Nextcloud Mail vs Separate Webmail Apps (SOGo/Roundcube) on Cloudron

[IniBudi]

Hi everyone,

I’d like to ask for some opinions and experiences regarding email apps on Cloudron.

If you already have Nextcloud installed on your server, do you also install a separate webmail app such as SOGo or Roundcube on the same Cloudron instance?

I noticed that Nextcloud has a Mail app that can integrate with Cloudron’s email system. Because of this, I’m wondering:

• What are the reasons or advantages for still installing SOGo or Roundcube
  when Nextcloud already provides email functionality?
• Are there any limitations or issues with Nextcloud Mail that make SOGo or Roundcube a better choice in some situations?

I’m looking for different points of view because I’m not yet fully familiar with the pros and cons of each approach.

Any recommendations, example setups, or best practices from your own deployments would be very helpful.

Thank you in advance for your insights.

Best regards.

[andreasdueren]

It's really a matter of taste. I have also SOGo installed, mainly because it enables active-sync.

[fbartels]

Sure, the Nextcloud Mail app looks nice, but at least on my setup it is also really slow (Firefox even shows a "this page is slowing down Firefox" message). A mail client needs to be easy to use and fast and from the apps available on Cloudron Roundcube is the better choice.

[IniBudi]

After doing more research on this email topic, I’ve gained some very useful insights.

As mentioned earlier by @andreasdueren, the ActiveSync support is a strong point for SOGo.

I also took note of @fbartels’s comment that Roundcube generally feels faster and lighter compared to the Mail app in Nextcloud.

To better understand the security aspect, I asked ChatGPT and Gemini about Roundcube vs SOGo.

Based on their answers and some public vulnerability data, the rough conclusion I got is:

• SOGo appears to be “more secure” than Roundcube if we look purely at the frequency and severity of reported vulnerabilities,
• For example, there have been fewer recent high‑impact issues (such as major RCE vulnerabilities) publicly associated with SOGo than with Roundcube.

Do you agree with this assessment, or is there important context I might be missing?

Thank you again for all the insights shared so far. They’ve been very helpful.

[humptydumpty]

Idk much about the sec vulnerabilities but RC has never been down for me. The last thing you want is the inability to access your email. Iirc I’ve seen sogo app issues.

[crazybrad]

ActiveSync is great (and terrible) at the same time. It eats resources and at times can be delicate. We use that for most of our email.

That being said, since mailboxes are really hosted by Cloudron under the hood, I think RC and Sogo can be hosted as mail client apps at the same time. Offering RC to "simple" users and Sogo (with ActiveSync) to "power" users, while hosting both on the same Cloudron.