Mox 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 Mox with
choose an app… Nextcloud listmonk Docker Mailserver Mailspring Postal MailHog Mail-in-a-Box Stalwart Mail Server Mautic Mailpit Mailpile CryptPad Mailu Roundcube Himalaya SimpleLogin ONLYOFFICE Docs MailCatcher Maddy Mail Server 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 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 Mailtrain Haraka AnonAddy RainLoop imapsync smtp4dev NeoMutt Modoboa aerc Dittofeed Rspamd Keila 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 Mox mailcow Category Mail Servers Mail Servers License MIT GPL-3.0 Language Go JavaScript Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 6,144 MB Deployment docker, binary, source docker GitHub stars ★ 5,771 ★ 13,245 First released 2023 2016 Replaces Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 Microsoft Exchange, Google Workspace
Why pick each one
Choose Mox if… Very easy to deploy Strong modern defaults Mox details Choose mailcow if… All components preconfigured Active community mailcow details
Frequently asked questions Is Mox or mailcow better? Neither is universally better. mailcow has the larger community, while Mox is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Mox and mailcow free and open-source? Yes. Mox is licensed under MIT and mailcow under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mox and mailcow with Docker? Mox: yes. mailcow: yes.