The Horde webmail has been with us since our beginnings, but its lifespan has come to an end, and in the days following November 28, we will have to say goodbye to it. Its natural replacement will be the Roundcube webmail, which we have already taken care of equipping so that you do not miss anything in your normal workflow.
At WNPower we love that you have tools and a variety of options to work more comfortably, but over time, some applications become old, reach their technological limit, and are soon displaced by the same users by others, as happened over time. with Horde.
Almost 90% of the users of the email services included in WNPower hosting plans use Roundcube, which convinced us to retire it, online with our friends at cPanel.
Why Horde will be discontinued
As you already know, Horde has been with us for a long time, when cPanel offered 3 webmail interfaces: a very basic, almost precarious one, called SquirrelMail, which was stopped being offered in 2018; Horde, which we are talking about and which will stop being offered as of November 28, 2022; and Roundcube, which was the most adopted and the one that has evolved the most over time.
The user interface and user experience were some of the reasons why it was decided to remove Horde. Its outdated appearance, similar to that of websites from the mid-2000s, hindered new generations of users and satisfied only a small portion of the public that consumed it.
Another reason why we believe that the decision to withdraw it is correct is the issue of security. Horde is an old software that, although it has had maintenance and patches, the efforts to keep it alive on the part of its developer were only enough to prolong its operation over time. Something similar happens here to what we told you about PHP versions.
In addition to the issue of user experience, security and reach, we prefer to strive to maintain a single interface rather than dividing our efforts into several applications for the same purpose. Based on UX, it is better for the user to have a single interface that meets all of their expectations than to have to decide between two options where it is not clear which is better.
What will happen to the data I have stored in the Horde webmail
Both your email messages and your webmail folders will remain intact and you will not lose a single email, so you don’t have to worry about anything. Even if you check today and open the Roundcube interface, you will see that you have the same messages as in Horde and in the same order (but in a better webmail).
As specified by the developer of the cPanel control panel in its feature and app deprecation plan, when the time comes to remove it, the system will automatically move webmail data such as contacts and other settings.
If you’re still using Horde, then you don’t need to worry about your data or your email accounts. Only the user experience will change, you will navigate safer and the change will be for the better.
Roundcube Features
Roundcube is one of the most popular webmail used by many of the world’s hosting providers and, as we told you, it offers a fairly simple to use interface with the power of some additional built-in features that make it quite similar to the providers’ webmail. top like Gmail or Hotmail.
Roundcube highlights:
- It has a 3-window view: on the left the folders, in the center the messages, and on the right the content of the message.
- It is quite comfortable with composing emails in HTML format (inserting images, links, attachments, etc.).
- It works great on almost any device no matter what screen resolution it has.
- It has a light mode and a dark mode depending on your preference.
- The interface is drag and drop, that is, drag and drop to move messages from one place to another.
- Allows you to manage your contact list and calendars shared with other domain and external users, such as Google Calendar.
- It has a rich spell checker.
How to switch to Roundcube right now
If you want to get ahead of the game and start using Roundcube right now, we explain the steps here.
Within Horde, click on the “cPanel Webmail Home” link in the header. This will take you to the anteroom screen that will allow you to select the other interface: Roundcube.