Forward Email vs NeoMutt
Forward Email: Forward Email's webmail in the terminal: mail, calendar, contacts and settings, with mouse support and a key hint bar.
NeoMutt: Full-screen terminal mail reader forked from Mutt, with notmuch, NNTP, Lua scripting and a sidebar built in.
Differences
- Forward Email connects to Forward Email accounts through its API; NeoMutt works with any provider over IMAP, including Forward Email.
- On Windows, Forward Email runs natively and NeoMutt runs through WSL.
- Forward Email has mouse support; NeoMutt does not.
- Forward Email has calendar support; NeoMutt does not.
- NeoMutt has S/MIME; Forward Email does not.
- NeoMutt has OAuth2 sign-in; Forward Email does not.
- NeoMutt has Vim-style keys; Forward Email does not.
- Forward Email is written in TypeScript; NeoMutt in C.
- Configuration: Forward Email uses settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css, and NeoMutt uses neomuttrc text file.
- Forward Email is source-available (Business Source License 1.1); NeoMutt is open source (GPL 2.0 or later).
Side by side
| Forward Email | NeoMutt | |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | TypeScript | C |
| License | Business Source License 1.1 | GPL 2.0 or later |
| Latest version | 0.14.16 | 20260616 |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Through WSL |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Through Termux | Through Termux |
| IMAP | Forward Email API | Yes |
| POP3 | Forward Email API | Yes |
| SMTP | Forward Email API | Yes |
| JMAP | Forward Email API | No |
| Maildir | Forward Email API | Yes |
| mbox | Forward Email API | Yes |
| notmuch | Forward Email API | Yes |
| OpenPGP | Yes | Yes |
| S/MIME | No | Yes |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | via script |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in, across messages, contacts and events | built-in patterns; notmuch for full-text |
| HTML mail | shown as formatted text with links; plain text by default | via mailcap and an external viewer such as w3m or lynx |
| Mouse | Yes | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | drafts and changes made offline are sent when the connection returns | with isync or OfflineIMAP; IMAP header and body cache |
| Calendar | Yes | No |
| Contacts | Yes | via query_command with abook or khard |
| Vim-style keys | No | Yes |
| Configuration | settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css | neomuttrc text file |
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 NeoMutt for
- Built-in notmuch support for tag-based virtual mailboxes and full-text search
- Reads Usenet over NNTP and supports Lua scripting
- Reads most existing muttrc files with few or no changes
Watch out for
- Configuration is a text file with hundreds of options and no setup wizard
- HTML mail needs an external viewer set up in mailcap
- OAuth2 needs an external token script such as mutt_oauth2.py
Questions
What is the difference between Forward Email and NeoMutt?
Forward Email connects to Forward Email accounts through its API; NeoMutt works with any provider over IMAP, including Forward Email. On Windows, Forward Email runs natively and NeoMutt runs through WSL. Forward Email has mouse support; NeoMutt does not.
Which runs on Windows, Forward Email or NeoMutt?
On Windows, Forward Email runs natively. On Windows, NeoMutt runs through WSL.
See also: Forward Email alternatives, NeoMutt alternatives.