A Terminal Email Client As An Alternative To Gmail: The Old Dog Neomutt And Pals

Hmm.

OK, so I haven't used Neomutt (or mutt) in ages, but I assume it's about as capable as aerc, which I do use. Aerc is an alternative to Gmail in a couple of ways:

1. If you interpret the meaning the way you did, aerc can access a gmail account via IMAP, just like any IMAP client can. So it's a replacement for GMail web
2. It can be configured to use notmuch, which is the most GMail-like interface to mail in that it indexes email for searching and uses tags instead of folders - like GMail. So it's a replacement for GMail in that it behaves the most like GMail without being backed by GMail (although, you can connect it to a GMail account email corpus if you like).
3. It can talk to any IMAP server, so it's a replacement for GMail in the purest sense: there is nothing GMail involved.

I suspect Neomutt is equally capable; I've just always disliked the UI.

What were you expecting? A promo for ProtonMail, or a replacement as in, "hey you can go here and register an email account, so it's a replacement for GMail?"

Don't be pedantic. It's obvious the OP is referring to the client portion of Gmail, not the service portion.

Isn't that what makes it an "alternative" and not a "clone"?