Forward Email vs Sup
Forward Email: Forward Email's webmail in the terminal: mail, calendar, contacts and settings, with mouse support and a key hint bar.
Sup: Curses email client in Ruby built around threads, labels and fast full-text search over local mail.
Differences
- Forward Email connects to Forward Email accounts through its API; Sup works with any provider, including Forward Email.
- On Windows, Forward Email runs natively and Sup runs through WSL.
- On BSD, Forward Email runs natively and Sup builds from source.
- On Android, Forward Email runs through Termux and Sup is not available.
- Forward Email has mouse support; Sup does not.
- Forward Email has calendar support; Sup does not.
- Sup has Vim-style keys; Forward Email does not.
- Forward Email is written in TypeScript; Sup in Ruby.
- Configuration: Forward Email uses settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css, and Sup uses ~/.sup/config.yaml and ~/.sup/sources.yaml, plus Ruby hooks.
- Forward Email is source-available (Business Source License 1.1); Sup is open source (GPL 2.0 or later).
Side by side
| Forward Email | Sup | |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | TypeScript | Ruby |
| License | Business Source License 1.1 | GPL 2.0 or later |
| Latest version | 0.14.16 | 1.4 |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Through WSL |
| BSD | Native | Build from source |
| Android | Through Termux | No |
| IMAP | Forward Email API | No |
| POP3 | Forward Email API | No |
| SMTP | Forward Email API | Through a separate tool |
| JMAP | Forward Email API | No |
| Maildir | Forward Email API | Yes |
| mbox | Forward Email API | Yes |
| notmuch | Forward Email API | No |
| OpenPGP | Yes | Yes |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | No |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in, across messages, contacts and events | Xapian full-text index with a query language |
| HTML mail | shown as formatted text with links; plain text by default | via the mime-decode hook and an external viewer such as w3m |
| Mouse | Yes | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | drafts and changes made offline are sent when the connection returns | reads local Maildir or mbox; sync with isync or OfflineIMAP |
| Calendar | Yes | No |
| Contacts | Yes | tracks recent contacts automatically |
| Vim-style keys | No | Yes |
| Configuration | settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css | ~/.sup/config.yaml and ~/.sup/sources.yaml, plus Ruby hooks |
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 Sup for
- Fast full-text search over large archives
- Gmail-style labels, archiving and muting of threads
- Ruby hooks for custom behavior
Watch out for
- No built-in IMAP or SMTP; needs isync (or similar) and msmtp
- Changes sync back to Maildir only with the optional sync-back setting
- Packaged by Debian and Ubuntu (and the AUR); elsewhere installed as a Ruby gem with native Xapian bindings
Questions
What is the difference between Forward Email and Sup?
Forward Email connects to Forward Email accounts through its API; Sup works with any provider, including Forward Email. On Windows, Forward Email runs natively and Sup runs through WSL. On BSD, Forward Email runs natively and Sup builds from source.
Which runs on Windows, Forward Email or Sup?
On Windows, Forward Email runs natively. On Windows, Sup runs through WSL.
See also: Forward Email alternatives, Sup alternatives.