Himalaya vs nmail
Himalaya: Command-line email client written in Rust that lists, reads, sends and moves mail through shell commands with JSON output.
nmail: Terminal email client for Linux and macOS with an Alpine-like interface and built-in IMAP and SMTP.
Differences
- Himalaya is a command-line program; nmail is a full-screen terminal client.
- Only Himalaya has built-in JMAP and Maildir.
- On Windows, Himalaya runs natively and nmail is not available.
- On BSD, Himalaya builds from source and nmail is not available.
- Himalaya has multiple accounts; nmail does not.
- Himalaya has threaded views; nmail does not.
- Himalaya is written in Rust; nmail in C++.
- Configuration: Himalaya uses TOML file; interactive setup wizard, and nmail uses ~/.config/nmail/main.conf key=value file.
Side by side
| Himalaya | nmail | |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Command-line tools and prompts | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | Rust | C++ |
| License | MIT or Apache 2.0 | MIT |
| Latest version | 2.1.0 | v5.16.4 |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | No |
| BSD | Build from source | No |
| Android | No | No |
| IMAP | Yes | Yes |
| POP3 | No | No |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | Yes | No |
| Maildir | Yes | No |
| mbox | No | No |
| notmuch | No | No |
| OpenPGP | No | No |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | via script | Yes |
| Threads | through the IMAP, JMAP and Gmail subcommands | No |
| Search | built-in query syntax across backends; server-side for IMAP and JMAP | local cache index and server search |
| HTML mail | No | converted to text, or opened in an external browser |
| Mouse | No | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | No |
| Offline use | with the Maildir backend and a sync tool such as mbsync | local SQLite cache; offline mode and send queue |
| Calendar | No | No |
| Contacts | No | address book built from messages |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | TOML file; interactive setup wizard | ~/.config/nmail/main.conf key=value file |
Which to choose
Choose Himalaya for
- Every action is a shell command with optional JSON output, suited to scripts
- Native Windows binary through Scoop and GitHub releases
- Also supports JMAP, the Gmail API and Microsoft Graph
Watch out for
- No interactive interface; himalaya-tui is still pre-release
- Composing rich MIME or PGP messages needs the separate mml tool
- Version 2 dropped the notmuch and sendmail backends
Choose nmail for
- Built-in IMAP and SMTP with setup wizards for Gmail, iCloud and Outlook
- Local cache, address book and outgoing queue can be encrypted
- Compose HTML mail using Markdown
Watch out for
- One account per running instance
- No threaded view and no PGP or S/MIME
- Linux and macOS only; no Debian or Fedora package
Questions
What is the difference between Himalaya and nmail?
Himalaya is a command-line program; nmail is a full-screen terminal client. Only Himalaya has built-in JMAP and Maildir. On Windows, Himalaya runs natively and nmail is not available.
Which runs on Windows, Himalaya or nmail?
On Windows, Himalaya runs natively. On Windows, nmail is not available.
See also: Himalaya alternatives, nmail alternatives.