# Cone vs nmail

- Cone: Full-screen console mail client and newsreader from the Courier mail server project.
- nmail: Terminal email client for Linux and macOS with an Alpine-like interface and built-in IMAP and SMTP.

## Differences

- Only Cone has built-in POP3, Maildir and mbox.
- On Linux, Cone builds from source and nmail runs natively.
- On macOS, Cone is not available and nmail runs natively.
- On Windows, Cone runs through WSL and nmail is not available.
- On BSD, Cone runs natively and nmail is not available.
- Cone has OpenPGP; nmail does not.
- nmail has OAuth2 sign-in; Cone does not.
- Cone has multiple accounts; nmail does not.
- Cone has threaded views; nmail does not.
- Configuration: Cone uses interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone, and nmail uses ~/.config/nmail/main.conf key=value file.

## Side by side

| | Cone | nmail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | C++ | C++ |
| License | GPL 3.0 | MIT |
| Linux | Build from source | Native |
| macOS | Not supported | Native |
| Windows | Through WSL | Not supported |
| BSD | Native | Not supported |
| Android | Not supported | Not supported |
| IMAP | Yes | Yes |
| POP3 | Yes | No |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | No | No |
| Maildir | Yes | No |
| mbox | Yes | No |
| notmuch | No | No |
| OpenPGP | Yes | No |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | Yes |
| Threads | Yes | No |
| Search | built-in folder search; server-side on IMAP | local cache index and server search |
| HTML mail | built-in HTML renderer | converted to text, or opened in an external browser |
| Mouse | No | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | No |
| Offline use | No | local SQLite cache; offline mode and send queue |
| Calendar | No | No |
| Contacts | built-in address books, stored locally, in an IMAP folder, or on LDAP | address book built from messages |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone | ~/.config/nmail/main.conf key=value file |

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