Apple Calendar vs IMAP mailbox

In-depth architectural comparison of the Apple Calendar and IMAP mailbox MCP servers. Compare execution transports, security boundaries, tool capabilities, quality scores, and ready-to-paste client installation snippets for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.

Which MCP Server Should You Choose?

Choose Apple Calendar when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Developer Tools domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).

Explore Apple Calendar Details

Choose IMAP mailbox when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Developer Tools domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).

Explore IMAP mailbox Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	Apple Calendar Developer Tools	IMAP mailbox Developer Tools
Summary	Search, read and act on Apple Calendar — ranges, free-time lookup, writes off by default	Read, search and organise any IMAP mailbox, with writes off by default
Category & Scope	Developer Tools	Developer Tools
Quality signal

Tools & Capabilities Breakdown

Ready-to-Paste Client Configurations

Paste either (or both) of these JSON server blocks into your client config file (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-calendar-2": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@mgcrea/mcp-apple-mail"
      ]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "imap-mailbox": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@ni-c/imap-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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