Himalaya vs S-nail
Himalaya: Command-line email client written in Rust that lists, reads, sends and moves mail through shell commands with JSON output.
S-nail: Command-line mail program that implements POSIX mailx, with MIME, IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Maildir and S/MIME support.
Differences
- Only Himalaya has built-in JMAP.
- Only S-nail has built-in POP3 and mbox.
- On Windows, Himalaya runs natively and S-nail runs through WSL.
- On BSD, Himalaya builds from source and S-nail runs natively.
- S-nail has S/MIME; Himalaya does not.
- Himalaya is written in Rust; S-nail in C.
- Configuration: Himalaya uses TOML file; interactive setup wizard, and S-nail uses ~/.mailrc command file.
Side by side
| Himalaya | S-nail | |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Command-line tools and prompts | Command-line tools and prompts |
| Language | Rust | C |
| License | MIT or Apache 2.0 | ISC and BSD 2-Clause and BSD 3-Clause and BSD 4-Clause |
| Latest version | 2.1.0 | 14.9.25 |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native | Through WSL |
| BSD | Build from source | Native |
| Android | No | No |
| IMAP | Yes | Yes |
| POP3 | No | Yes |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| JMAP | Yes | No |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | No | Yes |
| notmuch | No | No |
| OpenPGP | No | No |
| 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 message specifications and the search command; IMAP SEARCH on IMAP folders |
| HTML mail | No | built-in tag-soup filter or external viewer via mailcap |
| Mouse | No | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | with the Maildir backend and a sync tool such as mbsync | IMAP cache with disconnected mode |
| Calendar | No | No |
| Contacts | No | aliases via the alias command |
| Vim-style keys | No | No |
| Configuration | TOML file; interactive setup wizard | ~/.mailrc command 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 S-nail for
- Drop-in POSIX mailx, so it works in existing shell scripts and cron jobs.
- Built-in SMTP, POP3 and IMAP with TLS; no separate sync or send tool needed.
- S/MIME signing and encryption are built in.
Watch out for
- Line-oriented prompt instead of a full-screen interface.
- No built-in OpenPGP; upstream documents a gpg pipe workaround only.
- IMAP support is kept at an older code level and upstream advises care.
Questions
What is the difference between Himalaya and S-nail?
Only Himalaya has built-in JMAP. Only S-nail has built-in POP3 and mbox. On Windows, Himalaya runs natively and S-nail runs through WSL.
Which runs on Windows, Himalaya or S-nail?
On Windows, Himalaya runs natively. On Windows, S-nail runs through WSL.
See also: Himalaya alternatives, S-nail alternatives.