# Himalaya vs Mutt

- Himalaya: Command-line email client written in Rust that lists, reads, sends and moves mail through shell commands with JSON output.
- Mutt: Long-running text-mode email client with IMAP, POP3 and SMTP support, configured through a muttrc file.

## Differences

- Himalaya is a command-line program; Mutt is a full-screen terminal client.
- Only Himalaya has built-in JMAP.
- Only Mutt has built-in POP3 and mbox.
- On Windows, Himalaya runs natively and Mutt runs through WSL.
- On BSD, Himalaya builds from source and Mutt runs natively.
- On Android, Himalaya is not available and Mutt runs through Termux.
- Mutt has OpenPGP; Himalaya does not.
- Mutt has S/MIME; Himalaya does not.
- Mutt has Vim-style keys; Himalaya does not.
- Himalaya is written in Rust; Mutt in C.
- Configuration: Himalaya uses TOML file; interactive setup wizard, and Mutt uses muttrc text file.

## Side by side

| | Himalaya | Mutt |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Command-line tools and prompts | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | Rust | C |
| License | MIT or Apache 2.0 | GPL 2.0 or later |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Through WSL |
| BSD | Build from source | Native |
| Android | Not supported | Through Termux |
| IMAP | Yes | Yes |
| POP3 | No | Yes |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | Yes | No |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | No | Yes |
| notmuch | No | No |
| OpenPGP | No | Yes |
| S/MIME | No | Yes |
| OAuth2 sign-in | via script | via script |
| Threads | through the IMAP, JMAP and Gmail subcommands | Yes |
| Search | built-in query syntax across backends; server-side for IMAP and JMAP | built-in patterns; server-side IMAP search |
| HTML mail | No | via mailcap and an external viewer such as w3m or lynx |
| Mouse | No | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | with the Maildir backend and a sync tool such as mbsync | with isync or OfflineIMAP; IMAP header and body cache |
| Calendar | No | No |
| Contacts | No | via query_command with abook or khard |
| Vim-style keys | No | Yes |
| Configuration | TOML file; interactive setup wizard | muttrc text file |

Pages: [Himalaya](https://terminalemail.com/clients/himalaya/index.md), [Mutt](https://terminalemail.com/clients/mutt/index.md)