Postal vs Betterbird
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
Betterbird
Community-enhanced fork of the Thunderbird email client
| Feature | Postal | Betterbird |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | MPL-2.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Shell |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,724 | ★ 948 |
| First released | 2017 | 2022 |
| Replaces | SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark | Microsoft Outlook |
Why pick each one
Choose Betterbird if…
- Released under the MPL-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in Shell
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Postal or Betterbird better?
Neither is universally better. Postal has the larger community, while Betterbird is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Postal and Betterbird free and open-source?
Yes. Postal is licensed under MIT and Betterbird under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Postal and Betterbird with Docker?
Postal: yes. Betterbird: check the project docs for container support.