# Himalaya vs Notmuch Emacs interface

- Himalaya: Command-line email client written in Rust that lists, reads, sends and moves mail through shell commands with JSON output.
- Notmuch Emacs interface: Emacs front end for notmuch that reads, searches, tags and composes mail from a local Maildir.

## Differences

- Himalaya is a command-line program; Notmuch Emacs interface is a mail client that runs inside Emacs.
- Only Himalaya has built-in IMAP and JMAP.
- Only Notmuch Emacs interface has built-in notmuch.
- On Windows, Himalaya runs natively and Notmuch Emacs interface runs through WSL.
- On BSD, Himalaya builds from source and Notmuch Emacs interface runs natively.
- On Android, Himalaya is not available and Notmuch Emacs interface runs through Termux.
- Notmuch Emacs interface has mouse support; Himalaya does not.
- Notmuch Emacs interface has calendar support; Himalaya does not.
- Notmuch Emacs interface has OpenPGP; Himalaya does not.
- Notmuch Emacs interface has S/MIME; Himalaya does not.
- Himalaya is written in Rust; Notmuch Emacs interface in Emacs Lisp.
- Configuration: Himalaya uses TOML file; interactive setup wizard, and Notmuch Emacs interface uses Emacs Lisp in init.el plus the notmuch config file.

## Side by side

| | Himalaya | Notmuch Emacs interface |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Command-line tools and prompts | Runs inside Emacs |
| Language | Rust | Emacs Lisp |
| License | MIT or Apache 2.0 | GPL 3.0 or later |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Through WSL |
| BSD | Build from source | Native |
| Android | Not supported | Through Termux |
| IMAP | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| POP3 | No | Through a separate tool |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | Yes | No |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | No | No |
| notmuch | No | Yes |
| 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 | notmuch Xapian full-text search with tags |
| HTML mail | No | built-in, rendered with the Emacs shr library |
| Mouse | No | Yes |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | with the Maildir backend and a sync tool such as mbsync | full; reads a local Maildir synced by mbsync or OfflineIMAP |
| Calendar | No | shows text/calendar parts; no invitation replies |
| Contacts | No | address completion from the notmuch index |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | TOML file; interactive setup wizard | Emacs Lisp in init.el plus the notmuch config file |

Pages: [Himalaya](https://terminalemail.com/clients/himalaya/index.md), [Notmuch Emacs interface](https://terminalemail.com/clients/notmuch-emacs/index.md)