# Alpine vs Cone

- Alpine: Menu-driven terminal email client descended from Pine, with built-in help, setup screens and native Windows builds.
- Cone: Full-screen console mail client and newsreader from the Courier mail server project.

## Differences

- Only Cone has built-in Maildir.
- On Linux, Alpine runs natively and Cone builds from source.
- On macOS, Alpine runs natively and Cone is not available.
- On Windows, Alpine runs natively and Cone runs through WSL.
- On Android, Alpine runs through Termux and Cone is not available.
- Alpine has mouse support; Cone does not.
- Alpine has calendar support; Cone does not.
- Alpine has S/MIME; Cone does not.
- Alpine has OAuth2 sign-in; Cone does not.
- Alpine is written in C; Cone in C++.
- Configuration: Alpine uses built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc, and Cone uses interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone.

## Side by side

| | Alpine | Cone |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | C | C++ |
| License | Apache 2.0 | GPL 3.0 |
| Linux | Native | Build from source |
| macOS | Native | Not supported |
| Windows | Native | Through WSL |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Through Termux | Not supported |
| IMAP | Yes | Yes |
| POP3 | Yes | Yes |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | No | No |
| Maildir | No | Yes |
| mbox | Yes | Yes |
| notmuch | No | No |
| OpenPGP | via plugin | Yes |
| S/MIME | Yes | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | Yes | No |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in search and message selection; server-side for IMAP | built-in folder search; server-side on IMAP |
| HTML mail | built-in HTML-to-text rendering | built-in HTML renderer |
| Mouse | Yes | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | No | No |
| Calendar | Yes | No |
| Contacts | built-in address book; LDAP lookup | built-in address books, stored locally, in an IMAP folder, or on LDAP |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc | interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone |

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