# Cone vs NeoMutt

- Cone: Full-screen console mail client and newsreader from the Courier mail server project.
- NeoMutt: Full-screen terminal mail reader forked from Mutt, with notmuch, NNTP, Lua scripting and a sidebar built in.

## Differences

- Only NeoMutt has built-in notmuch.
- On Linux, Cone builds from source and NeoMutt runs natively.
- On macOS, Cone is not available and NeoMutt runs natively.
- On Android, Cone is not available and NeoMutt runs through Termux.
- NeoMutt has S/MIME; Cone does not.
- NeoMutt has OAuth2 sign-in; Cone does not.
- NeoMutt has Vim-style keys; Cone does not.
- Cone is written in C++; NeoMutt in C.
- Configuration: Cone uses interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone, and NeoMutt uses neomuttrc text file.

## Side by side

| | Cone | NeoMutt |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | C++ | C |
| License | GPL 3.0 | GPL 2.0 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 | Yes |
| POP3 | Yes | Yes |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | No | No |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | Yes | Yes |
| notmuch | No | Yes |
| OpenPGP | Yes | Yes |
| S/MIME | No | Yes |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | via script |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in folder search; server-side on IMAP | built-in patterns; notmuch for full-text |
| HTML mail | built-in HTML renderer | via mailcap and an external viewer such as w3m or lynx |
| Mouse | No | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | No | with isync or OfflineIMAP; IMAP header and body cache |
| Calendar | No | No |
| Contacts | built-in address books, stored locally, in an IMAP folder, or on LDAP | via query_command with abook or khard |
| Vim-style keys | No | Yes |
| Configuration | interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone | neomuttrc text file |

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