SHSelfHostIndex

Mailvelope vs Mailpit

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?
MA Mailvelope Browser extension for OpenPGP encryption in webmail VS MA Mailpit Email and SMTP testing tool with web UI
FeatureMailvelopeMailpit
CategoryMail ServersMail Servers
LicenseAGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageJavaScriptGo
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM128 MB64 MB
Deploymentsourcedocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 1,838★ 10,067
First released20122022
ReplacesProtonMailMailtrap, MailHog

Why pick each one

Choose Mailvelope if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • Active community (1.8k GitHub stars)
  • Written in JavaScript
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Mailvelope details

Choose Mailpit if…

  • Very fast and small
  • Great developer UX
Mailpit details

Frequently asked questions

Is Mailvelope or Mailpit better?

Mailpit is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Mailvelope if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Mailvelope and Mailpit free and open-source?

Yes. Mailvelope is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Mailpit under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Mailvelope and Mailpit with Docker?

Mailvelope: check the project docs for container support. Mailpit: yes.

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