16.8k stars · MIT · v3.3.7 (2026-06-03), read from /releases/latest · Track this in Scout
Your own mail-sending server, with DKIM signing, bounce handling and a searchable log of every message.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it is
Postal is a complete mail server for outgoing mail. It has a web interface, an HTTP interface and an SMTP interface, and it tracks what happened to every message.
What it is good for. Listmonk (Edition 2 #1), Mautic (Edition 10 #6) and Dittofeed (Edition 14 #8) all write the email. None of them deliver it. Every one of them asks you for a sending account. That is the same missing piece three times over. Owning it removes a bill that grows as your list grows, and it gives you the delivery log you need on the day a whole group of addresses stops receiving anything.
- MIT, and the whole product is in the repository. Nothing is held back.
- It does the real delivery work: message signing, bounce processing, suppression lists, and a searchable log of every message.
- It accepts mail over both SMTP and HTTP, so any of the tools above can hand it their messages.
- The install is the easy half. Getting mail accepted is the hard half. A brand new sending address has no reputation, so you must start with small volumes and build up, or you land in spam folders.
- Hosting companies block outgoing port 25 on new accounts. You have to ask them to open it and they can say no. Check this before you spend the afternoon.
- MariaDB plus a message queue plus the application, about 2 GB of memory. And when mail stops flowing at midnight, it is your problem, not a supplier's.
sudo apt install -y docker.io docker-compose-plugin git sudo git clone https://github.com/postalserver/install /opt/postal/install sudo ln -s /opt/postal/install/bin/postal /usr/bin/postal sudo postal bootstrap postal.yourdomain.com sudo postal initialize sudo postal make-user sudo postal start
