afew vs imapfilter
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
imapfilter
Scriptable IMAP mail filtering utility
| Feature | afew | imapfilter |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | ISC | MIT |
| Language | Python | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 344 | ★ 936 |
| First released | 2011 | 2001 |
| Replaces | Gmail filters | Gmail filters |
Why pick each one
Choose afew if…
- Released under the ISC license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Choose imapfilter if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 32 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is afew or imapfilter better?
Neither is universally better. imapfilter has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are afew and imapfilter free and open-source?
Yes. afew is licensed under ISC and imapfilter under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run afew and imapfilter with Docker?
afew: check the project docs for container support. imapfilter: check the project docs for container support.