# Himalaya vs nmh

- Himalaya: Command-line email client written in Rust that lists, reads, sends and moves mail through shell commands with JSON output.
- nmh: The MH message handling system: separate shell commands to read, file, search and send mail stored one file per message.

## Differences

- Only Himalaya has built-in IMAP and JMAP.
- Only nmh has built-in POP3 and mbox.
- On Windows, Himalaya runs natively and nmh runs through WSL.
- On BSD, Himalaya builds from source and nmh runs natively.
- On Android, Himalaya is not available and nmh runs through Termux.
- nmh has calendar support; Himalaya does not.
- Himalaya has OAuth2 sign-in; nmh does not.
- Himalaya has threaded views; nmh does not.
- Himalaya is written in Rust; nmh in C.
- Configuration: Himalaya uses TOML file; interactive setup wizard, and nmh uses ~/.mh_profile and mts.conf text files.

## Side by side

| | Himalaya | nmh |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Command-line tools and prompts | Command-line tools and prompts |
| Language | Rust | C |
| License | MIT or Apache 2.0 | BSD 3-Clause |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Through WSL |
| BSD | Build from source | Native |
| Android | Not supported | Through Termux |
| IMAP | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| POP3 | No | Yes |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | Yes | No |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | No | Yes |
| notmuch | No | No |
| OpenPGP | No | No |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | via script | No |
| Threads | through the IMAP, JMAP and Gmail subcommands | No |
| Search | built-in query syntax across backends; server-side for IMAP and JMAP | pick command matches header fields and message text |
| HTML mail | No | via mhshow with an external converter such as w3m |
| Mouse | No | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | via per-command switches or separate profiles |
| Offline use | with the Maildir backend and a sync tool such as mbsync | full; messages are stored as local files |
| Calendar | No | replies to invitations with mhical |
| Contacts | No | aliases via MailAliases and the ali command |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | TOML file; interactive setup wizard | ~/.mh_profile and mts.conf text files |

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