Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

mailcow VS Postfix

Compare mailcow VS Postfix and see what are their differences

mailcow logo mailcow

An open source mailserver suite.

Postfix logo Postfix

Postfix is a mail transfer agent (MTA) that routes and delivers electronic mail.
  • mailcow Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-24
  • Postfix Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-15

mailcow features and specs

  • Comprehensive Feature Set
    Mailcow offers a wide range of features including an easy-to-use web interface, spam filtering, virus protection, calendar and contact synchronization, and more. It is an all-in-one solution for managing email services.
  • Open Source
    Being open source, Mailcow allows users to audit the code, customize it to their needs, and contribute to its improvement. This provides more control and transparency compared to proprietary solutions.
  • Docker-based Deployment
    Mailcow uses Docker containers for its various services, making it easier to deploy, scale, and maintain. Docker containers also help isolate services, enhancing security and performance.
  • Active Community and Support
    Mailcow has an active community and good documentation, which can be very helpful for troubleshooting and getting the most out of the system. Community support often compensates for the lack of formal customer service.
  • Security Features
    Mailcow includes many built-in security features such as Let's Encrypt SSL, DKIM, DMARC support, and automatic updates, ensuring a secure email environment.

Possible disadvantages of mailcow

  • Complexity
    While Docker simplifies deployment, the initial setup and configuration can be complex and time-consuming, especially for users not familiar with Docker or email server management.
  • Resource Intensive
    Mailcow can be resource-intensive, requiring significant CPU, memory, and storage resources to run efficiently. Smaller servers or low-spec hardware may struggle to handle the load.
  • Learning Curve
    Due to its comprehensive feature set, there can be a steep learning curve to fully understand and utilize all of Mailcow's capabilities. It may require time and effort to master.
  • Lack of Professional Support
    As an open-source project, Mailcow relies on community and volunteer support rather than professional customer service. This can be a drawback if immediate or guaranteed support is needed.
  • Regular Maintenance Required
    Running your own mail server, even with a solution like Mailcow, requires regular maintenance and updates to ensure security, performance, and reliability. This adds administrative overhead.

Postfix features and specs

  • Security
    Postfix is known for its robust security features, including strong defenses against spam and malware.
  • Performance
    Postfix is designed to be efficient under heavy loads, making it suitable for both small and large-scale email servers.
  • Compatibility
    Postfix is compatible with various mail protocols such as SMTP, making it versatile for different email infrastructures.
  • Reliability
    Postfix is highly reliable, offering consistent performance and uptime, which is critical for mail servers.
  • Configuration
    Postfix offers a flexible and understandable configuration system, allowing administrators to fine-tune the server settings as per their needs.
  • Community Support
    There is a strong community and extensive documentation available, providing support and resources for troubleshooting and advanced configurations.
  • Lightweight
    Postfix is relatively lightweight, ensuring that it doesn't consume excessive system resources.

Possible disadvantages of Postfix

  • Complexity
    Despite its powerful features, setting up and configuring Postfix can be complex, especially for beginners who are not familiar with mail servers.
  • Learning Curve
    There is a learning curve associated with understanding its configuration files and parameters, which can be daunting for new users.
  • Limited GUI Options
    Postfix does not come with a built-in graphical user interface, making it less accessible for users who prefer GUI-based management.
  • Dependency on Other Software
    Postfix often relies on additional software (like Dovecot for IMAP/POP) for full functionality, which can complicate setup and maintenance.
  • Debugging Complexity
    Debugging issues with Postfix can be complicated due to its extensive feature set and numerous configuration options.

