Postal vs SendPortal
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
SendPortal
Self-hosted email marketing and newsletter platform
| Feature | Postal | SendPortal |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | ★ 2,152 |
| First released | 2017 | 2020 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | Mailchimp |
Why pick each one
Choose SendPortal if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (2.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or SendPortal better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while SendPortal is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Postal and SendPortal free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and SendPortal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and SendPortal with Docker?
Postal: yes. SendPortal: check the project docs for container support.