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What is the difference between mailx and sendmail?
Which one is the most efficient(Performance standpoint) to send emails?
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Mailx is an intelligent mail processing system, which has a command syntax reminiscent of ed(1) with lines replaced by messages. It is based on Berkeley Mail 8.1, is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX mailx command, and offers extensions for MIME, IMAP, POP3, SMTP, and S/MIME.
SMTP is the protocol that is used by nearly all Internet hosts to send mail. This protocol is spoken by sendmail. Sendmail determines where to send your message and how. Some mail programs (most, today) will connect directly to a mail server and speak SMTP to it.
Linux has an inbuilt Mail User Agent program called mailx. As the name suggests, it is a console application that is used for sending and receiving emails. The mailx utility is an enhanced version of the mail command.
The most common difference between these two is architecture. Postfix has a modular architecture composed of many independent small executables. It provides multiple options, parameters, and features. In contrast, Sendmail has a monolithic design that uses a single process always running at the backend.
mailx is mail client. It can compose emails and deliver them to local mail transfer agent (sendmail, postfix, etc) which does actual sending to remote addresses. It can view and edit local user mailbox file.
sendmail is mail server. It does actual communication with remote mail servers for sending and receiving emails.
These two programs can't be compared from performance standpoint - they serve different purposes and perform different tasks.
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