aerc vs Mailpit
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 mailcow Mautic Mailpile Roundcube Himalaya RainLoop WildDuck Cypht SnappyMail Nextcloud Mail alps Afterlogic WebMail Lite
Compare Mailpit with
choose an app… listmonk Docker Mailserver Mailspring Postal MailHog Mail-in-a-Box Stalwart Mail Server mailcow Mautic Mailpile Mailu Roundcube Himalaya SimpleLogin MailCatcher Maddy Mail Server Mox Mailtrain Haraka AnonAddy RainLoop imapsync smtp4dev NeoMutt Modoboa Dittofeed Rspamd Keila emailwiz SendPortal WildDuck Mailvelope iRedMail Cypht SnappyMail Forward Email Cuttlefish DebOps swaks parsedmarc PostfixAdmin Dovecot 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 msmtp fdm DragonFly Mail Agent Claws Mail Fetchmail HyperKitty piler Postorius Nullmailer getmail6 OpenDMARC OpenDKIM bogofilter Schleuder Dovecot Pigeonhole DKIMpy Milter mpop Courier Mail Server Afterlogic DAV b1gMail Dovel EmailRelay Inboxen Sendmail Sendy SquirrelMail
Feature aerc Mailpit Category Mail Servers Mail Servers License MIT MIT Language Go Go Setup difficulty Medium Easy Min. RAM 64 MB 64 MB Deployment binary, source docker, binary GitHub stars ★ 3,300 ★ 10,067 First released 2019 2022 Replaces Gmail, Outlook Mailtrap, MailHog
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
Frequently asked questions Is aerc or Mailpit better? Mailpit is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider aerc if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are aerc and Mailpit free and open-source? Yes. aerc is licensed under MIT and Mailpit under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run aerc and Mailpit with Docker? aerc: check the project docs for container support. Mailpit: yes.