MailCatcher 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?
MailCatcher
Catch-all SMTP server for inspecting test email
VS
swaks
Swiss Army knife for SMTP testing
| Feature | MailCatcher | swaks |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Perl |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 16 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,774 | ★ 1,327 |
| First released | 2010 | 2003 |
| Replaces | Mailtrap | Mailtrap |
Why pick each one
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
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
Frequently asked questions
Is MailCatcher or swaks better?
Neither is universally better. MailCatcher has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are MailCatcher and swaks free and open-source?
Yes. MailCatcher is licensed under MIT and swaks under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run MailCatcher and swaks with Docker?
MailCatcher: yes. swaks: check the project docs for container support.