# Alpine vs nmail

- Alpine: Menu-driven terminal email client descended from Pine, with built-in help, setup screens and native Windows builds.
- nmail: Terminal email client for Linux and macOS with an Alpine-like interface and built-in IMAP and SMTP.

## Differences

- Only Alpine has built-in POP3 and mbox.
- On Windows, Alpine runs natively and nmail is not available.
- On BSD, Alpine runs natively and nmail is not available.
- On Android, Alpine runs through Termux and nmail is not available.
- Alpine has mouse support; nmail does not.
- Alpine has calendar support; nmail does not.
- Alpine has OpenPGP; nmail does not.
- Alpine has S/MIME; nmail does not.
- Alpine has multiple accounts; nmail does not.
- Alpine has threaded views; nmail does not.
- Alpine is written in C; nmail in C++.
- Configuration: Alpine uses built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc, and nmail uses ~/.config/nmail/main.conf key=value file.

## Side by side

| | Alpine | nmail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | C | C++ |
| License | Apache 2.0 | MIT |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Not supported |
| BSD | Native | Not supported |
| Android | Through Termux | Not supported |
| IMAP | Yes | Yes |
| POP3 | Yes | No |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | No | No |
| Maildir | No | No |
| mbox | Yes | No |
| notmuch | No | No |
| OpenPGP | via plugin | No |
| S/MIME | Yes | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | Yes | Yes |
| Threads | Yes | No |
| Search | built-in search and message selection; server-side for IMAP | local cache index and server search |
| HTML mail | built-in HTML-to-text rendering | converted to text, or opened in an external browser |
| Mouse | Yes | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | No |
| Offline use | No | local SQLite cache; offline mode and send queue |
| Calendar | Yes | No |
| Contacts | built-in address book; LDAP lookup | address book built from messages |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc | ~/.config/nmail/main.conf key=value file |

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