SHSelfHostIndex

Stalwart Mail Server vs swaks

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 SW swaks Swiss Army knife for SMTP testing
FeatureStalwart Mail Serverswaks
CategoryMail ServersMail Servers
LicenseAGPL-3.0GPL-2.0
LanguageRustPerl
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM512 MB16 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, bare-metalbinary, source
GitHub stars★ 14,059★ 1,327
First released20202003
ReplacesMicrosoft Exchange, Google WorkspaceMailtrap

Why pick each one

Choose Stalwart Mail Server if…

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

Choose swaks if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (1.3k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Perl
swaks details

Frequently asked questions

Is Stalwart Mail Server or swaks better?

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

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

Yes. Stalwart Mail Server is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and swaks under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Stalwart Mail Server and swaks with Docker?

Stalwart Mail Server: yes. swaks: check the project docs for container support.

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