SHSelfHostIndex

Dovecot Pigeonhole vs Stalwart Mail Server

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted mail servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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DO Dovecot Pigeonhole Sieve mail filtering engine for Dovecot VS ST Stalwart Mail Server Modern all-in-one mail server in a single binary
FeatureDovecot PigeonholeStalwart Mail Server
CategoryMail ServersMail Servers
LicenseLGPL-2.1AGPL-3.0
LanguageCRust
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM64 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, sourcedocker, binary, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 95★ 14,059
First released20082020
ReplacesGmail filtersMicrosoft Exchange, Google Workspace

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
Dovecot Pigeonhole details

Choose Stalwart Mail Server if…

  • Single modern binary
  • Strong security defaults
Stalwart Mail Server details

Frequently asked questions

Is Dovecot Pigeonhole or Stalwart Mail Server better?

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

Are Dovecot Pigeonhole and Stalwart Mail Server free and open-source?

Yes. Dovecot Pigeonhole is licensed under LGPL-2.1 and Stalwart Mail Server under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Dovecot Pigeonhole and Stalwart Mail Server with Docker?

Dovecot Pigeonhole: check the project docs for container support. Stalwart Mail Server: yes.

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