Switching Webmail Clients

Email is a vital part of your hosting account that doesn’t require a specific email client in order to read, write, or manage your emails. Your cPanel account comes with two webmail clients that you can use to access your emails: Horde and Roundcube. Squirrelmail was previously a pre-loaded webmail client, but since the software has not been updated since 2013, it is no longer a default option with an InMotion Hosting account. It can be loaded through the Softaculous installer in cPanel, but we recommend using a more up-to-date application for your security. Finding and switching between webmail clients may appear difficult at first, but you’ll find that it’s actually very easy. To help you in switching webmail clients, we will walk you through:

How to Switch between Horde and Roundcube

When you first log in to your email account using the webmail link you will see a default page to choose your default webmail application. You will be able to choose either Horde or Roundcube. However, if you have selected an application, then you may wonder how to switch to the other application. We’ll show you a few ways to move between the different webmail clients.

Follow the video to see how to use the webmail interface to switch between Horde and Roundcube webmail applications. The steps are also listed below.
  1. Login to your Webmail interface.
  2. In the top right corner click on the drop-down arrow next to your email address. You will see this option regardless of the webmail client selected.
  3. At the top of the list, you will see the option for Horde or Roundcube. Select the webmail client that you wish to use.

This will bring you to the webmail client of your choice.

Note that if you stay on the webmail client for a long time then the session may expire and require that you sign back in.

Installing Other Webmail Clients in Softaculous

You have other options for webmail clients than just Horde or Roundcube available through a software installer called Softaculous. Softaculous is available on all shared hosting accounts and can be added to VPS or Dedicated server accounts. You can use Softaculous to find some different options to access your email through the web. Here are the options that you can select:

  • Webmail Lite
  • RainLoop Webmail
  • Squirrelmail

Each of these mail clients can be installed on your account and then accessed from an internet browser. Each application is a webmail application that you can use to write, read, or manage your email accounts. Squirrelmail is still available here, but as per our previous note, it has not been updated in several years. We recommend the other applications as they are more recent and updated. Roundcube is also available, but not listed since it is already installed and ready for you to use. For more information on installing applications from Softaculous, please see our tutorial How to Install Programs Using Softaculous or follow the steps illustrated and listed below:

  • Log in to cPanel
  • Select Softaculous
  • Find and select email client
  • Install email client
  • Email client installation settings

Use the forward and back arrows above to see the screenshots for each step below.

  1. Login to your cPanel account.
  2. Scroll through the cPanel options and find the Softaculous application installer.
  3. In the menu at left, click on Mails. Select the webmail client that you want to use.
  4. Softaculous will have an option to install the application. Click on the blue button labeled Install Now in the Installation tab.
  5. Follow the instructions to install the applications. You will need to have your email settings to complete this portion of the installation. Note: You can select a specific directory to install the application, but be aware that it will affect the URL that you use to access the application. For example, if you use webmail for the installation directory, then the URL used would be https://example-domain.com/webmail.
  6. Softaculous will complete the installation and then provide you with the URL to access the application.

Congratulations! You now know the simplicity of switching webmail clients in your InMotion Hosting hosting account. You can switch with the existing webmail clients (Horde and Roundcube) or even load a new one using Softaculous. To learn more about using email with your web hosting account, please see the Everything Email Education Channel.

AC
Arnel Custodio Content Writer I

As a writer for InMotion Hosting, Arnel has always aimed to share helpful information and provide knowledge that will help solve problems and aid in achieving goals. He's also been active with WordPress local community groups and events since 2004.

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