Compare software

aerc vs Alpine: catalog facts
aerc	Alpine
Free Free and open source under the MIT licence.	Free Free to download and use.
macOS, Linux, Command line	Windows, Linux, Command line
Composes in an embedded terminal, so you can read other mail while replying Built for the git mailing-list patch workflow, with diff highlighting and repo tabs	Lightweight keyboard-driven terminal interface Complete documentation built into the program
Terminal only, with vim-style keybindings to learn HTML mail rendering is a terminal browser, so complex newsletters look poor	Text-only interface with no rich HTML rendering Releases are infrequent
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: MIT	License: Apache-2.0
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.