Dovecot 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
Secure, high-performance IMAP and POP3 server
VS
Postal
Complete mail delivery platform for outgoing email
| Feature | Dovecot | Postal |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | C | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,233 | ★ 16,724 |
| First released | 2002 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Microsoft Exchange | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Dovecot or Postal better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Dovecot and Postal free and open-source?
Yes. Dovecot is licensed under MIT and Postal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dovecot and Postal with Docker?
Dovecot: yes. Postal: yes.