5 Highest-Rated Open Source Email Clients for Terminal 2026
Reviews and comparison of the 5 highest-rated open-source email clients for Terminal. Screenshots, features, pros/cons, and installation guides.
Prefer one of the clients below? Download and install your favorite, then follow these instructions.
Email Client Screenshots
Himalaya
Himalaya is an open-source email client for Terminal and is written in the Rust programming language. The official description from its website says, "CLI to manage emails, based on email-lib."
meli
meli is an open-source email client for Terminal and is written in the Rust programming language. The official description from its website says, "meli aims for configurability and extensibility with sane defaults. It seeks to be a mail client for both new and power users of the terminal, but built today."
Alpine
Alpine is an open-source email client for Terminal and is written in the C programming language. The official description from its website says, "Alpine is a rewrite of the Pine Message System that adds support for Unicode and other features."
NeoMutt
NeoMutt is an open-source email client for Terminal and is written in the C programming language. The official description from its website says, "NeoMutt is a command line mail reader (or MUA). It’s a fork of Mutt with added features."
aerc
aerc is an open-source email client for Terminal and is written in the Go programming language. The official description from its website says, "aerc is an email client that runs in your terminal. It's highly efficient and extensible, perfect for the discerning hacker."
Email Client Comparison
| Name | Description | Screenshot | Platforms | Language | Website | Wikipedia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Himalaya ⭐ Recommended | CLI to manage emails, based on email-lib. | Screenshot |
| Rust | Website | |
| meli ⭐ Recommended | meli aims for configurability and extensibility with sane defaults. It seeks to be a mail client for both new and power users of the terminal, but built today. | Screenshot |
| Rust | Website | |
| Alpine | Alpine is a rewrite of the Pine Message System that adds support for Unicode and other features. | Screenshot |
| C | Website | Wikipedia |
| NeoMutt | NeoMutt is a command line mail reader (or MUA). It’s a fork of Mutt with added features. | Screenshot |
| C | Website | |
| aerc | aerc is an email client that runs in your terminal. It's highly efficient and extensible, perfect for the discerning hacker. | Screenshot |
| Go | Website |
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Common questions about plans.
What's the difference between Enhanced Protection and Team plans?
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