Postal vs Sieve Editor
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
Sieve Editor
Graphical editor for Sieve mail filtering scripts
| Feature | Postal | Sieve Editor |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | ★ 889 |
| First released | 2017 | 2012 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | Gmail filters |
Why pick each one
Choose Sieve Editor if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or Sieve Editor better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while Sieve Editor is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Postal and Sieve Editor free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and Sieve Editor under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and Sieve Editor with Docker?
Postal: yes. Sieve Editor: check the project docs for container support.