Postal vs MailWhale
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
MailWhale
Self-hosted transactional email relay with API
| Feature | Postal | MailWhale |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | ★ 372 |
| First released | 2017 | 2021 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | SendGrid, Postmark |
Why pick each one
Choose MailWhale if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or MailWhale better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while MailWhale is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Postal and MailWhale free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and MailWhale under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and MailWhale with Docker?
Postal: yes. MailWhale: yes.