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meli vs Alpine: catalog facts
meli	Alpine
Free Free and open source under the GPLv3.	Free Free to download and use.
macOS, Linux, Command line	Windows, Linux, Command line
Supports IMAP, Maildir, notmuch, JMAP and mbox Plain text configuration with sane defaults	Lightweight keyboard-driven terminal interface Complete documentation built into the program
Described by its developers as experimental Non-UTF-8 encodings are read-only	Text-only interface with no rich HTML rendering Releases are infrequent
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-3.0	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 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

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