imapsync
Hacker ApprovedEmail sync tool in Productivity & writing
Free tool that copies mail between IMAP accounts, recommended for migrations and backups. One critic notes it is slower and lacks bidirectional sync.
Free tool that copies mail between IMAP accounts, recommended for migrations and backups. One critic notes it is slower and lacks bidirectional sync.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 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
Backs up mail in standard format
“With an approach like this you can regularly sync and get your messages in a standard format.”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Incremental Backups of Gmail Takeouts” “there's something satisfying knowing all your mail is 1000s of little files on your own NAS”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Google restricting Google AI Pro/Ultra subscribers for using OpenClaw” “use imapsync to pull emails, then backup the resulting folder”
Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Creating backup storage sucks” Easy syncing for account migration
“Imapsync is your best friend for this, as far as syncing the new account with the old one.”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “Users fume over Outlook.com email 'carnage'” “made the migration very easy”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “Gmail to end support for "Send as" for third-party addresses, such as @yahoo.com” Long-lived project still well regarded
“This is the way projects used to be, and surprisingly excellent ones still are.”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “Migrate Wizard – IMAP Based Email Migration Tool” “I remember using it fondly in the past.”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “Migrate Wizard – IMAP Based Email Migration Tool”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slower than alternatives
“imapsync is slower and doesn't support bidirectional sync”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “Migrate Wizard – IMAP Based Email Migration Tool” No bidirectional sync
“imapsync is slower and doesn't support bidirectional sync”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “Migrate Wizard – IMAP Based Email Migration Tool”
What people recommend instead
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| imapsyncThis page | 11 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
| mbsync | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
10 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it's what Migadu recommends”
“there's software that already does this well”
“made the migration very easy”
“use imapsync to pull emails, then backup the resulting folder”
“Imapsync is your best friend for this, as far as syncing the new account with the old one.”
“there's something satisfying knowing all your mail is 1000s of little files on your own NAS”
“imapsync is slower and doesn't support bidirectional sync”
“I remember using it fondly in the past.”
“This is the way projects used to be, and surprisingly excellent ones still are.”
“With an approach like this you can regularly sync and get your messages in a standard format.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.