Postal vs phpList
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
phpList
Newsletter and email marketing with advanced management of
| Feature | Postal | phpList |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | ★ 864 |
| First released | 2017 | 2025 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | — |
Why pick each one
Choose phpList if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Written in PHP
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or phpList better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while phpList is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Postal and phpList free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and phpList under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and phpList with Docker?
Postal: yes. phpList: check the project docs for container support.