MailDev vs Postal
| Tagline | Local SMTP server with a web UI to test app-generated email | Self-hosted mail delivery platform, a SendGrid/Mailgun alternative |
| Category | Email & Newsletters | Email & Newsletters |
| Replaces | SendGrid | SendGrid |
| GitHub stars | 6k | 17k |
| Language | JavaScript | Ruby |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 4/5 Involved |
| Deploy options | Docker Manual | Docker Docker Compose Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 21 days ago | 5 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
MailDev
- A development/testing catcher only — not for sending real production email
- No deliverability, analytics, or campaign features
- Not intended as a long-running production mail service
- Limited storage/persistence for captured messages
Postal
- You are responsible for IP reputation, warmup, and deliverability
- Requires MariaDB, RabbitMQ, and DNS/DKIM configuration to run
- No marketing-campaign UI — it is a delivery engine, not a newsletter builder
- Less hand-holding than managed providers for spam/blocklist issues
Bottom line
Choose MailDev if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Postal for the larger community and ecosystem. Postal has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.