bogofilter 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?
bogofilter
Fast Bayesian spam filter for mail systems
VS
Postal
Complete mail delivery platform for outgoing email
| Feature | bogofilter | Postal |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | C | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 100 | ★ 16,724 |
| First released | 2002 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Proprietary spam gateways | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark |
Why pick each one
Choose bogofilter if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is bogofilter or Postal better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while bogofilter is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are bogofilter and Postal free and open-source?
Yes. bogofilter is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Postal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run bogofilter and Postal with Docker?
bogofilter: check the project docs for container support. Postal: yes.