Postal vs msmtp
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
msmtp
Lightweight SMTP client for sending mail
| Feature | Postal | msmtp |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | ★ 290 |
| First released | 2017 | 2004 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | Sendmail |
Why pick each one
Choose msmtp if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 32 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or msmtp better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while msmtp is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Postal and msmtp free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and msmtp under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and msmtp with Docker?
Postal: yes. msmtp: check the project docs for container support.