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