# Alpine vs Forward Email

- Alpine: Menu-driven terminal email client descended from Pine, with built-in help, setup screens and native Windows builds.
- Forward Email: Forward Email's webmail in the terminal: mail, calendar, contacts and settings, with mouse support and a key hint bar.

## Differences

- Forward Email connects to Forward Email accounts through its API; Alpine works with any provider over IMAP, including Forward Email.
- Alpine has S/MIME; Forward Email does not.
- Alpine has OAuth2 sign-in; Forward Email does not.
- Alpine is written in C; Forward Email in TypeScript.
- Configuration: Alpine uses built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc, and Forward Email uses settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css.
- Forward Email is source-available (Business Source License 1.1); Alpine is open source (Apache 2.0).

## Side by side

| | Alpine | Forward Email |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | C | TypeScript |
| License | Apache 2.0 | Business Source License 1.1 |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Native |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Through Termux | Through Termux |
| IMAP | Yes | Forward Email API |
| POP3 | Yes | Forward Email API |
| SMTP | Yes | Forward Email API |
| JMAP | No | Forward Email API |
| Maildir | No | Forward Email API |
| mbox | Yes | Forward Email API |
| notmuch | No | Forward Email API |
| 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, across messages, contacts and events |
| HTML mail | built-in HTML-to-text rendering | shown as formatted text with links; plain text by default |
| Mouse | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | No | drafts and changes made offline are sent when the connection returns |
| Calendar | Yes | Yes |
| Contacts | built-in address book; LDAP lookup | Yes |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc | settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css |

Pages: [Alpine](https://terminalemail.com/clients/alpine/index.md), [Forward Email](https://terminalemail.com/clients/forward-email/index.md)