docker-mailserver vs Stalwart: Email Servers

Want to run your own email server without the complexity of Mailcow or Mailu? docker-mailserver and Stalwart are the two leanest options — but they take fundamentally different approaches. docker-mailserver bundles the battle-tested Postfix/Dovecot stack into a single container. Stalwart is a ground-up Rust implementation with JMAP support and a web admin interface. Feature Comparison Feature docker-mailserver Stalwart Language C (Postfix/Dovecot) + shell scripts Rust Latest version v15.1.0 v0.11 Docker image mailserver/docker-mailserver:15.1.0 stalwartlabs/mail-server:v0.11 SMTP Postfix Built-in IMAP Dovecot Built-in JMAP No Yes POP3 Yes (Dovecot) No Web admin UI No (CLI only) Yes Webmail No Built-in (basic) Spam filtering SpamAssassin or Rspamd Built-in (sieve + rules) Antivirus ClamAV (optional) No built-in DKIM OpenDKIM Built-in SPF/DMARC Built-in Built-in Fail2ban Built-in Rate limiting (built-in) Sieve filtering Dovecot Sieve ManageSieve + built-in Containers needed 1 1 RAM (idle