# Gnus vs mblaze

- Gnus: Mail and news reader built into GNU Emacs, with back ends for IMAP, POP3, local mail folders and NNTP.
- mblaze: Set of small Unix utilities for reading, searching, threading and composing mail stored in Maildir folders.

## Differences

- Gnus is a mail client that runs inside Emacs; mblaze is a command-line program.
- Only Gnus has built-in IMAP, POP3, SMTP and mbox.
- On Windows, Gnus runs natively and mblaze runs through WSL.
- On Android, Gnus runs through Termux and mblaze is not available.
- Gnus has mouse support; mblaze does not.
- Gnus has calendar support; mblaze does not.
- Gnus has S/MIME; mblaze does not.
- Gnus has OAuth2 sign-in; mblaze does not.
- Gnus is written in Emacs Lisp; mblaze in C.
- Configuration: Gnus uses Emacs Lisp in init.el or ~/.gnus.el, and mblaze uses ~/.mblaze/profile (header-style key: value lines).

## Side by side

| | Gnus | mblaze |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Runs inside Emacs | Command-line tools and prompts |
| Language | Emacs Lisp | C |
| License | GPL 3.0 or later | CC0 1.0 and MIT |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Through WSL |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Through Termux | Not supported |
| IMAP | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| POP3 | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| SMTP | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| JMAP | No | No |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | Yes | No |
| notmuch | Through a separate tool | No |
| OpenPGP | Yes | via contrib scripts |
| S/MIME | Yes | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | via plugin | No |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | gnus-search: IMAP SEARCH, or notmuch, mu, mairix and other local indexers | mpick and magrep filter messages by headers, flags and content |
| HTML mail | built-in, rendered with the Emacs shr library | via a filter command in ~/.mblaze/filter used by mshow |
| Mouse | Yes | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | via separate Maildirs and profile settings |
| Offline use | via the Gnus agent or local Maildir back ends | full; works only on local Maildir |
| Calendar | replies to invitations with gnus-icalendar | No |
| Contacts | via BBDB or EUDC | No |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | Emacs Lisp in init.el or ~/.gnus.el | ~/.mblaze/profile (header-style key: value lines) |

Pages: [Gnus](https://terminalemail.com/clients/gnus/index.md), [mblaze](https://terminalemail.com/clients/mblaze/index.md)