Postfix
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 9 mail servers by recommenders
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.
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.
26 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 21
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 81%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 22 years
Median of the 4 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 21 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Almost no maintenance once set up
“Absolutely zero maintenance has been required since I set it up”
Comment from 25 Jul 2026 in “Self-host your mail server” “Mine has been running smoothly for over a decade.”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: Running your own email service?” “There is basically no ongoing maintenance at all.”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “What I self-host” - Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “Sam Altman: 'I No Longer Think We're Gonna Be Able to Just Patch All the Bugs'”
Pairs well with Dovecot
“My email (postfix and dovecot) ... all comfortably run in 1gb of ram”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?” “he could easily just throw up a postfix+dovecot on some VPS”
Comment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Sad Story of My Google Workspace Account Suspension” “postfix+dovecot+rspamd is enough”
Comment from 26 Jul 2026 in “Self-host your mail server” - Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “Apple is about to make Hide My Email useless”
Strong security track record
“Postfix has a record of no root/RCE in the default install”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Openrsync: A BSD-licensed implementation of rsync, by the OpenBSD team” “Postfix has a far better security track record.”
Comment from 16 May 2026 in “Dead.letter (CVE-2026-45185) Humans vs. LLM for Unauthenticated RCE Race on Exim” Small footprint, no database needed
“My email (postfix and dovecot) ... all comfortably run in 1gb of ram”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?” “I'm very very glad there's no database requirement.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Dead.letter (CVE-2026-45185) Humans vs. LLM for Unauthenticated RCE Race on Exim”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Configuration is convoluted and painful
“This seems like a convoluted way of adding a new header, at least compared to the http servers I know.”
Comment from 2 Nov 2025 in “Stop 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header (2024)” “instead of suffering through postfix”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Be Wary of Bluesky”
Other mail servers people recommend
The four most recommended other mail servers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stalwart Mail Server | 27 | 4 | 87% | 10 | 3 mo3 owners | Approved |
| PostfixThis page | 21 | 5 | 81% | 9 | 22 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Dovecot | 18 | 1 | 95% | 11 | 15 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| qmail | 15 | 5 | 75% | 10 | — | Approved |
| mailcow | 15 | 1 | 94% | 7 | 2 yrs5 owners | Approved |
What people said
25 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“those didn't need a ton of patching over time”
“works great and not dependent on isp rules”
“There is basically no ongoing maintenance at all.”
“Totally worth it to automate archiving and cut down on spam.”
“My email (postfix and dovecot) ... all comfortably run in 1gb of ram”
“I've done exactly this + DKIM & DMARC on a residential IP”
“Take sendmail vs postfix as an example of this process.”
“postfix+dovecot+rspamd is enough”
“Absolutely zero maintenance has been required since I set it up”
“I would highly recommend against doing it!”
“I use Postfix and Dovecot”
“Postfix can easily be configured to allow my user to send from other addresses”
“Postfix has a record of no root/RCE in the default install”
“Postfix has a far better security track record.”
“I use Postfix with MySQL, what is the issue with that?”
“I'm very very glad there's no database requirement.”
“there is no reason to run a memory-unsafe MTA”
“switching to Postfix massively improved my sleep quality”
“he could easily just throw up a postfix+dovecot on some VPS”
“These are all mature solutions that are free of vendor lock-in”
“instead of suffering through postfix”
“it still feels like adding unneeded”
“Mine has been running smoothly for over a decade.”
“Postfix has also fared well”
“This seems like a convoluted way of adding a new header, at least compared to the http servers I know.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.