# notmuch

10 Hacker News commenters recommended notmuch and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Fast, rich search and tagging across very large mail archives, and a solid indexing layer for building other mail tools. Critics note it has no graphical interface for end users.

## Why people recommend it

- Fast search across huge mail archives (3 comments): "I could query 20 years of the Smalltalk USENET group or the Supercollider mailing list instantly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945572)) "which will let you index and search colossal mail accounts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46878494)) "notmuch beat recoll for me on the mbox split" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49670814))
- Strong search and tagging capabilities (2 comments): "Best email search and virtual folder capability I've used on any platform." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46219369)) "gives really responsive and rich search and tagging capabilities" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45989324))
- Solid indexing layer for other tools (4 comments): "I think a thin layer on notmuch would get you pretty close without so much infrastructure." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49825368)) "use notmuch for searching/indexing. It's amazing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50081291)) "notmuch for indexing email, for example" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49560594))

## What people warn about

- No graphical interface for end users (1 comments): "the absence of a shiny UI for end users makes their use a no go" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46755244))

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "notmuch", https://hackerapproved.com/p/notmuch/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).