# Postfix

21 Hacker News commenters recommended Postfix and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 22 years (4 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Long-running, low-maintenance mail transfer agent that people run on small VPSes alongside Dovecot, with a strong security record. Critics say its configuration is painful.

## Why people recommend it

- Almost no maintenance once set up (4 comments): "Absolutely zero maintenance has been required since I set it up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49043371)) "Mine has been running smoothly for over a decade." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46330555)) "There is basically no ongoing maintenance at all." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50113463))
- Pairs well with Dovecot (4 comments): "My email (postfix and dovecot) ... all comfortably run in 1gb of ram" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50015019)) "he could easily just throw up a postfix+dovecot on some VPS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47651647)) "postfix+dovecot+rspamd is enough" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49055429))
- Strong security track record (2 comments): "Postfix has a record of no root/RCE in the default install" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48336090)) "Postfix has a far better security track record." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48155575))
- Small footprint, no database needed (2 comments): "My email (postfix and dovecot) ... all comfortably run in 1gb of ram" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50015019)) "I'm very very glad there's no database requirement." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48115085))

## What people warn about

- Configuration is convoluted and painful (2 comments): "This seems like a convoluted way of adding a new header, at least compared to the http servers I know." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45790494)) "instead of suffering through postfix" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47114133))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Stalwart Mail Server](https://hackerapproved.com/p/stalwart-mail-server.md): 27 recommend
- [Dovecot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dovecot.md): 18 recommend
- [qmail](https://hackerapproved.com/p/qmail.md): 15 recommend
- [mailcow](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mailcow.md): 15 recommend
- [Mox email server](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mox.md): 14 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Postfix", https://hackerapproved.com/p/postfix/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).