aerc vs Postal
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted mail servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
aerc
Efficient terminal-based email client
VS
Postal
Complete mail delivery platform for outgoing email
| Feature | aerc | Postal |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,300 | ★ 16,724 |
| First released | 2019 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Gmail, Outlook | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark |
Why pick each one
Choose aerc if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (3.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is aerc or Postal better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while aerc is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are aerc and Postal free and open-source?
Yes. aerc is licensed under MIT and Postal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run aerc and Postal with Docker?
aerc: check the project docs for container support. Postal: yes.