# Cone vs nmh

- Cone: Full-screen console mail client and newsreader from the Courier mail server project.
- nmh: The MH message handling system: separate shell commands to read, file, search and send mail stored one file per message.

## Differences

- Cone is a full-screen terminal client; nmh is a command-line program.
- Only Cone has built-in IMAP.
- On Linux, Cone builds from source and nmh runs natively.
- On macOS, Cone is not available and nmh runs natively.
- On Android, Cone is not available and nmh runs through Termux.
- nmh has calendar support; Cone does not.
- Cone has OpenPGP; nmh does not.
- Cone has threaded views; nmh does not.
- Cone is written in C++; nmh in C.
- Configuration: Cone uses interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone, and nmh uses ~/.mh_profile and mts.conf text files.

## Side by side

| | Cone | nmh |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Command-line tools and prompts |
| Language | C++ | C |
| License | GPL 3.0 | BSD 3-Clause |
| 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 | Yes |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | No | No |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | Yes | Yes |
| notmuch | No | No |
| OpenPGP | Yes | No |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | No |
| Threads | Yes | No |
| Search | built-in folder search; server-side on IMAP | pick command matches header fields and message text |
| HTML mail | built-in HTML renderer | via mhshow with an external converter such as w3m |
| Mouse | No | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | via per-command switches or separate profiles |
| Offline use | No | full; messages are stored as local files |
| Calendar | No | replies to invitations with mhical |
| Contacts | built-in address books, stored locally, in an IMAP folder, or on LDAP | aliases via MailAliases and the ali command |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone | ~/.mh_profile and mts.conf text files |

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