# Forward Email vs S-nail

- Forward Email: Forward Email's webmail in the terminal: mail, calendar, contacts and settings, with mouse support and a key hint bar.
- S-nail: Command-line mail program that implements POSIX mailx, with MIME, IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Maildir and S/MIME support.

## Differences

- Forward Email is a full-screen terminal client; S-nail is a command-line program.
- Forward Email connects to Forward Email accounts through its API; S-nail works with any provider over IMAP, including Forward Email.
- On Windows, Forward Email runs natively and S-nail runs through WSL.
- On Android, Forward Email runs through Termux and S-nail is not available.
- Forward Email has mouse support; S-nail does not.
- Forward Email has calendar support; S-nail does not.
- Forward Email has OpenPGP; S-nail does not.
- S-nail has S/MIME; Forward Email does not.
- S-nail has OAuth2 sign-in; Forward Email does not.
- Forward Email is written in TypeScript; S-nail in C.
- Configuration: Forward Email uses settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css, and S-nail uses ~/.mailrc command file.
- Forward Email is source-available (Business Source License 1.1); S-nail is open source (ISC and BSD 2-Clause and BSD 3-Clause and BSD 4-Clause).

## Side by side

| | Forward Email | S-nail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Command-line tools and prompts |
| Language | TypeScript | C |
| License | Business Source License 1.1 | ISC and BSD 2-Clause and BSD 3-Clause and BSD 4-Clause |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Through WSL |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Through Termux | Not supported |
| 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 | No |
| OpenPGP | Yes | No |
| S/MIME | No | Yes |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | via script |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in, across messages, contacts and events | built-in message specifications and the search command; IMAP SEARCH on IMAP folders |
| HTML mail | shown as formatted text with links; plain text by default | built-in tag-soup filter or external viewer via mailcap |
| Mouse | Yes | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | drafts and changes made offline are sent when the connection returns | IMAP cache with disconnected mode |
| Calendar | Yes | No |
| Contacts | Yes | aliases via the alias command |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css | ~/.mailrc command file |

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