# Cone vs Wanderlust

- Cone: Full-screen console mail client and newsreader from the Courier mail server project.
- Wanderlust: Mail and news reader for Emacs, written in Emacs Lisp, with built-in IMAP, POP3, NNTP and SMTP support.

## Differences

- Cone is a full-screen terminal client; Wanderlust is a mail client that runs inside Emacs.
- Only Cone has built-in mbox.
- On Linux, Cone builds from source and Wanderlust runs natively.
- On macOS, Cone is not available and Wanderlust runs natively.
- On Android, Cone is not available and Wanderlust runs through Termux.
- Wanderlust has mouse support; Cone does not.
- Wanderlust has OAuth2 sign-in; Cone does not.
- Cone is written in C++; Wanderlust in Emacs Lisp.
- Configuration: Cone uses interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone, and Wanderlust uses Emacs Lisp in ~/.wl, folder list in ~/.folders.

## Side by side

| | Cone | Wanderlust |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Runs inside Emacs |
| Language | C++ | Emacs Lisp |
| 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 | No |
| notmuch | No | Through a separate tool |
| OpenPGP | Yes | Yes |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | via oauth2.el |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in folder search; server-side on IMAP | IMAP server-side search; local search via mu, notmuch, grep or namazu |
| HTML mail | built-in HTML renderer | via mime-w3m (emacs-w3m) |
| Mouse | No | Yes |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | No | message cache and disconnected operation |
| Calendar | No | No |
| Contacts | built-in address books, stored locally, in an IMAP folder, or on LDAP | built-in address book |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | interactive setup screens; settings saved under ~/.cone | Emacs Lisp in ~/.wl, folder list in ~/.folders |

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