Claws Mail 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?
Claws Mail
Lightweight and fast GTK email client
VS
Postal
Complete mail delivery platform for outgoing email
| Feature | Claws Mail | Postal |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | C | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 200 | ★ 16,724 |
| First released | 2001 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Microsoft Outlook | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark |
Why pick each one
Choose Claws Mail if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Claws Mail or Postal better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while Claws Mail is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Claws Mail and Postal free and open-source?
Yes. Claws Mail is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Postal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Claws Mail and Postal with Docker?
Claws Mail: check the project docs for container support. Postal: yes.