signed releasesPartlyOnly some downloads can be checked against a signature

What each Scorecard check found

  • Binary files10 / 10No compiled binaries checked into the repository
  • Dangerous workflows10 / 10No risky patterns in GitHub Actions
  • License file10 / 10A license file is present
  • Maintained10 / 10Steady commits and issue activity in the last 90 days
  • Packaging10 / 10Releases are published as packages from CI
  • Security policy10 / 10Explains how to report a vulnerability
  • Token permissions9 / 10Some CI tokens have more rights than they need
  • Signed releases8 / 10Some releases are signed
  • Pinned dependencies7 / 10Some dependencies use fixed versions
  • Branch protection3 / 10Rules on the main branch are partly enforced
  • Code review2 / 10Some changes are merged without review
  • Best-practices badge0 / 10No OpenSSF Best Practices badge
  • Fuzzing0 / 10No fuzz testing found
  • Static analysis0 / 10No static analysis found

Advisories read from GitHub on 12 November 2026. From the OpenSSF Scorecard of 26 October 2026; checks that do not apply to Roundcube are left out.

Roundcube license: is it open source?

Roundcube uses GPL-3.0, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. May 2012First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayGPL-3.0.

Roundcube for developers

Written in

  • PHP 91%
  • JavaScript 7%
  • Less 2%
  • HTML <1%
  • CSS <1%
  • Other <1%

Getting involved

Help wanted4Open, labelled “help wanted”
Contributing guideNot foundNo CONTRIBUTING file in the repository
Open issues399On GitHub
Authors, 90 days16Of the latest 100 commits

Language shares are GitHub’s count of the code in the repository.

Alternatives to Roundcube

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All 17 projects in Email servers & webmail

Questions about Roundcube

Is Roundcube open source?

Yes. Roundcube is published under GPL-3.0, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is Roundcube still maintained?

Its health score is 86 of 100 (actively developed). It had 116 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 11 November 2026, and its latest release came out on 9 November 2026.

How do I run Roundcube?

You can run it with the Docker image roundcube/roundcubemail and in one click from YunoHost, TrueNAS and Unraid. The README on GitHub has the exact steps.

What is Roundcube written in?

Roundcube is written mainly in PHP (91% of the code), with JavaScript (7%), by GitHub’s count of the repository.

What languages is Roundcube available in?

The repository has interface translations for 57 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish and Russian.

What are the alternatives to Roundcube?

Close alternatives in the Email servers & webmail category include docker-mailserver, Mailu, Mailcow.