Postal vs Mailvelope
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
Mailvelope
Browser extension for OpenPGP encryption in webmail
| Feature | Postal | Mailvelope |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | ★ 1,838 |
| First released | 2017 | 2012 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | ProtonMail |
Why pick each one
Choose Mailvelope if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Active community (1.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or Mailvelope better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while Mailvelope is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Postal and Mailvelope free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and Mailvelope under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and Mailvelope with Docker?
Postal: yes. Mailvelope: check the project docs for container support.