# aerc vs meli

- aerc: Terminal email client written in Go with IMAP, JMAP, Maildir and notmuch backends and an embedded terminal for editing.
- meli: Terminal email client written in Rust with IMAP, JMAP, notmuch, Maildir, mbox and NNTP backends and TOML configuration.

## Differences

- On Windows, aerc runs through WSL and meli is not available.
- On Android, aerc runs through Termux and meli is not available.
- aerc has calendar support; meli does not.
- aerc is written in Go; meli in Rust.
- Configuration: aerc uses INI-style files: accounts.conf, aerc.conf, binds.conf, and meli uses TOML file (config.toml).

## Side by side

| | aerc | meli |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| License | MIT | EUPL 1.2 or GPL 3.0 or later |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Through WSL | Not supported |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Through Termux | Not supported |
| IMAP | Yes | Yes |
| POP3 | No | No |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | Yes | Yes |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | Yes | Yes |
| notmuch | Yes | Yes |
| OpenPGP | Yes | Yes |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | Yes | via script |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in; server-side for IMAP and JMAP; notmuch queries | built-in; sqlite3 index by default; notmuch queries |
| HTML mail | via filters, w3m by default | via filter command, w3m by default |
| Mouse | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | with mbsync or OfflineIMAP through the Maildir backend; IMAP header cache | IMAP header cache in sqlite3; full offline use with Maildir and mbsync |
| Calendar | Yes | No |
| Contacts | via address-book-cmd, e.g. khard or the bundled carddav-query | built-in contact list; reads vCard and mutt alias files |
| Vim-style keys | Yes | Yes |
| Configuration | INI-style files: accounts.conf, aerc.conf, binds.conf | TOML file (config.toml) |

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