mailcow 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?
Compare mailcow with
choose an app… listmonk Docker Mailserver Mailspring Postal MailHog Mail-in-a-Box Stalwart Mail Server Mautic Mailpit Mailpile Mailu Roundcube Himalaya SimpleLogin MailCatcher Maddy Mail Server Mox Mailtrain Haraka AnonAddy RainLoop imapsync smtp4dev NeoMutt Modoboa aerc Dittofeed Rspamd Keila emailwiz SendPortal SOGo WildDuck Mailvelope iRedMail Cypht SnappyMail Forward Email Cuttlefish DebOps parsedmarc Cozy PostfixAdmin Dovecot Nextcloud Groupware Apache James Nextcloud Mail chasquid Sup Betterbird imapfilter OpenTrashmail notmuch Sieve Editor meli phpList Exim alot alps Lieer Cyrus IMAP OfflineIMAP Larch OpenSMTPD Postfix ViMbAdmin Chatmail Mailman isync MailWhale Afterlogic WebMail Lite afew Apache SpamAssassin Sympa Simple NixOS Mailserver EGroupware msmtp fdm Group-Office DragonFly Mail Agent Horde Groupware Claws Mail Fetchmail DAViCal HyperKitty Kolab Groupware piler Postorius Nullmailer getmail6 OpenDMARC OpenDKIM bogofilter Citadel Schleuder Dovecot Pigeonhole Kopano Groupware Core Tine DKIMpy Milter mpop Courier Mail Server Afterlogic DAV b1gMail Dovel EmailRelay Inboxen Sendmail Sendy SquirrelMail
Compare swaks with
choose an app… listmonk Docker Mailserver Mailspring Postal MailHog Mail-in-a-Box Stalwart Mail Server Mautic Mailpit MailCatcher smtp4dev
Feature mailcow swaks Category Mail Servers Mail Servers License GPL-3.0 GPL-2.0 Language JavaScript Perl Setup difficulty Medium Easy Min. RAM 6,144 MB 16 MB Deployment docker binary, source GitHub stars ★ 13,245 ★ 1,327 First released 2016 2003 Replaces Microsoft Exchange, Google Workspace Mailtrap
Why pick each one
Choose mailcow if… All components preconfigured Active community mailcow 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 mailcow or swaks better? Neither is universally better. mailcow 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 mailcow and swaks free and open-source? Yes. mailcow is licensed under GPL-3.0 and swaks under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run mailcow and swaks with Docker? mailcow: yes. swaks: check the project docs for container support.