Postal vs Schleuder
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
Schleuder
Encrypting mailing list manager with OpenPGP
| Feature | Postal | Schleuder |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | ★ 100 |
| First released | 2017 | 2009 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | Google Groups |
Why pick each one
Choose Schleuder if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in Ruby
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or Schleuder better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Postal and Schleuder free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and Schleuder under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and Schleuder with Docker?
Postal: yes. Schleuder: check the project docs for container support.