Postal vs getmail6
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
getmail6
Flexible mail retrieval tool for POP3 and IMAP
| Feature | Postal | getmail6 |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | ★ 164 |
| First released | 2017 | 2002 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | fetchmail |
Why pick each one
Choose getmail6 if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 32 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or getmail6 better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while getmail6 is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Postal and getmail6 free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and getmail6 under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and getmail6 with Docker?
Postal: yes. getmail6: check the project docs for container support.