Postal vs Inboxen
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
Inboxen
Lets you have an infinite number of unique inboxes
| Feature | Postal | Inboxen |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | — |
| First released | 2017 | 2020 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | — |
Why pick each one
Choose Inboxen if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in Python
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or Inboxen better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while Inboxen is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Postal and Inboxen free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and Inboxen under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and Inboxen with Docker?
Postal: yes. Inboxen: check the project docs for container support.