Alpine vs mu4e
Alpine: Menu-driven terminal email client descended from Pine, with built-in help, setup screens and native Windows builds.
mu4e: Email client that runs inside GNU Emacs, built on the mu Maildir indexer and search tool.
Differences
- Alpine is a full-screen terminal client; mu4e is a mail client that runs inside Emacs.
- Only Alpine has built-in IMAP, POP3 and mbox.
- Only mu4e has built-in Maildir.
- On Windows, Alpine runs natively and mu4e runs through WSL.
- Alpine is written in C; mu4e in Emacs Lisp (mu4e), C++ (mu).
- Configuration: Alpine uses built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc, and mu4e uses Emacs Lisp in init.el.
Side by side
| Alpine | mu4e | |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Runs inside Emacs |
| Language | C | Emacs Lisp (mu4e), C++ (mu) |
| License | Apache 2.0 | GPL 3.0 or later |
| Latest version | 2.26 | 1.14.3 |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Through WSL |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Through Termux | Through Termux |
| IMAP | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| POP3 | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | No | No |
| Maildir | No | Yes |
| mbox | Yes | No |
| notmuch | No | No |
| OpenPGP | via plugin | Yes |
| S/MIME | Yes | via Emacs MML |
| OAuth2 sign-in | Yes | via script |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in search and message selection; server-side for IMAP | Xapian full-text index with mu query syntax |
| HTML mail | built-in HTML-to-text rendering | built-in, rendered with the Emacs shr library |
| Mouse | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | via contexts |
| Offline use | No | full; reads a local Maildir synced by mbsync or OfflineIMAP |
| Calendar | Yes | replies to invitations with mu4e-icalendar |
| Contacts | built-in address book; LDAP lookup | address completion from indexed mail |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc | Emacs Lisp in init.el |
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 mu4e for
- Full-text search over all local mail through mu's Xapian index.
- Works offline, since all mail lives in a local Maildir.
- Uses Emacs message mode, so PGP/MIME, S/MIME and Org mode links are available.
Watch out for
- No built-in IMAP; needs mbsync or a similar sync tool, so setup spans several config files.
- Requires Emacs and some Emacs Lisp to configure.
- No native Windows build, and Arch packages it only in the AUR.
Questions
What is the difference between Alpine and mu4e?
Alpine is a full-screen terminal client; mu4e is a mail client that runs inside Emacs. Only Alpine has built-in IMAP, POP3 and mbox. Only mu4e has built-in Maildir.
Which runs on Windows, Alpine or mu4e?
On Windows, Alpine runs natively. On Windows, mu4e runs through WSL.
See also: Alpine alternatives, mu4e alternatives.