# 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 |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Through WSL |
| BSD | Native | Build from source |
| Android | Through Termux | Not supported |
| 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 |

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