aerc vs mailcow
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?
Compare aerc with
choose an app… listmonk Docker Mailserver Mailspring Postal MailHog Mail-in-a-Box Stalwart Mail Server Mautic Mailpit Mailpile Roundcube Himalaya RainLoop WildDuck Cypht SnappyMail Nextcloud Mail alps Afterlogic WebMail Lite
Compare mailcow with
choose an app… listmonk Docker Mailserver Mailspring Postal MailHog Mail-in-a-Box Stalwart Mail Server Mautic Mailpit Mailpile Mailu Roundcube Himalaya SimpleLogin MailCatcher Maddy Mail Server Mox Mailtrain Haraka AnonAddy RainLoop imapsync smtp4dev NeoMutt Modoboa Dittofeed Rspamd Keila emailwiz SendPortal SOGo WildDuck Mailvelope iRedMail Cypht SnappyMail Forward Email Cuttlefish DebOps swaks parsedmarc Cozy PostfixAdmin Dovecot Nextcloud Groupware Apache James Nextcloud Mail chasquid Sup Betterbird imapfilter OpenTrashmail notmuch Sieve Editor meli phpList Exim alot alps Lieer Cyrus IMAP OfflineIMAP Larch OpenSMTPD Postfix ViMbAdmin Chatmail Mailman isync MailWhale Afterlogic WebMail Lite afew Apache SpamAssassin Sympa Simple NixOS Mailserver EGroupware msmtp fdm Group-Office DragonFly Mail Agent Horde Groupware Claws Mail Fetchmail DAViCal HyperKitty Kolab Groupware piler Postorius Nullmailer getmail6 OpenDMARC OpenDKIM bogofilter Citadel Schleuder Dovecot Pigeonhole Kopano Groupware Core Tine DKIMpy Milter mpop Courier Mail Server Afterlogic DAV b1gMail Dovel EmailRelay Inboxen Sendmail Sendy SquirrelMail
Feature aerc mailcow Category Mail Servers Mail Servers License MIT GPL-3.0 Language Go JavaScript Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 64 MB 6,144 MB Deployment binary, source docker GitHub stars ★ 3,300 ★ 13,245 First released 2019 2016 Replaces Gmail, Outlook Microsoft Exchange, Google Workspace
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 aerc details Choose mailcow if… All components preconfigured Active community mailcow details
Frequently asked questions Is aerc or mailcow better? Neither is universally better. mailcow has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are aerc and mailcow free and open-source? Yes. aerc is licensed under MIT and mailcow under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run aerc and mailcow with Docker? aerc: check the project docs for container support. mailcow: yes.