Postal vs Lieer
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
Lieer
Sync Gmail with a local notmuch mail database
| Feature | Postal | Lieer |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | ★ 649 |
| First released | 2017 | 2017 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | Gmail web interface |
Why pick each one
Choose Lieer if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or Lieer better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while Lieer is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Postal and Lieer free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and Lieer under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and Lieer with Docker?
Postal: yes. Lieer: check the project docs for container support.