# Cone vs mu4e

- Cone: Full-screen console mail client and newsreader from the Courier mail server project.
- mu4e: Email client that runs inside GNU Emacs, built on the mu Maildir indexer and search tool.

## Differences

- Cone is a full-screen terminal client; mu4e is a mail client that runs inside Emacs.
- Only Cone has built-in IMAP, POP3 and mbox.
- On Linux, Cone builds from source and mu4e runs natively.
- On macOS, Cone is not available and mu4e runs natively.
- On Android, Cone is not available and mu4e runs through Termux.
- mu4e has mouse support; Cone does not.
- mu4e has calendar support; Cone does not.
- mu4e has S/MIME; Cone does not.
- mu4e has OAuth2 sign-in; Cone does not.
- Cone is written in C++; mu4e in Emacs Lisp (mu4e), C++ (mu).
- Configuration: Cone uses interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone, and mu4e uses Emacs Lisp in init.el.

## Side by side

| | Cone | mu4e |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Runs inside Emacs |
| Language | C++ | Emacs Lisp (mu4e), C++ (mu) |
| License | GPL 3.0 | GPL 3.0 or later |
| Linux | Build from source | Native |
| macOS | Not supported | Native |
| Windows | Through WSL | Through WSL |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Not supported | Through Termux |
| IMAP | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| POP3 | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | No | No |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | Yes | No |
| notmuch | No | No |
| OpenPGP | Yes | Yes |
| S/MIME | No | via Emacs MML |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | via script |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in folder search; server-side on IMAP | Xapian full-text index with mu query syntax |
| HTML mail | built-in HTML renderer | built-in, rendered with the Emacs shr library |
| Mouse | No | Yes |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | via contexts |
| Offline use | No | full; reads a local Maildir synced by mbsync or OfflineIMAP |
| Calendar | No | replies to invitations with mu4e-icalendar |
| Contacts | built-in address books, stored locally, in an IMAP folder, or on LDAP | address completion from indexed mail |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone | Emacs Lisp in init.el |

Pages: [Cone](https://terminalemail.com/clients/cone/index.md), [mu4e](https://terminalemail.com/clients/mu4e/index.md)