Dovecot Pigeonhole vs imapfilter
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
imapfilter
Scriptable IMAP mail filtering utility
| Feature | Dovecot Pigeonhole | imapfilter |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | LGPL-2.1 | MIT |
| Language | C | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 95 | ★ 936 |
| First released | 2008 | 2001 |
| Replaces | Gmail filters | Gmail filters |
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
Choose imapfilter if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 32 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Dovecot Pigeonhole or imapfilter better?
Neither is universally better. imapfilter has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Dovecot Pigeonhole and imapfilter free and open-source?
Yes. Dovecot Pigeonhole is licensed under LGPL-2.1 and imapfilter under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dovecot Pigeonhole and imapfilter with Docker?
Dovecot Pigeonhole: check the project docs for container support. imapfilter: check the project docs for container support.