Upcoming SquirrelMail Removal

The SquirrelMail webmail suite will be removed from our servers probably around the end of 2018. An exact date has not been determined, but it will be removed before the calendar turns over to 2019.

Why is SquirrelMail being removed?
SquirrelMail is a simple, yet very old piece of software. The last version of SquirrelMail was released in July 2011 and the last update was in May 2013, so that’s over 5 years old since it was last updated. It just simply isn’t coded to work with modern day versions of PHP. It also lacks a lot of features that are present in modern day webmail applications.

The decision to remove SquirrelMail is being made by cPanel. They have packaged SquirrelMail with their software for quite some time and tried to maintain it the best they can, but the time has come to just kill it off and use other, better alternatives.

What can I use to replace SquirrelMail?
We recommend using Roundcube, it is also an available webmail application provided by cPanel. When you log into webmail, simply click the option to use Roundcube.

Roundcube is another simple webmail application, much like SquirrelMail. But Roundcube has a much more modern feel to it and is still being actively developed.

We would encourage you to begin switching over to Roundcube as soon as possible. Since SquirrelMail is just a basic webmail application, there should not be a lot tying you to it, making the transition to Roundcube a bit easier.

We don’t really recommend switching to Horde webmail. Horde webmail is a great webmail application suite and it offers several productivity tools. But if you were using SquirrelMail chances are you are just needing a simple webmail application, Roundcube fits better in that situation.

My webmail automatically logs me into SquirrelMail, how do I get to Roundcube?
In the top-right corner of the webmail screen, next to the Logout button you’ll see your email account with a drop down icon. Click on that email account link. This will bring down a drop down menu where you can select to use Roundcube.

You can click the star icon next to Roundcube to make it the default webmail suite that you will be logged into when you next log into webmail.

Will Horde and/or Roundcube be removed?
No, this is only referring to SquirrelMail. Horde and Roundcube will remain active.

I don’t know if any of my email users are using SquirrelMail
We will be sending out notices in the next few weeks to accounts that are using SquirrelMail, letting the web hosting account owners know about this so they can be making arrangements to move off of SquirrelMail.

When will SquirrelMail be removed?
We don’t have an exact timetable for this. Our hope is that as we start sending out notices, more and more people will stop using SquirrelMail and we can remove it sooner rather than later. We don’t specifically know when cPanel will remove SquirrelMail. We hope to be able to remove it before cPanel does. Either way, barring something unforeseen, SquirrelMail will definitely be removed before January 2019.

As always if you need to contact us, simply submit a support ticket and we will answer any questions you may have.