SHSelfHostIndex

b1gMail vs mailcow

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?
B1 b1gMail Complete email solution that runs on any webspace with PHP and MariaDB VS MA mailcow Dockerized full-stack mail server suite
Featureb1gMailmailcow
CategoryMail ServersMail Servers
LicenseGPL-2.0GPL-3.0
LanguagePHPJavaScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB6,144 MB
Deploymentbare-metaldocker
GitHub stars—★ 13,245
First released20202016
Replaces—Microsoft Exchange, Google Workspace

Why pick each one

Choose b1gMail if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Written in PHP
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
b1gMail details

Choose mailcow if…

  • All components preconfigured
  • Active community
mailcow details

Frequently asked questions

Is b1gMail or mailcow better?

Neither is universally better. mailcow has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are b1gMail and mailcow free and open-source?

Yes. b1gMail is licensed under GPL-2.0 and mailcow under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run b1gMail and mailcow with Docker?

b1gMail: check the project docs for container support. mailcow: yes.

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