afew 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?
afew
Initial tagging script for the notmuch mailer
VS
Postal
Complete mail delivery platform for outgoing email
| Feature | afew | Postal |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | ISC | MIT |
| Language | Python | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 344 | ★ 16,724 |
| First released | 2011 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Gmail filters | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark |
Why pick each one
Choose afew if…
- Released under the ISC license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is afew or Postal better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while afew is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are afew and Postal free and open-source?
Yes. afew is licensed under ISC and Postal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run afew and Postal with Docker?
afew: check the project docs for container support. Postal: yes.