# Forward Email vs Wanderlust

- Forward Email: Forward Email's webmail in the terminal: mail, calendar, contacts and settings, with mouse support and a key hint bar.
- Wanderlust: Mail and news reader for Emacs, written in Emacs Lisp, with built-in IMAP, POP3, NNTP and SMTP support.

## Differences

- Forward Email is a full-screen terminal client; Wanderlust is a mail client that runs inside Emacs.
- Forward Email connects to Forward Email accounts through its API; Wanderlust works with any provider over IMAP, including Forward Email.
- On Windows, Forward Email runs natively and Wanderlust runs through WSL.
- Forward Email has calendar support; Wanderlust does not.
- Wanderlust has OAuth2 sign-in; Forward Email does not.
- Forward Email is written in TypeScript; Wanderlust in Emacs Lisp.
- Configuration: Forward Email uses settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css, and Wanderlust uses Emacs Lisp in ~/.wl, folder list in ~/.folders.
- Forward Email is source-available (Business Source License 1.1); Wanderlust is open source (GPL 2.0 or later).

## Side by side

| | Forward Email | Wanderlust |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Runs inside Emacs |
| Language | TypeScript | Emacs Lisp |
| License | Business Source License 1.1 | GPL 2.0 or later |
| 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 | No |
| notmuch | Forward Email API | Through a separate tool |
| OpenPGP | Yes | Yes |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | via oauth2.el |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in, across messages, contacts and events | IMAP server-side search; local search via mu, notmuch, grep or namazu |
| HTML mail | shown as formatted text with links; plain text by default | via mime-w3m (emacs-w3m) |
| Mouse | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | drafts and changes made offline are sent when the connection returns | message cache and disconnected operation |
| Calendar | Yes | No |
| Contacts | Yes | built-in address book |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | settings screens, keyboard shortcut editor and an optional user.css | Emacs Lisp in ~/.wl, folder list in ~/.folders |

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