Mailu 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?
Compare Mailu with
choose an app… Nextcloud listmonk Docker Mailserver Mailspring MailHog Mail-in-a-Box Stalwart Mail Server mailcow Mautic Mailpit Mailpile CryptPad Roundcube Himalaya SimpleLogin ONLYOFFICE Docs MailCatcher Maddy Mail Server Mox Mailtrain Haraka AnonAddy RainLoop imapsync smtp4dev NeoMutt Modoboa Collabora Online OnlyOffice Community Server emailwiz SOGo iRedMail Cozy Nextcloud Groupware chasquid LibreOffice Online Calligra Suite EGroupware Group-Office Citadel Tine
Compare Postal with
choose an app… listmonk Docker Mailserver Mailspring MailHog Mail-in-a-Box Stalwart Mail Server mailcow Mautic Mailpit Mailpile Roundcube Himalaya SimpleLogin MailCatcher Maddy Mail Server Mox Mailtrain Haraka AnonAddy RainLoop imapsync smtp4dev NeoMutt Modoboa aerc Dittofeed Rspamd Keila emailwiz SendPortal WildDuck Mailvelope iRedMail Cypht SnappyMail Forward Email Cuttlefish DebOps swaks parsedmarc PostfixAdmin Dovecot 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 msmtp fdm DragonFly Mail Agent Claws Mail Fetchmail HyperKitty piler Postorius Nullmailer getmail6 OpenDMARC OpenDKIM bogofilter Schleuder Dovecot Pigeonhole DKIMpy Milter mpop Courier Mail Server Afterlogic DAV b1gMail Dovel EmailRelay Inboxen Sendmail Sendy SquirrelMail
Feature Mailu Postal Category Mail Servers Mail Servers License MIT MIT Language Python Ruby Setup difficulty Medium Hard Min. RAM 2,048 MB 2,048 MB Deployment docker, kubernetes docker, bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 7,443 ★ 16,724 First released 2016 2017 Replaces Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark
Why pick each one
Choose Mailu if… Lighter than mailcow Kubernetes support Mailu details
Frequently asked questions Is Mailu or Postal better? Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while Mailu is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Mailu and Postal free and open-source? Yes. Mailu is licensed under MIT and Postal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mailu and Postal with Docker? Mailu: yes. Postal: yes.