Haraka vs Mailpile
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?
Haraka
High-performance, pluggable SMTP server in Node.js
VS
Mailpile
Privacy-focused, searchable email client
| Feature | Haraka | Mailpile |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,612 | ★ 8,825 |
| First released | 2011 | 2013 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun | Gmail |
Why pick each one
Choose Mailpile if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 8.8k GitHub stars
- Written in Python
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Haraka or Mailpile better?
Neither is universally better. Mailpile has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Haraka and Mailpile free and open-source?
Yes. Haraka is licensed under MIT and Mailpile under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Haraka and Mailpile with Docker?
Haraka: yes. Mailpile: check the project docs for container support.