Alternatives to meli

A configurable terminal email client written in Rust with IMAP, Maildir, notmuch and JMAP support. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as meli.

  • NeoMutt

    A fork of Mutt that gathered decades of scattered patches into one maintained terminal mail client.

    FreeOpen sourcemacOSLinuxCommand line

    NeoMutt is a mature, widely packaged Mutt fork with notmuch tags and IMAP keywords, but needs a configuration file written first and has Mutt keybindings to learn.

  • Mutt

    A text-based email client that runs in the terminal on Unix-like systems.

    FreeOpen sourcemacOSLinuxCommand line

    Mutt is the long-established terminal mail client that works well over SSH, with a steep learning curve and fewer built-in backends than meli's IMAP, notmuch and JMAP support.

  • aerc

    A terminal email client with vim-style keys, an embedded terminal for composing, and first-class support for git email workflows.

    FreeOpen sourcemacOSLinuxCommand line

    aerc offers vim-style keys, an embedded terminal for composing and git patch workflow support, with IMAP, Maildir, Notmuch, Mbox and JMAP backends under the MIT license.

  • Alpine

    A terminal email program descended from Pine, with its full documentation built into the program.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsLinuxCommand line

    Alpine is a simple, menu-driven terminal client descended from Pine, with built-in documentation and Windows builds, but text-only and with infrequent releases.

  • Himalaya

    Manage mail accounts through a command-line client.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxCommand line

    Himalaya is a command-line mail client under MIT or Apache-2.0 that also runs on Windows, and supports several mail protocols and local mailbox formats.

  • alot

    A terminal mail reader built on the notmuch indexer, with a command-prompt-driven interface.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxCommand line

    alot is a notmuch-based terminal reader driven by a command prompt, so mail fetching and sending must be handled by separate tools.

  • mu

    A Maildir indexer and search tool with mu4e, an email client for GNU Emacs.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxCommand line

    mu indexes local Maildir folders and provides the mu4e client inside Emacs, so moving to mu means working from Emacs and fetching mail separately.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.