SHSelfHostIndex

Stalwart Mail Server vs MailCatcher

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?
ST Stalwart Mail Server Modern all-in-one mail server in a single binary VS MA MailCatcher Catch-all SMTP server for inspecting test email
FeatureStalwart Mail ServerMailCatcher
CategoryMail ServersMail Servers
LicenseAGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageRustRuby
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM512 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, bare-metaldocker, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 14,059★ 6,774
First released20202010
ReplacesMicrosoft Exchange, Google WorkspaceMailtrap

Why pick each one

Choose Stalwart Mail Server if…

  • Single modern binary
  • Strong security defaults
Stalwart Mail Server details

Choose MailCatcher if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 6.8k GitHub stars
MailCatcher details

Frequently asked questions

Is Stalwart Mail Server or MailCatcher better?

Neither is universally better. Stalwart Mail Server has the larger community, while MailCatcher is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Stalwart Mail Server and MailCatcher free and open-source?

Yes. Stalwart Mail Server is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and MailCatcher under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Stalwart Mail Server and MailCatcher with Docker?

Stalwart Mail Server: yes. MailCatcher: yes.

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