# meli vs Sup

- meli: Terminal email client written in Rust with IMAP, JMAP, notmuch, Maildir, mbox and NNTP backends and TOML configuration.
- Sup: Curses email client in Ruby built around threads, labels and fast full-text search over local mail.

## Differences

- Only meli has built-in IMAP, SMTP, JMAP and notmuch.
- On Windows, meli is not available and Sup runs through WSL.
- On BSD, meli runs natively and Sup builds from source.
- meli has mouse support; Sup does not.
- meli has OAuth2 sign-in; Sup does not.
- meli is written in Rust; Sup in Ruby.
- Configuration: meli uses TOML file (config.toml), and Sup uses ~/.sup/config.yaml and ~/.sup/sources.yaml, plus Ruby hooks.

## Side by side

| | meli | Sup |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Interface | Full-screen terminal interface | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | Rust | Ruby |
| License | EUPL 1.2 or GPL 3.0 or later | GPL 2.0 or later |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Not supported | Through WSL |
| BSD | Native | Build from source |
| Android | Not supported | Not supported |
| IMAP | Yes | No |
| POP3 | No | No |
| SMTP | Yes | Through a separate tool |
| JMAP | Yes | No |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | Yes | Yes |
| notmuch | Yes | No |
| OpenPGP | Yes | Yes |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | via script | No |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | built-in; sqlite3 index by default; notmuch queries | Xapian full-text index with a query language |
| HTML mail | via filter command, w3m by default | via the mime-decode hook and an external viewer such as w3m |
| Mouse | Yes | No |
| Multiple accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Offline use | IMAP header cache in sqlite3; full offline use with Maildir and mbsync | reads local Maildir or mbox; sync with isync or OfflineIMAP |
| Calendar | No | No |
| Contacts | built-in contact list; reads vCard and mutt alias files | tracks recent contacts automatically |
| Vim-style keys | Yes | Yes |
| Configuration | TOML file (config.toml) | ~/.sup/config.yaml and ~/.sup/sources.yaml, plus Ruby hooks |

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