afew vs Dovecot Pigeonhole
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted mail servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | afew | Dovecot Pigeonhole |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 75 · Good | 72 · Good |
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | ISC | LGPL-2.1 |
| Language | Python | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 342 | ★ 96 |
| First released | 2011 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Gmail filters | Gmail filters |
What are afew and Dovecot Pigeonhole?
afew
afew is an automatic tagging tool for the notmuch email system, applying filters and rules to newly delivered mail so a self-hosted mail setup keeps messages organized into virtual folders.
- Automatic tagging for notmuch
- Rule-based mail filtering
- Virtual folder organization
Dovecot Pigeonhole
Dovecot Pigeonhole is the Sieve and ManageSieve implementation that adds server-side mail filtering to a Dovecot installation. It lets users define filtering rules that run as messages are delivered.
- Server-side Sieve filtering
- ManageSieve protocol
- Runs at delivery time
- Dovecot integration
afew vs Dovecot Pigeonhole: key differences
Afew is written in Python, while Dovecot Pigeonhole is built with C. Licensing differs — ISC for afew versus LGPL-2.1 for Dovecot Pigeonhole. Dovecot Pigeonhole is the more established project (first released 2008), while afew arrived in 2011. Afew has the considerably larger community, at 342 GitHub stars versus 96.
Why pick each one
Choose afew if…
- Released under the ISC license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Choose Dovecot Pigeonhole if…
- Released under the LGPL-2.1 license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is afew or Dovecot Pigeonhole better?
Neither is universally better. afew has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are afew and Dovecot Pigeonhole free and open-source?
Yes. afew is licensed under ISC and Dovecot Pigeonhole under LGPL-2.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run afew and Dovecot Pigeonhole with Docker?
afew: check the project docs for container support. Dovecot Pigeonhole: check the project docs for container support.