# Alpine vs Notmuch Emacs interface

- Alpine: Menu-driven terminal email client descended from Pine, with built-in help, setup screens and native Windows builds.
- Notmuch Emacs interface: Emacs front end for notmuch that reads, searches, tags and composes mail from a local Maildir.

## Differences

- Alpine is a full-screen terminal client; Notmuch Emacs interface is a mail client that runs inside Emacs.
- Only Alpine has built-in IMAP, POP3 and mbox.
- Only Notmuch Emacs interface has built-in Maildir and notmuch.
- On Windows, Alpine runs natively and Notmuch Emacs interface runs through WSL.
- Alpine is written in C; Notmuch Emacs interface in Emacs Lisp.
- Configuration: Alpine uses built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc, and Notmuch Emacs interface uses Emacs Lisp in init.el plus the notmuch config file.

## Side by side

| | Alpine | Notmuch Emacs interface |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Runs inside Emacs |
| Language | C | Emacs Lisp |
| License | Apache 2.0 | GPL 3.0 or later |
| 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 | Yes |
| OpenPGP | via plugin | Yes |
| S/MIME | Yes | Yes |
| OAuth2 sign-in | Yes | via script |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in search and message selection; server-side for IMAP | notmuch Xapian full-text search with tags |
| HTML mail | built-in HTML-to-text rendering | built-in, rendered with the Emacs shr library |
| Mouse | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | No | full; reads a local Maildir synced by mbsync or OfflineIMAP |
| Calendar | Yes | shows text/calendar parts; no invitation replies |
| Contacts | built-in address book; LDAP lookup | address completion from the notmuch index |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | built-in setup screens, stored in .pinerc | Emacs Lisp in init.el plus the notmuch config file |

Pages: [Alpine](https://terminalemail.com/clients/alpine/index.md), [Notmuch Emacs interface](https://terminalemail.com/clients/notmuch-emacs/index.md)