Cuttlefish vs MailWhale
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?
Cuttlefish
Transactional email server with click and open tracking
VS
MailWhale
Self-hosted transactional email relay with API
| Feature | Cuttlefish | MailWhale |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,624 | ★ 372 |
| First released | 2014 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Mailgun, SendGrid, Postmark | SendGrid, Postmark |
Why pick each one
Choose Cuttlefish if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in Ruby
Choose MailWhale if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Cuttlefish or MailWhale better?
Neither is universally better. Cuttlefish has the larger community, while MailWhale is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Cuttlefish and MailWhale free and open-source?
Yes. Cuttlefish is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and MailWhale under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cuttlefish and MailWhale with Docker?
Cuttlefish: yes. MailWhale: yes.