# 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 |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Not supported |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Through Termux | Not supported |
| 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) |

Pages: [Forward Email](https://terminalemail.com/clients/forward-email/index.md), [meli](https://terminalemail.com/clients/meli/index.md)