Forward Email vs mblaze
Forward Email: Forward Email's webmail in the terminal: mail, calendar, contacts and settings, with mouse support and a key hint bar.
mblaze: Set of small Unix utilities for reading, searching, threading and composing mail stored in Maildir folders.
Differences
- Forward Email is a full-screen terminal client; mblaze is a command-line program.
- Forward Email connects to Forward Email accounts through its API; mblaze works with any provider, including Forward Email.
- On Windows, Forward Email runs natively and mblaze runs through WSL.
- On Android, Forward Email runs through Termux and mblaze is not available.
- Forward Email has mouse support; mblaze does not.
- Forward Email has calendar support; mblaze does not.
- Forward Email is written in TypeScript; mblaze in C.
- Configuration: Forward Email uses settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css, and mblaze uses ~/.mblaze/profile (header-style key: value lines).
- Forward Email is source-available (Business Source License 1.1); mblaze is open source (CC0 1.0 and MIT).
Side by side
| Forward Email | mblaze | |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Command-line tools and prompts |
| Language | TypeScript | C |
| License | Business Source License 1.1 | CC0 1.0 and MIT |
| Latest version | 0.14.16 | 1.4 |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Through WSL |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Through Termux | No |
| IMAP | Forward Email API | Through a separate tool |
| POP3 | Forward Email API | Through a separate tool |
| SMTP | Forward Email API | Through a separate tool |
| JMAP | Forward Email API | No |
| Maildir | Forward Email API | Yes |
| mbox | Forward Email API | No |
| notmuch | Forward Email API | No |
| OpenPGP | Yes | via contrib scripts |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | No |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in, across messages, contacts and events | mpick and magrep filter messages by headers, flags and content |
| HTML mail | shown as formatted text with links; plain text by default | via a filter command in ~/.mblaze/filter used by mshow |
| Mouse | Yes | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | via separate Maildirs and profile settings |
| Offline use | drafts and changes made offline are sent when the connection returns | full; works only on local Maildir |
| Calendar | Yes | No |
| Contacts | Yes | No |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css | ~/.mblaze/profile (header-style key: value lines) |
Which to choose
Choose Forward Email for
- Calendar, contacts and tasks in the same terminal app as mail
- Mouse clicks, scrolling and text selection work, and the bottom row always shows the keys for the current screen
- One self-updating executable with no setup files to write
Watch out for
- Only works with Forward Email accounts
- Images and video are not drawn; HTML mail is shown as text with links
- Passkey sign-in needs a browser or the desktop app
Choose mblaze for
- Each command does one job, so mail handling is easy to combine in pipes and scripts.
- Works directly on Maildir with no index or database to maintain.
- Small C programs with no external library dependencies.
Watch out for
- No built-in IMAP, POP3 or SMTP; needs mbsync and msmtp or similar tools.
- Command-line only, with no full-screen interface.
- OpenPGP and S/MIME handling relies on unsupported contrib scripts.
Questions
What is the difference between Forward Email and mblaze?
Forward Email is a full-screen terminal client; mblaze is a command-line program. Forward Email connects to Forward Email accounts through its API; mblaze works with any provider, including Forward Email. On Windows, Forward Email runs natively and mblaze runs through WSL.
Which runs on Windows, Forward Email or mblaze?
On Windows, Forward Email runs natively. On Windows, mblaze runs through WSL.
See also: Forward Email alternatives, mblaze alternatives.