Alpine vs mblaze
Alpine: Menu-driven terminal email client descended from Pine, with built-in help, setup screens and native Windows builds.
mblaze: Set of small Unix utilities for reading, searching, threading and composing mail stored in Maildir folders.
Differences
- Alpine is a full-screen terminal client; mblaze is a command-line program.
- Only Alpine has built-in IMAP, POP3, SMTP and mbox.
- Only mblaze has built-in Maildir.
- On Windows, Alpine runs natively and mblaze runs through WSL.
- On Android, Alpine runs through Termux and mblaze is not available.
- Alpine has mouse support; mblaze does not.
- Alpine has calendar support; mblaze does not.
- Alpine has S/MIME; mblaze does not.
- Alpine has OAuth2 sign-in; mblaze does not.
- Configuration: Alpine uses built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc, and mblaze uses ~/.mblaze/profile (header-style key: value lines).
Side by side
| Alpine | mblaze | |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Command-line tools and prompts |
| Language | C | C |
| License | Apache 2.0 | CC0 1.0 and MIT |
| Latest version | 2.26 | 1.4 |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Through WSL |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Through Termux | No |
| IMAP | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| POP3 | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| SMTP | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| JMAP | No | No |
| Maildir | No | Yes |
| mbox | Yes | No |
| notmuch | No | No |
| OpenPGP | via plugin | via contrib scripts |
| S/MIME | Yes | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | Yes | No |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in search and message selection; server-side for IMAP | mpick and magrep filter messages by headers, flags and content |
| HTML mail | built-in HTML-to-text rendering | via a filter command in ~/.mblaze/filter used by mshow |
| Mouse | Yes | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | via separate Maildirs and profile settings |
| Offline use | No | full; works only on local Maildir |
| Calendar | Yes | No |
| Contacts | built-in address book; LDAP lookup | No |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc | ~/.mblaze/profile (header-style key: value lines) |
Which to choose
Choose Alpine for
- Command list on every screen and built-in help for each option
- Official native Windows builds alongside Unix packages
- Built-in XOAUTH2 for Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo, and built-in S/MIME
Watch out for
- PGP needs external display and sending filters
- No Maildir, notmuch or JMAP support
- Last stable release is 2.26; newer work is in alpha builds
Choose mblaze for
- Each command does one job, so mail handling is easy to combine in pipes and scripts.
- Works directly on Maildir with no index or database to maintain.
- Small C programs with no external library dependencies.
Watch out for
- No built-in IMAP, POP3 or SMTP; needs mbsync and msmtp or similar tools.
- Command-line only, with no full-screen interface.
- OpenPGP and S/MIME handling relies on unsupported contrib scripts.
Questions
What is the difference between Alpine and mblaze?
Alpine is a full-screen terminal client; mblaze is a command-line program. Only Alpine has built-in IMAP, POP3, SMTP and mbox. Only mblaze has built-in Maildir.
Which runs on Windows, Alpine or mblaze?
On Windows, Alpine runs natively. On Windows, mblaze runs through WSL.
See also: Alpine alternatives, mblaze alternatives.