Haraka vs NeoMutt
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
NeoMutt
Feature-rich terminal email client
| Feature | Haraka | NeoMutt |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,612 | ★ 3,799 |
| First released | 2011 | 2016 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun | Microsoft Outlook |
Why pick each one
Choose NeoMutt if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Active community (3.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Haraka or NeoMutt better?
Neither is universally better. Haraka has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Haraka and NeoMutt free and open-source?
Yes. Haraka is licensed under MIT and NeoMutt under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Haraka and NeoMutt with Docker?
Haraka: yes. NeoMutt: check the project docs for container support.