# mblaze vs meli

- mblaze: Set of small Unix utilities for reading, searching, threading and composing mail stored in Maildir folders.
- meli: Terminal email client written in Rust with IMAP, JMAP, notmuch, Maildir, mbox and NNTP backends and TOML configuration.

## Differences

- mblaze is a command-line program; meli is a full-screen terminal client.
- Only meli has built-in IMAP, SMTP, JMAP, mbox and notmuch.
- On Windows, mblaze runs through WSL and meli is not available.
- meli has mouse support; mblaze does not.
- meli has OAuth2 sign-in; mblaze does not.
- meli has Vim-style keys; mblaze does not.
- mblaze is written in C; meli in Rust.
- Configuration: mblaze uses ~/.mblaze/profile (header-style key: value lines), and meli uses TOML file (config.toml).

## Side by side

| | mblaze | meli |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Command-line tools and prompts | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | C | Rust |
| License | CC0 1.0 and MIT | EUPL 1.2 or GPL 3.0 or later |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Through WSL | Not supported |
| BSD | Native | Native |
| Android | Not supported | Not supported |
| IMAP | Through a separate tool | Yes |
| POP3 | Through a separate tool | No |
| SMTP | Through a separate tool | Yes |
| JMAP | No | Yes |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | No | Yes |
| notmuch | No | Yes |
| OpenPGP | via contrib scripts | Yes |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | via script |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | mpick and magrep filter messages by headers, flags and content | built-in; sqlite3 index by default; notmuch queries |
| HTML mail | via a filter command in ~/.mblaze/filter used by mshow | via filter command, w3m by default |
| Mouse | No | Yes |
| Multiple accounts | via separate Maildirs and profile settings | Yes |
| Offline use | full; works only on local Maildir | IMAP header cache in sqlite3; full offline use with Maildir and mbsync |
| Calendar | No | No |
| Contacts | No | built-in contact list; reads vCard and mutt alias files |
| Vim-style keys | No | Yes |
| Configuration | ~/.mblaze/profile (header-style key: value lines) | TOML file (config.toml) |

Pages: [mblaze](https://terminalemail.com/clients/mblaze/index.md), [meli](https://terminalemail.com/clients/meli/index.md)