Mautic vs SquirrelMail

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?
FeatureMauticSquirrelMail
CategoryMail ServersMail Servers
LicenseGPL-3.0GPL-2.0
LanguagePHPPHP
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM2,048 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcebare-metal
GitHub stars★ 10,305
First released20142020
ReplacesHubSpot, Marketo, Mailchimp

Why pick each one

Choose Mautic if…

  • Full marketing automation suite
  • Large community
Mautic details

Choose SquirrelMail if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Written in PHP
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
SquirrelMail details

Frequently asked questions

Is Mautic or SquirrelMail better?

Neither is universally better. Mautic has the larger community, while SquirrelMail is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Mautic and SquirrelMail free and open-source?

Yes. Mautic is licensed under GPL-3.0 and SquirrelMail under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Mautic and SquirrelMail with Docker?

Mautic: yes. SquirrelMail: check the project docs for container support.

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