Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Squirrelmail VS ForthWrite

Compare Squirrelmail VS ForthWrite and see what are their differences

Squirrelmail logo Squirrelmail

SquirrelMail is a standards-based webmail package written in PHP.

ForthWrite logo ForthWrite

Email that sounds like you, and gets measurably more like you every week. Drafts in Gmail, Outlook, and the browser. Free to start.
Visit Website
  • Squirrelmail Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-23
  • ForthWrite Landing Page
    Landing Page //
    2026-06-19
  • ForthWrite Dashboard
    Dashboard //
    2026-06-19
  • ForthWrite In Gmail
    In Gmail //
    2026-06-19
  • ForthWrite Pricing
    Pricing //
    2026-06-19

ForthWrite is an AI email writing assistant for Gmail and Outlook that learns your writing style from your real sent mail. The more you use it, the more it sounds like you. Get smart drafts in seconds, auto-draft replies before you open your inbox, and maintain your personal voice at scale. Free to start, no credit card required. Works inside Gmail and Outlook on the web.

How it works

ForthWrite captures your tone, sentence rhythm, and sign-offs from your actual sent emails, then uses that profile to generate drafts that match how you write, not a generic AI voice. Every draft you edit or send improves the model over time.

Key features

  • Auto-draft: replies waiting in Gmail before you open your inbox
  • Voice matching from your real sent mail, not templates
  • Recipient-aware drafts that adapt to who you are emailing
  • Prompt Lab for version-controlling and A/B testing your persona prompt
  • BYOK support: bring your own API key for Claude, OpenAI, Grok, Mistral, and more
  • Works in Gmail and Outlook on the web, plus a standalone browser widget
  • Training data export and full data portability

Who uses it

Professionals who send high volumes of relationship-critical email: lawyers, financial advisors, recruiters, account executives, founders, and anyone who wants their inbox handled without sounding like a chatbot wrote it.

Pricing

Free tier includes 10 drafts per week with no credit card required. Paid plans start at $12/month and include unlimited drafts, custom persona prompts, and auto-draft.

Squirrelmail

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

ForthWrite

$ Details
freemium $12.0 / Monthly (Standard plan)
Platforms
Web
Release Date
2026 June
Startup details
Country
United States
State
California
City
San Diego
Founder(s)
Curtis Boortz
Employees
1 - 9

Squirrelmail features and specs

  • Lightweight
    SquirrelMail is extremely lightweight, making it suitable for small server environments and users with limited resources.
  • Compatibility
    The platform is compatible with any IMAP server and supports a range of popular email features, ensuring broad accessibility.
  • Security
    SquirrelMail focuses on security, providing a robust email environment with minimal vulnerabilities.
  • Simplistic Interface
    The straightforward, no-frills interface makes it easy for users to get accustomed to the platform without a steep learning curve.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source, it allows users and developers to modify and customize the software as needed, promoting a collaborative development environment.

Possible disadvantages of Squirrelmail

  • Outdated Appearance
    The user interface of SquirrelMail appears dated compared to modern webmail clients, which may be unappealing to users accustomed to more contemporary designs.
  • Limited Features
    While it covers basic email functionalities, SquirrelMail lacks many advanced features offered by other webmail clients, such as integrated calendars and task management.
  • Maintenance
    SquirrelMail's development has slowed down over the years, and it may not receive frequent updates or new features, potentially impacting long-term usability.
  • Customization Complexity
    Although it is open source, customizing SquirrelMail requires substantial technical knowledge, making it challenging for users without programming expertise.
  • No Built-in Mobile Support
    The platform lacks a native mobile interface, requiring additional steps or third-party solutions for satisfactory mobile device compatibility.

ForthWrite features and specs

  • Voice Matching
    Learns from your real sent mail, not templates
  • Auto-draft replies
    Replies waiting in Gmail before you open your inbox
  • Batch-drafting
    Draft replies for your entire inbox with one click
  • Works in browser
    Gmail, Outlook, and web browsers
  • BYOK support
    Claude, OpenAI, Grok, Mistral, and more
  • Prompt Lab
    Version control and A/B test your persona prompt
  • Free tier
    10 drafts per week, no credit card required

Analysis of ForthWrite

Overall verdict

  • I don't have verified information about a product called ForthWrite (forthwrite.ai). I cannot confirm its features, quality, or reputation, so I'm unable to provide an accurate assessment of whether it's good.

Why this product is good

  • No reliable data available on this specific product in my knowledge base
  • This may be a newer product, a niche tool, or possibly a fictional/hypothetical name
  • Providing details without verified information could result in inaccurate or fabricated claims

Recommended for

  • Unable to determine without verified product information
  • Consider checking the official website, user reviews on platforms like G2 or Trustpilot, and independent tech review sites for accurate details

Squirrelmail videos

How to Setup a Complete Mail Server Postfix using 'SquirrelMail' Webmail on Ubuntu/Debian

More videos:

  • Tutorial - SquirrelMail Tutorial Series - 6 of 12 - How to manage your address book

ForthWrite videos

No ForthWrite videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Squirrelmail and ForthWrite)
Email
79 79%
21% 21
Writing Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Enterprise Communication
100 100%
0% 0
Self-hosted Email
100 100%
0% 0

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Squirrelmail and ForthWrite.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

ForthWrite's answer:

Next.js, React, Supabase, Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, Stripe, Vercel, Chrome Extensions API

What makes your product unique?

