Haraka 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?
Haraka
High-performance, pluggable SMTP server in Node.js
VS
Postal
Complete mail delivery platform for outgoing email
| Feature | Haraka | Postal |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,612 | ★ 16,724 |
| First released | 2011 | 2017 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Haraka or Postal better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while Haraka is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Haraka and Postal free and open-source?
Yes. Haraka is licensed under MIT and Postal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Haraka and Postal with Docker?
Haraka: yes. Postal: yes.