Compared
MailDock vs Mailu
A modular, Docker-based open-source mail server.
Mailu is a good set of components and expects you to be the integrator. MailDock is the opposite bet: fewer choices, and the integration is the product.
What Mailu does better
- Free and open source.
- Modular — swap or drop components, run it the way you want.
- Kubernetes support, which we do not have.
Where MailDock fits better
- Deliverability tooling as a product, not a set of parts to wire up.
- A supported upgrade path with a conditional rollback, rather than a compose file you maintain.
- Migration connectors, a delivery log, and containment.
- Somebody to ask.
Side by side
Shape, not price. Theirs changes without telling us, and a page quoting it would be wrong the week after — check their site.
| Mailu | MailDock | |
|---|---|---|
| Where mail lives | Your server, or your cluster | On a machine you rent and control |
| What you pay for | Free, open source | One server, per year, whatever the mailbox count inside your tier |
| Kubernetes | Supported | Not supported — Docker Compose only |
| Component choice | Modular by design | Fixed: Postfix, Dovecot, Rspamd, Postgres |
| Upgrades | Yours to manage | `mailctl upgrade`, with rollback while the schema allows it |