Forward Email vs meli
Forward Email: Forward Email's webmail in the terminal: mail, calendar, contacts and settings, with mouse support and a key hint bar.
meli: Terminal email client written in Rust with IMAP, JMAP, notmuch, Maildir, mbox and NNTP backends and TOML configuration.
Differences
- Forward Email connects to Forward Email accounts through its API; meli works with any provider over IMAP, including Forward Email.
- On Windows, Forward Email runs natively and meli is not available.
- On Android, Forward Email runs through Termux and meli is not available.
- Forward Email has calendar support; meli does not.
- meli has OAuth2 sign-in; Forward Email does not.
- meli has Vim-style keys; Forward Email does not.
- Forward Email is written in TypeScript; meli in Rust.
- Configuration: Forward Email uses settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css, and meli uses TOML file (config.toml).
- Forward Email is source-available (Business Source License 1.1); meli is open source (EUPL 1.2 or GPL 3.0 or later).
Side by side
| Forward Email | meli | |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | TypeScript | Rust |
| License | Business Source License 1.1 | EUPL 1.2 or GPL 3.0 or later |
| Latest version | 0.14.16 | 0.8.13 |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | No |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Through Termux | No |
| IMAP | Forward Email API | Yes |
| POP3 | Forward Email API | No |
| SMTP | Forward Email API | Yes |
| JMAP | Forward Email API | Yes |
| Maildir | Forward Email API | Yes |
| mbox | Forward Email API | Yes |
| notmuch | Forward Email API | Yes |
| OpenPGP | Yes | Yes |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | via script |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in, across messages, contacts and events | built-in; sqlite3 index by default; notmuch queries |
| HTML mail | shown as formatted text with links; plain text by default | via filter command, w3m by default |
| Mouse | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | drafts and changes made offline are sent when the connection returns | IMAP header cache in sqlite3; full offline use with Maildir and mbsync |
| Calendar | Yes | No |
| Contacts | Yes | built-in contact list; reads vCard and mutt alias files |
| Vim-style keys | No | Yes |
| Configuration | settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css | TOML file (config.toml) |
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 meli for
- Supports JMAP, notmuch, IMAP, Maildir and NNTP in one client
- Single TOML file with per-account and per-mailbox overrides
- Embedded terminal runs the editor inside the compose view
Watch out for
- No POP3 or S/MIME support
- mbox support is read-only
- No Windows or Termux packages
Questions
What is the difference between Forward Email and meli?
Forward Email connects to Forward Email accounts through its API; meli works with any provider over IMAP, including Forward Email. On Windows, Forward Email runs natively and meli is not available. On Android, Forward Email runs through Termux and meli is not available.
Which runs on Windows, Forward Email or meli?
On Windows, Forward Email runs natively. On Windows, meli is not available.
See also: Forward Email alternatives, meli alternatives.