getmail6 vs MailHog
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?
getmail6
Flexible mail retrieval tool for POP3 and IMAP
VS
MailHog
Email testing tool with a fake SMTP server
| Feature | getmail6 | MailHog |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 164 | ★ 16,107 |
| First released | 2002 | 2014 |
| Replaces | fetchmail | Mailtrap |
Why pick each one
Choose getmail6 if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 32 MB RAM
Choose MailHog if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 16.1k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is getmail6 or MailHog better?
Neither is universally better. MailHog has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are getmail6 and MailHog free and open-source?
Yes. getmail6 is licensed under GPL-2.0 and MailHog under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run getmail6 and MailHog with Docker?
getmail6: check the project docs for container support. MailHog: yes.