mail-archiver vs Rclone
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
mail-archiver
Web application for archiving, searching, and exporting emails from
VS
Rclone
Sync and copy files to dozens of cloud providers
| Feature | mail-archiver | Rclone |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | C# | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,045 | ★ 58,995 |
| First released | 2026 | 2014 |
| Replaces | — | Backblaze |
Why pick each one
Choose mail-archiver if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2k GitHub stars)
- Written in C#
Frequently asked questions
Is mail-archiver or Rclone better?
Neither is universally better. Rclone has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are mail-archiver and Rclone free and open-source?
Yes. mail-archiver is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Rclone under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run mail-archiver and Rclone with Docker?
mail-archiver: yes. Rclone: yes.