ForthWrite's answer:

ForthWrite learns your writing style from your actual sent mail, not a generic prompt. Every draft sounds like you wrote it because it was trained on how you actually write. It also auto-drafts replies before you open your inbox, so your email is partially handled before your day starts.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

ForthWrite's answer:

Most AI email tools give you a blank box and a "write for me" button. ForthWrite builds a voice profile from your sent history and gets more accurate with every draft you edit or send. Unlike ChatGPT or Gemini, it works natively inside Gmail and Outlook with no copy-paste. Unlike Lavender, it writes the draft, not just scores it.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

ForthWrite's answer:

Professionals who send high volumes of relationship-critical email and cannot afford to sound generic: lawyers, financial advisors, recruiters, account executives, consultants, and founders managing their own inbox.

What's the story behind your product?

ForthWrite's answer:

Built out of frustration with AI writing tools that produce text that sounds nothing like the person sending it, and as a way to handle large amounts of daily email. The core insight was that your sent mail is the best training data you already have, and no tool was using it.

User comments

Share your experience with using Squirrelmail and ForthWrite. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Squirrelmail and ForthWrite

Squirrelmail Reviews

Top 15 Self-hosted open-source free web-based email clients
SquirrelMail supports IMAP and SMTP protocols, and does not require JavaScript to render HTML pages or HTML message. It also supports mail attachments, MIME, spam messages filter, messages highlighting, address books, and offers folders support.
Source: medevel.com
5 open source webmail clients for browser-based email
I used to use Squirrelmail, and then moved on to Roundcube. The problem I've had with these has mainly been that it uses the old folder paradigm (thus also requiring an external system for filtering rules). Sieve scripts are fine for neckbeards but definitely not the sort of experience that most users are going to want. I've not really seen anything yet that uses labels &...
Source: opensource.com

ForthWrite Reviews

  1. curtisboortz
    ยท Founder at ForthWrite ยท
    I built ForthWrite to fix generic AI email, and I still use it every day

    I built ForthWrite because I kept sending emails that sounded like they came from the same generic AI as everyone else. After launching it, I still use it for my own inbox every day, which is about the most honest endorsement I can give.

    The Chrome extension lives inside Gmail and Outlook on the web. Open a thread, hit Alt+Shift+D, and a draft comes back in your voice, not a template. The free tier is real: 10 drafts per week, no API key, no credit card. Voice matching is included on free, because that is the point.

    What keeps it useful compared to Gemini or a chat tab: it learns from what you actually send. Every edit you make before hitting send becomes a signal. Over time the drafts drift closer to how you really write, and the dashboard shows the improvement curve so you can see it happening.

    The web compose surface lets you draft from forthwrite.ai without installing anything, useful for people who want to try before committing to the extension.

    Standard adds recipient-aware and intent-aware drafting plus AI coaching. Pro adds auto-draft (replies waiting when you open Gmail), batch replies, and Prompt Lab for version-controlling your prompts. Teams adds a shared persona and seat-level analytics.

    ForthWrite is not for everyone. If you just need quick replies and tone does not matter, Gemini is free and already in your inbox. ForthWrite is for people where tone does matter: client communication, relationship-driven threads, external correspondence where sounding off costs something real.

    Disclosure: I am the founder and use it daily. Happy to answer questions in the comments.

    ๐Ÿ Competitors: Jace.ai, Fyxer, Mailmeteor
    ๐Ÿ‘ Pros:    Drafts land inside gmail and outlook; no copy-pasting from a chat window|Voice matching is on the free tier, not paywalled behind paid plans|No api key, no credit card to start; free tier runs on a server-side proxy|Learns from every edit you make before sending; drafts improve over time|Full keyboard flow: alt+shift+d to draft in any thread, no mouse required|Byok on paid plans, 9 providers supported, keys encrypted at rest|Web compose at forthwrite.ai works without installing the extension at all
    ๐Ÿ‘Ž Cons:    10 free drafts/week is enough to evaluate, not enough for a heavy inbox|Auto-draft, batch replies, and prompt lab all require the pro tier|Early-stage product; fewer third-party integrations than mature inbox tools|No mobile app: the extension and add-in are desktop-only (chrome on web, or the outlook desktop add-in)

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Squirrelmail seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 4 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Squirrelmail mentions (4)

  • Meet PostPilot
    Have a local mail server be part of your development environment, along with a frontend like SquirrelMail or RainLoop. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Selfhosted Email by Maddy on Oracle Cloud
    It was removed from Debian in 2016. But there seems to be some recent activity: , . - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Goodbye HTML Gmail
    > I wonder what is the best self-hosted alternative is. For a webmail client probably [SquirrelMail](https://squirrelmail.org/). It's over 2 decades old, still maintained, and kept to its original simplicity. - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
  • Is there a way to receive emails on old computers?
    That would not be too hard and only requires a few lines of code to create a TLS proxy. An alternative would be a webmail system if you have a web browser on your old computer. Squirrel mail is extremely basic and is likely going to work in old browsers as long as they support framesets. Source: over 5 years ago

ForthWrite mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of ForthWrite yet. Tracking of ForthWrite recommendations started around Jun 2026.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Squirrelmail and ForthWrite, you can also consider the following products

Roundcube - Web-based IMAP email client

ReclaimAI - Helps users prioritize their work and personal calendars

Rainloop - RainLoop is a web based email client.

Superhuman - Superhuman is an email management tool.

Mailpile - Mailpile is a modern, fast web-mail client with user-friendly encryption and privacy features.

Shortwave - Email smarter & faster with a reinvented experience for your Gmail