SnappyMail

A lightweight PHP webmail client forked from RainLoop, with PGP, Sieve filters and dark mode, that runs without a database.

1.8k stars, 242 forks PHP On GitHub since March 2020

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

SnappyMail at a glance

Open sourceYes, AGPL-3.0No paid parts in the repository
Health75 of 100Actively developed
Self-hostingDockerOne-click in YunoHost
Interface67 languagesIncluding English, German and French
Issue repliesWithin ~29 hoursMedian first reply; 78% of recent issues answered

What is SnappyMail?

SnappyMail gives IMAP users a browser mail client that loads quickly on phones and slow links. It began as a fork of the RainLoop community edition and stripped out jQuery, old polyfills and social integrations, cutting the user-side JavaScript to roughly a third of RainLoop's size. Encryption works through OpenPGP.js, GnuPG or Mailvelope, including ECDSA and EdDSA keys. It adds an advanced Sieve script editor, a Squire-based HTML composer, Kolab support and notifications via a service worker. POP3 support was removed, and only current browsers are supported.

Good fit if

  • You want webmail with built-in PGP and server-side filter editing.
  • You run a small PHP host and do not want to maintain a database for the client.
  • Your users need the interface in their own language; it is translated into 67.

Look elsewhere if

  • You need a client backed by a larger contributor base: Roundcube.
  • You want one view across several accounts, including Exchange: Cypht.

Before you adopt it

SnappyMail is AGPL-3.0, after the license moved from MIT to AGPL-3.0 in September 2022 when a RainLoop merge was reverted. RainLoop's premium licensing code was removed, and no paid parts remain in the repository. The repository sits under a personal account, and one developer writes nearly 90 percent of recent commits, so the project depends heavily on that person. It needs PHP 7.4 or newer with mbstring; a Docker setup is included, and the wiki covers installation and Fail2ban.

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 SnappyMail yourself

One-click install

Not listed in Umbrel, TrueNAS, Unraid, 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
ghcr.io/the-djmaze/snappymail: x86, x86-64, ARM64
Compose file
docker-compose.yml: 4 services (mysql)
Setup effort
3 of 5, judged from the compose file
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Packages
AUR, Nix and FreeBSD versions on Repology
Desktop and mobile
No app builds in GitHub releases
Interface languages
67 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish
Show all 67

Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Aragonese, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Basque, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Japanese, Kannada, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Malay, Mongolian, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Occitan, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Turkmen, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh

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

SnappyMail health: is it still maintained?

75 of 100, actively developed

Release rhythmEvery ~17 days3 releases in 12 months; latest v3.0.1
Issue repliesWithin ~29 hoursMedian first reply; 78% of recent issues answered
Bus factorHigh riskThe most active of 5 authors wrote 93% of recent commits
  • Activity
    265 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 11 November 2026.
    29 / 30
  • Contributors
    5 people wrote the latest 100 commits; the most active wrote 93% of them.
    10 / 20
  • Releases
    3 releases in the last 12 months; the latest, v3.0.1, on 9 November 2026.
    15 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 78% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 29 hours.
    16 / 20
  • Security practices
    No OpenSSF Scorecard for this repository yet, so this part gets a neutral score.
    5 / 10

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

SnappyMail 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.

Security advisories11 published1 critical, 1 high; 9 list a fixed version

Latest advisories

All 11 advisories on GitHub

Advisories read from GitHub on 12 November 2026.

SnappyMail license: is it open source?

SnappyMail uses AGPL-3.0, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. March 2020First published on GitHub under MIT.
  2. 1 September 2022Changed to AGPL-3.0. Commit: Revert RainLoop merge that caused MIT vs AGPL
  3. TodayAGPL-3.0.

SnappyMail for developers

Written in

  • PHP 70%
  • JavaScript 22%
  • HTML 3%
  • CSS 3%
  • Less 1%
  • Other <1%

Getting involved

Help wanted6Open, labelled “help wanted”Contributing guideYesCONTRIBUTING.mdOpen issues130On GitHub
Authors, 90 days5Of the latest 100 commits
Donations2 waysGitHub Sponsors, own page

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

Alternatives to SnappyMail

  • MailuInsular email distribution - mail server as Docker images 76 health · MIT · 7.6k stars
  • Moxmodern full-featured open source secure mail server for low-maintenance self-hosted email 59 health · MIT · 5.9k stars
  • Mail-in-a-BoxMail-in-a-Box helps individuals take back control of their email by defining a one-click, easy-to-deploy… 53 health · CC0-1.0 · 15.5k stars
  • AnonAddyAnonymous email forwarding 53 health · AGPL-3.0 · 5k stars
  • RoundcubeThe Roundcube Webmail suite 86 health · GPL-3.0 · 7.3k stars

All 17 projects in Email servers & webmail

Questions about SnappyMail

Is SnappyMail open source?

Yes. SnappyMail is published under AGPL-3.0, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is SnappyMail still maintained?

Its health score is 75 of 100 (actively developed). It had 265 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 11 November 2026, and its latest release came out on 9 November 2026.

Did SnappyMail change its license?

Yes. It moved from MIT to AGPL-3.0 on 1 September 2022.

How do I run SnappyMail?

You can run it with the Docker image ghcr.io/the-djmaze/snappymail and in one click from YunoHost. The README on GitHub has the exact steps.

What is SnappyMail written in?

SnappyMail is written mainly in PHP (70% of the code), with JavaScript (22%), by GitHub’s count of the repository.

What languages is SnappyMail available in?

The repository has interface translations for 67 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish and Russian.

What are the alternatives to SnappyMail?

Close alternatives in the Email servers & webmail category include Mailu, Mox, Mail-in-a-Box.