Cone vs mblaze
Cone: Full-screen console mail client and newsreader from the Courier mail server project.
mblaze: Set of small Unix utilities for reading, searching, threading and composing mail stored in Maildir folders.
Differences
- Cone is a full-screen terminal client; mblaze is a command-line program.
- Only Cone has built-in IMAP, POP3, SMTP and mbox.
- On Linux, Cone builds from source and mblaze runs natively.
- On macOS, Cone is not available and mblaze runs natively.
- Cone is written in C++; mblaze in C.
- Configuration: Cone uses interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone, and mblaze uses ~/.mblaze/profile (header-style key: value lines).
Side by side
| Cone | mblaze | |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Command-line tools and prompts |
| Language | C++ | C |
| License | GPL 3.0 | CC0 1.0 and MIT |
| Latest version | 2.5 | 1.4 |
| Linux | Build from source | Native |
| macOS | No | Native |
| Windows | Through WSL | Through WSL |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | No | No |
| IMAP | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| POP3 | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| SMTP | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| JMAP | No | No |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | Yes | No |
| notmuch | No | No |
| OpenPGP | Yes | via contrib scripts |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | No |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in folder search; server-side on IMAP | mpick and magrep filter messages by headers, flags and content |
| HTML mail | built-in HTML renderer | via a filter command in ~/.mblaze/filter used by mshow |
| Mouse | No | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | via separate Maildirs and profile settings |
| Offline use | No | full; works only on local Maildir |
| Calendar | No | No |
| Contacts | built-in address books, stored locally, in an IMAP folder, or on LDAP | No |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone | ~/.mblaze/profile (header-style key: value lines) |
Which to choose
Choose Cone for
- Handles IMAP, POP3, local mbox and Maildir folders, and newsgroups in one folder tree.
- Built-in OpenPGP signing and encryption with per-account keys.
- Optional master password encrypts saved server passwords.
Watch out for
- Not packaged by Debian, Fedora, Arch or Homebrew; usually built from source.
- No offline mode for IMAP accounts and no OAuth2.
- No S/MIME support.
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 Cone and mblaze?
Cone is a full-screen terminal client; mblaze is a command-line program. Only Cone has built-in IMAP, POP3, SMTP and mbox. On Linux, Cone builds from source and mblaze runs natively.
Which runs on Windows, Cone or mblaze?
On Windows, Cone runs through WSL. On Windows, mblaze runs through WSL.
See also: Cone alternatives, mblaze alternatives.