DebOps 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?
DebOps
Your Debian-based data center in a box
VS
Postal
Complete mail delivery platform for outgoing email
| Feature | DebOps | Postal |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Jinja | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,416 | ★ 16,724 |
| First released | 2026 | 2017 |
| Replaces | — | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark |
Why pick each one
Choose DebOps if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Active community (1.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in Jinja
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is DebOps or Postal better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while DebOps is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are DebOps and Postal free and open-source?
Yes. DebOps is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Postal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run DebOps and Postal with Docker?
DebOps: check the project docs for container support. Postal: yes.