Haraka 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?
Haraka
High-performance, pluggable SMTP server in Node.js
VS
MailWhale
Self-hosted transactional email relay with API
| Feature | Haraka | MailWhale |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,612 | ★ 372 |
| First released | 2011 | 2021 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun | SendGrid, Postmark |
Why pick each one
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 Haraka or MailWhale better?
Neither is universally better. Haraka 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 Haraka and MailWhale free and open-source?
Yes. Haraka is licensed under MIT and MailWhale under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Haraka and MailWhale with Docker?
Haraka: yes. MailWhale: yes.