aerc email client
Ranked 2 of 5 terminal email clients by recommenders
A fast terminal email client that supports Maildir and works with Gmail, Outlook and Yandex, recommended by people who moved over from Mutt. The most common caveat is inconsistent documentation.
A fast terminal email client that supports Maildir and works with Gmail, Outlook and Yandex, recommended by people who moved over from Mutt. The most common caveat is inconsistent documentation.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast and no issues
“I've only ever used aerc and have had no issues in the few months I've been using it”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “Is aerc better than neomutt now?” “I’ve never been this fast when it comes to email.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Help Keep Thunderbird Alive” Supports Maildir and multiple providers
“AERC as a mail client it's written in Go and it's supports Maildir, so that's it.”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Rust Style Guide” “this is the one I use with Gmail, Outlook, Yandex”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Penguin Mail – open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Inconsistent documentation and wiki
“the documentation (or at least the wiki) is inconsistent within itself at times”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “Is aerc better than neomutt now?”
Other terminal email clients people recommend
The four most recommended other terminal email clients, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mutt email client | 26 | 0 | 100% | 9 | — | Approved |
| aerc email clientThis page | 9 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
| NeoMutt | 8 | 1 | 89% | 7 | — | — |
| Pine email client | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
| Alpine email client | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
10 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's slower, but far more secure than C.”
“That's why I migrated from Mutt to Aerc”
“AERC as a mail client it's written in Go and it's supports Maildir, so that's it.”
“You may want to give aerc a try.”
“this is the one I use with Gmail, Outlook, Yandex”
“aerc is the best program I've ever used”
“I greatly appreciate his work on Harelang, sway, and aerc”
“the documentation (or at least the wiki) is inconsistent within itself at times”
“I've only ever used aerc and have had no issues in the few months I've been using it”
“I’ve never been this fast when it comes to email.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.