Roundcube was founded in 2005 by Thomas Bruederli and Robert Lechner in Switzerland. The project emerged to address the need for a modern, browser-based IMAP webmail client that could provide a desktop-like user experience. The first public release (version 0.1) was made available in January 2008.
The project quickly gained traction in the open-source community due to its:
Key milestones:
Roundcube continued to evolve with regular releases addressing security, usability, and modern web standards:
Roundcube remains actively maintained with a strong community of contributors:
The project continues to receive regular security updates and feature improvements, making it one of the most popular self-hosted webmail solutions.
| Version | Year | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| 0.2 | 2008 | First stable release, basic IMAP support |
| 0.4 | 2010 | Address book, multiple identities |
| 0.6 | 2011 | Mobile-friendly skins |
| 1.0 | 2013 | HTML5 support, improved compose |
| 1.3 | 2017 | Two-factor authentication |
| 1.4 | 2018 | Elastic responsive skin |
| 1.5 | 2020 | Enhanced search, threading |
| 1.6 | 2021+ | Modern PHP support, security improvements |