Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Mail-in-a-box VS MikroTik RouterOS

Compare Mail-in-a-box VS MikroTik RouterOS and see what are their differences

Mail-in-a-box logo Mail-in-a-box

Mail-in-a-Box provides webmail and an IMAP/SMTP server for use with mobile devices and desktop mail software and also includes contacts and calendar synchronization.

MikroTik RouterOS logo MikroTik RouterOS

The main product of MikroTik is a Linux-based operating system known as MikroTik RouterOS.
  • Mail-in-a-box Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-21
  • MikroTik RouterOS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-25

Mail-in-a-box videos

Setup and Install your Email server easily with this Free, Open Source Option - Mail-In-A-Box.

More videos:

  • Review - Mail-in-a-Box Setup Guide (v0.16 - January 2016)
  • Review - Setting up your own mail server with Mail-In-A-Box

MikroTik RouterOS videos

MikroTik RouterOS security review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Mail-in-a-box and MikroTik RouterOS)
Email
100 100%
0% 0
Operating Systems
0 0%
100% 100
Self-hosted Email
100 100%
0% 0
Linux
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Mail-in-a-box and MikroTik RouterOS. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Mail-in-a-box and MikroTik RouterOS

Mail-in-a-box Reviews

15 Best Email Hosting for Small Business (2019)
Mail-in-a-Box is an open source software bundle that make it easy to turn a cloud server into your own email server for multiple domains.

MikroTik RouterOS Reviews

  1. many bugs that block connections

    since 2 years they didn't fix bugs that block the router from the internet


The Best Open Source Router OS Software for Large or Small Networks
MikroTik RouterOS is an open-source router OS software that is designed to provide a powerful, customizable, and secure networking experience. It is based on the Linux kernel and offers a range of features and capabilities that make it a popular choice among network enthusiasts, developers, and IT professionals. The open-source nature of MikroTik RouterOS means that users...
11 Best pfsense Alternatives To Secure Your Network
Before acquiring licensed software, MikroTik enables you to test the MikroTik RouterOS technology. This is referred to as Trial Mode by MikroTik, and it allows you to try the whole MikroTik RouterOS features and functionality set for up to 24 hours.
10 Best pfSense Alternatives and Similar Firewalls
RouterOS has a stateful firewall, which conducts stateful inspection and maintains track of the state of network connections traversing it. It also includes Source and Destination Network Address Translation, NAT assistance for common applications, and UPnP compatibility.
5 Router OS Turns Old PC Into High Performance Router And Enterprise Network Switch
RouterOS is the operating system of RouterBOARD. It can also be installed on a PC and will turn it into a router with all the necessary features – routing, firewall, bandwidth management, wireless access point, backhaul link, hotspot gateway, VPN server and more.
A Feast of Linux-Based Routers
Though the code is not open and it is more of a commercial offering, RouterOS from MikroTik is Linux-based. It installs onto and turns regular PCs into a enterprise-level router. It gives you all the necessary features, including routing, firewall, bandwidth management, wireless access point, backhaul link, hotspot gateway, VPN server, and more.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Mail-in-a-box should be more popular than MikroTik RouterOS. It has been mentiond 116 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Mail-in-a-box mentions (116)

  • Ask HN: Do you run your own DNS servers?
    Mail-In-a-Box (MIAB)[1] comes with a built in nameserver. I think you may use it as a standalone DNS even for the domain names whose email is not managed by MIAB. Not sure about any benefit of doing it this way though. [1] https://mailinabox.email. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: Self Hosting an Email Server?
    I've been using https://mailinabox.email on a small VPS where I host a few other websites and projects. I'd recommend it for the management aspect: It has backup scripts and a UI for let's encrypt and dns entries. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Sandstorm, Tempest, and the Future
    I don't see why we are a long way away. At the sandstorm end, we need to get to the point, where all updates (of both sandstorm and the apps) on the user machine are automatic. Much like they are automatic on various OSes (mobile OSes in particular but also MacOS/Windows). This is not impossible if a single OS like Debian-testing is targeted. Mailinabox [1] almost does it. They target Ubuntu stable, and upgrades... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • [advice needed] - Selfhosted Mail Server
    If you have a better solution, for example a good provider who offer agency packages which allows many domains and there is no catch, for example very small disk space, then hit me right away. Otherwise, please share your experience with hosting your own mail service. I found https://mailinabox.email/ and https://www.iredmail.org/ for example, but never had any experience with neither of them. Source: 12 months ago
  • what to use for self hosting email
    Mailinabox.email works great on a basic vps. Source: about 1 year ago
View more

MikroTik RouterOS mentions (23)

  • Ubiquiti showing other users' consoles
    Anyone using Mikrotik these days? Been Mikro-curious for awhile and always see them thrown around as a Unifi alternative. Yet to hear of any firsthand implementations though. [0] https://mikrotik.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Free - Self-hosted - WebRTC - alternative to Zoom, Teams, Google Meet - Real time video calls, chat, screen sharing, file sharing, collaborative whiteboard, dashboard, rooms scheduler and more!
    I keep reading it as the networking hardware company Mikrotik. Source: over 1 year ago
  • hap ax2 or ax3
    The "Buy" link at the top of mikrotik.com - this is how most hardware vendors with a distribution network have their site set up. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Germany ups reliance on Huawei for 5G despite security fears
    Or Mikrotik from Latvia, for switching/routing: Https://mikrotik.com/. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Management VLAN vs Native.
    There is way to get default to do whatewer you want (including preseted VLAN on some port): Get some config, which you'd like to use as default Login to mikrotik.com Use branding section to get packet, which can be installed on any RoS to change default config and some other things. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Mail-in-a-box and MikroTik RouterOS, you can also consider the following products

mailcow - An open source mailserver suite.

pfSense - pfSense is a free and open source firewall and router that also features unified threat management, load balancing, multi WAN, and more

iRedMail - A fully fledged, free email server solution, an open source project (GPL v2).

OpenWrt - OpenWrt is an open-source firmware based on Linux for wireless routers

Modoboa - Modoboa is a mail hosting and management platform including a modern and simplified Web User Interface.

OPNsense - OPNsense® you next open source firewall. Free Download. High-end Security Made Easy™. Offers Intrusion Prevention, Captive Portal, Traffic Shaping and more.