Keila vs mailcow
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?
Compare Keila with
choose an app… listmonk Docker Mailserver Mailspring Postal MailHog Mail-in-a-Box Stalwart Mail Server Mautic Mailpit Mailtrain SendPortal
Compare mailcow with
choose an app… listmonk Docker Mailserver Mailspring Postal MailHog Mail-in-a-Box Stalwart Mail Server Mautic Mailpit Mailpile Mailu Roundcube Himalaya SimpleLogin MailCatcher Maddy Mail Server Mox Mailtrain Haraka AnonAddy RainLoop imapsync smtp4dev NeoMutt Modoboa aerc Dittofeed Rspamd emailwiz SendPortal SOGo WildDuck Mailvelope iRedMail Cypht SnappyMail Forward Email Cuttlefish DebOps swaks parsedmarc Cozy PostfixAdmin Dovecot Nextcloud Groupware Apache James Nextcloud Mail chasquid Sup Betterbird imapfilter OpenTrashmail notmuch Sieve Editor meli phpList Exim alot alps Lieer Cyrus IMAP OfflineIMAP Larch OpenSMTPD Postfix ViMbAdmin Chatmail Mailman isync MailWhale Afterlogic WebMail Lite afew Apache SpamAssassin Sympa Simple NixOS Mailserver EGroupware msmtp fdm Group-Office DragonFly Mail Agent Horde Groupware Claws Mail Fetchmail DAViCal HyperKitty Kolab Groupware piler Postorius Nullmailer getmail6 OpenDMARC OpenDKIM bogofilter Citadel Schleuder Dovecot Pigeonhole Kopano Groupware Core Tine DKIMpy Milter mpop Courier Mail Server Afterlogic DAV b1gMail Dovel EmailRelay Inboxen Sendmail Sendy SquirrelMail
Feature Keila mailcow Category Mail Servers Mail Servers License AGPL-3.0 GPL-3.0 Language Elixir JavaScript Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 6,144 MB Deployment docker, source docker GitHub stars ★ 2,181 ★ 13,245 First released 2021 2016 Replaces Mailchimp, Sendinblue Microsoft Exchange, Google Workspace
Why pick each one
Choose Keila if… Released under the AGPL-3.0 license Easy to set up — beginner-friendly First-class Docker support for quick deployment Active community (2.2k GitHub stars) Keila details Choose mailcow if… All components preconfigured Active community mailcow details
Frequently asked questions Is Keila or mailcow better? Neither is universally better. mailcow has the larger community, while Keila is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Keila and mailcow free and open-source? Yes. Keila is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and mailcow under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Keila and mailcow with Docker? Keila: yes. mailcow: yes.