Postal vs Rspamd
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?
Postal
Complete mail delivery platform for outgoing email
VS
Rspamd
Fast, modern spam filtering system
| Feature | Postal | Rspamd |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Ruby | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | ★ 2,507 |
| First released | 2017 | 2013 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | — |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or Rspamd better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while Rspamd is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Postal and Rspamd free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and Rspamd under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and Rspamd with Docker?
Postal: yes. Rspamd: yes.