Cone vs meli
Cone: Full-screen console mail client and newsreader from the Courier mail server project.
meli: Terminal email client written in Rust with IMAP, JMAP, notmuch, Maildir, mbox and NNTP backends and TOML configuration.
Differences
- Only Cone has built-in POP3.
- Only meli has built-in JMAP and notmuch.
- On Linux, Cone builds from source and meli runs natively.
- On macOS, Cone is not available and meli runs natively.
- On Windows, Cone runs through WSL and meli is not available.
- meli has mouse support; Cone does not.
- meli has OAuth2 sign-in; Cone does not.
- meli has Vim-style keys; Cone does not.
- Cone is written in C++; meli in Rust.
- Configuration: Cone uses interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone, and meli uses TOML file (config.toml).
Side by side
| Cone | meli | |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | C++ | Rust |
| License | GPL 3.0 | EUPL 1.2 or GPL 3.0 or later |
| Latest version | 2.5 | 0.8.13 |
| Linux | Build from source | Native |
| macOS | No | Native |
| Windows | Through WSL | No |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | No | No |
| IMAP | Yes | Yes |
| POP3 | Yes | No |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | No | Yes |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | Yes | Yes |
| notmuch | No | Yes |
| OpenPGP | Yes | Yes |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | via script |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in folder search; server-side on IMAP | built-in; sqlite3 index by default; notmuch queries |
| HTML mail | built-in HTML renderer | via filter command, w3m by default |
| Mouse | No | Yes |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | No | IMAP header cache in sqlite3; full offline use with Maildir and mbsync |
| Calendar | No | No |
| Contacts | built-in address books, stored locally, in an IMAP folder, or on LDAP | built-in contact list; reads vCard and mutt alias files |
| Vim-style keys | No | Yes |
| Configuration | interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone | TOML file (config.toml) |
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 meli for
- Supports JMAP, notmuch, IMAP, Maildir and NNTP in one client
- Single TOML file with per-account and per-mailbox overrides
- Embedded terminal runs the editor inside the compose view
Watch out for
- No POP3 or S/MIME support
- mbox support is read-only
- No Windows or Termux packages
Questions
What is the difference between Cone and meli?
Only Cone has built-in POP3. Only meli has built-in JMAP and notmuch. On Linux, Cone builds from source and meli runs natively.
Which runs on Windows, Cone or meli?
On Windows, Cone runs through WSL. On Windows, meli is not available.
See also: Cone alternatives, meli alternatives.