Postal vs meli
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
meli
Terminal email client with a modern interface
| Feature | Postal | meli |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | ★ 877 |
| First released | 2017 | 2017 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | Mutt, NeoMutt |
Why pick each one
Choose meli if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or meli better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while meli is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Postal and meli free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and meli under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and meli with Docker?
Postal: yes. meli: check the project docs for container support.