mailcow videos

Install a mail server on Linux in 10 minutes - docker, docker-compose, mailcow

Postfix videos

No Postfix videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to mailcow and Postfix)
Email
69 69%
31% 31
Self-hosted Email
78 78%
22% 22
SMTP Server
39 39%
61% 61
Email Clients
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using mailcow and Postfix. 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 mailcow and Postfix

mailcow Reviews

The BEST Email Hosting Providers for Small Business in 2021
Mailcow also provides the necessary communication standards, integration with anti-virus software, anti-spam, firewall, etc. Furthermore, Mailcow stores the data on a hidden server somewhere in Germany and they have a growing base of users. The data center of their servers is operated on 100% green electricity. Installing this easy-to-use email service takes several steps....
20+ Options for hosting our own mail server
mailcow.github.io/mailcow-dockerized-docs The integrated mailcow UI allows administrative work on your mail server instance as well as separated domain administrator and mailbox user access. Mailcow forum. Gitrepo.
Source: dev.to
15 Best Email Hosting for Small Business (2019)
MailCow is open-source docker based email server suite. It is a collection of containers linked in one bridged network. Each container represent a single application, such as Dovecot, Memcached, MySQL, PHP, Postfix, Nginx, etc. MailCow provides a web user interface to manage the mail server and email accounts.

Postfix Reviews

10 Microsoft Exchange Server Alternatives
Postfix is an MTA that allows the user to receive and deliver electronic mail. The platform is open-sourced that is easy to administer, attempts to be fast, and a secure way for the usage of EM. It is also known by the names of IBM Secure Mailer and VMailer. Many of the systems that support Postfix runs such as AIX, BSD, HP-UX, LINUX, macOS, Solaris, Tru64 UNIX, etc. The...
15 Best iRedMail Alternatives 2021
Postfix is very emphatic when it comes to security. Like iRedMail, it is able to encrypt your sessions and perform certificate-based authentication to keep your mail services secure, private, and protected. Postfix also offers stress adaptive features and various content inspection methods to choose from.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, mailcow seems to be a lot more popular than Postfix. While we know about 87 links to mailcow, we've tracked only 1 mention of Postfix. 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.

mailcow mentions (87)

  • Mox – modern, secure, all-in-one email server
    > Wow... Having just gone through a 20+ hour byzantine nightmare of setting up postfix & dovecot Did you do this by hand / manually, or use a 'pre-canned' solution like: * https://mailcow.email * https://workaround.org. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: Replacement for Rackspace SMTP Hosting?
    I've been running mailcow for a long time to _receive_ mail. Sending was hit and miss. For a long time I could relay through my ISP, but that got me into delivery problems as well. Now I've been relaying through Mail.baby/Interserver for 18 months or so and it works great. $1/mo base fee + usage. With the <100 mails me and my family send that adds up to $1.01/mo. https://mailcow.email/. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: Replacement for Rackspace SMTP Hosting?
    If you had a server around, considering just setting up https://mailcow.email/ it's super easy and straigforward. Everything is in docker compose. `docker compose up` and you go. If you want a hosted SMTP for your own single domain, and volume is low, consider just using AWS SES. I run betterdev.link with it, send about 20k email per months and pay around $2 If finally you want some nice and easy UI to use for... - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • A SpamAssassin Surprise
    You could go with https://mailcow.email, it's pretty easy to setup and keep up to date. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • European Alternatives
    > Which different provider did you go with? I actually fell back to Gmail for the time being - I just don't like to "advertise" any Google product for known reasons, even though Gmail is a quite solid product, sorry about the confusion - but that's my temporary solution. I am planning to either give Migadu a try or host my own mail provider. (I have seen some good feedback about https://mailcow.email). - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
View more

Postfix mentions (1)

  • OVH VPS Postfix can't receive external emails
    Read the documentation on postfix.org and/or buy one of the many available Postfix books (it really helps to understand the Postfix philosophy). Source: about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing mailcow and Postfix, you can also consider the following products

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.

Zimbra - Zimbra is trusted by over 500 million users to increase productivity with a complete set of collaboration tools while maintaining total control over security and privacy.

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

Exim - Exim is a message transfer agent (MTA) developed at the University of Cambridge for use on Unix systems connected to the Internet.

Roundcube - Web-based IMAP email client

Sendmail - Sendmail is a general purpose internetwork email routing facility that supports many kinds of...