AnonAddy 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?
AnonAddy
Email forwarding service for creating aliases
VS
Postal
Complete mail delivery platform for outgoing email
| Feature | AnonAddy | Postal |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | PHP | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,789 | ★ 16,724 |
| First released | 2026 | 2017 |
| Replaces | — | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark |
Why pick each one
Choose AnonAddy if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
Frequently asked questions
Is AnonAddy or Postal better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while AnonAddy is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are AnonAddy and Postal free and open-source?
Yes. AnonAddy is licensed under MIT and Postal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run AnonAddy and Postal with Docker?
AnonAddy: yes. Postal: yes.