Dovecot Pigeonhole 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?
Dovecot Pigeonhole
Sieve mail filtering engine for Dovecot
VS
Postal
Complete mail delivery platform for outgoing email
| Feature | Dovecot Pigeonhole | Postal |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | LGPL-2.1 | MIT |
| Language | C | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 95 | ★ 16,724 |
| First released | 2008 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Gmail filters | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark |
Why pick each one
Choose Dovecot Pigeonhole if…
- Released under the LGPL-2.1 license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Dovecot Pigeonhole or Postal better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while Dovecot Pigeonhole is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Dovecot Pigeonhole and Postal free and open-source?
Yes. Dovecot Pigeonhole is licensed under LGPL-2.1 and Postal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dovecot Pigeonhole and Postal with Docker?
Dovecot Pigeonhole: check the project docs for container support. Postal: yes.