# aerc vs Alpine

- aerc: Terminal email client written in Go with IMAP, JMAP, Maildir and notmuch backends and an embedded terminal for editing.
- Alpine: Menu-driven terminal email client descended from Pine, with built-in help, setup screens and native Windows builds.

## Differences

- Only aerc has built-in JMAP, Maildir and notmuch.
- Only Alpine has built-in POP3.
- On Windows, aerc runs through WSL and Alpine runs natively.
- Alpine has S/MIME; aerc does not.
- aerc has Vim-style keys; Alpine does not.
- aerc is written in Go; Alpine in C.
- Configuration: aerc uses INI-style files: accounts.conf, aerc.conf, binds.conf, and Alpine uses built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc.

## Side by side

| | aerc | Alpine |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | Go | C |
| License | MIT | Apache 2.0 |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Through WSL | Native |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Through Termux | Through Termux |
| IMAP | Yes | Yes |
| POP3 | No | Yes |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | Yes | No |
| Maildir | Yes | No |
| mbox | Yes | Yes |
| notmuch | Yes | No |
| OpenPGP | Yes | via plugin |
| S/MIME | No | Yes |
| OAuth2 sign-in | Yes | Yes |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in; server-side for IMAP and JMAP; notmuch queries | built-in search and message selection; server-side for IMAP |
| HTML mail | via filters, w3m by default | built-in HTML-to-text rendering |
| Mouse | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | with mbsync or OfflineIMAP through the Maildir backend; IMAP header cache | No |
| Calendar | Yes | Yes |
| Contacts | via address-book-cmd, e.g. khard or the bundled carddav-query | built-in address book; LDAP lookup |
| Vim-style keys | Yes | No |
| Configuration | INI-style files: accounts.conf, aerc.conf, binds.conf | built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc |

Pages: [aerc](https://terminalemail.com/clients/aerc/index.md), [Alpine](https://terminalemail.com/clients/alpine/index.md)