Postal vs parsedmarc
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
parsedmarc
Parser and dashboard for DMARC aggregate reports
| Feature | Postal | parsedmarc |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | ★ 1,275 |
| First released | 2017 | 2018 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | Dmarcian, Valimail |
Why pick each one
Choose parsedmarc if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or parsedmarc better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while parsedmarc is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Postal and parsedmarc free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and parsedmarc under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and parsedmarc with Docker?
Postal: yes. parsedmarc: yes.