Alpine vs Claws Mail
When comparing Alpine vs Claws Mail, the Slant community recommends Claws Mail for most people. In the question“What are the best native e-mail clients for Linux?” Claws Mail is ranked 1st while Alpine is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose Claws Mail is:
Claws Mail is a low resource e-mail client that is often default in low resource Linux distributions.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Extremely user-friendly
Pro Can use the built-in text editor or can be integrated with another text editor
Alpine comes with pico, a lightweight text editor which can also be used as a standalone tool. It can also be integrated with vi, vim, emacs, etc... if the user prefers to do so.
Pro On-screen contextual help
Alpine has contextual help that can be displayed on-screen. Removing the need to consult the man pages every time you forget a command or how to do something inside it.
Pro Low resource client
Claws Mail is a low resource e-mail client that is often default in low resource Linux distributions.
Pro Open-Source
Pro Has many plugins for extra functionality
Pro Traditional user interface
Pro Clean interface with 5 layout variants
Pro Saves emails in uncompressed readable format
Allows one to read archived emails with a text editor.
Pro Has very strong filters
The filters a much stronger than in thunderbird.
Pro Saves passwords in encrypted format
Pro Has many themes
Pro Also supported on Windows
This makes switching the platform easier.
Pro Good support for Google's services
Cons
Con Updates are not frequent
Alpine is not updated frequently. This means that new features, bug fixes or security updates come much later than in other email clients.
Con Blocks and freezes all the time
Con Saves passwords in plain format
Con Too much bloat
some people dont like the simple design of slypheed so they forked it and created claws mail but it has become so bloated since itsbeginnings.
Con Saves emails in uncompressed format
This takes more space on the HDD.
Con Interface looks old and setup is not easy
The icons as well as the rest of the interface look like an application from the early 90's, with this there is also no easy setup options built in like the more modern e-mail clients.