Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

KumoMTA VS Postfix

Compare KumoMTA VS Postfix and see what are their differences

KumoMTA logo KumoMTA

KumoMTA is the world's first Open-Source MTA designed from the ground-up for large-volume senders. Get a fast, flexible, supported solution.

Postfix logo Postfix

Postfix is a mail transfer agent (MTA) that routes and delivers electronic mail.
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The History of KumoMTA

KumoMTA is an open source Message Transfer Agent (MTA) designed to provide high performance outbound email functionality.

The KumoMTA project was founded by a group of email industry veterans with decades of experience building and managing high-performance On-Prem MTAs and is supported by a community of some of the largest senders in the world. While paying attention to the lessons of history, KumoMTA was designed from the ground up with new tech as opposed to modifying something that already existed. We specifically avoided making a modification of Postfix or Exim or some other existing MTA and instead wrote entirely new code in Rust.

What is a "Kumo"?

So how did we come up with the name KumoMTA? We set out to build a cloud deployable on-premises MTA that was flexible enough to install both on bare metal and in a public or private cloud. Kumo means cloud in Japanese, so "KumoMTA" is a Cloud MTA.

Why Open Source?

High volume commercial MTAs tend to have closed source code and steep license fees. Neither of these are particularly bad as long as the software is maintained and is flexible enough to modify. However, the kind of people who typically install very complex high-volume MTAs usually want to modify it or integrate it into other systems. Providing an open source option allows people to modify the code as needed, and contribute modifications easily to the community. The email community is full of very smart, creative people who now have an avenue to contribute to a wider community project.

  • Postfix Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-15

KumoMTA

$ Details
free
Platforms
Ubuntu Rocky Linux Docker Marlin AWS Azure Google Compute
Release Date
2023 February

Postfix

$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

KumoMTA features and specs

  • Performance
    Over 10mm/hr per Server
  • Config As Code
    Yes - Lua
  • DKIM
  • Policy Engine
    Yes - Lua

Postfix features and specs

  • Security
    Postfix is known for its robust security features, including strong defenses against spam and malware.
  • Performance
    Postfix is designed to be efficient under heavy loads, making it suitable for both small and large-scale email servers.
  • Compatibility
    Postfix is compatible with various mail protocols such as SMTP, making it versatile for different email infrastructures.
  • Reliability
    Postfix is highly reliable, offering consistent performance and uptime, which is critical for mail servers.
  • Configuration
    Postfix offers a flexible and understandable configuration system, allowing administrators to fine-tune the server settings as per their needs.
  • Community Support
    There is a strong community and extensive documentation available, providing support and resources for troubleshooting and advanced configurations.
  • Lightweight
    Postfix is relatively lightweight, ensuring that it doesn't consume excessive system resources.

Possible disadvantages of Postfix

  • Complexity
    Despite its powerful features, setting up and configuring Postfix can be complex, especially for beginners who are not familiar with mail servers.
  • Learning Curve
    There is a learning curve associated with understanding its configuration files and parameters, which can be daunting for new users.
  • Limited GUI Options
    Postfix does not come with a built-in graphical user interface, making it less accessible for users who prefer GUI-based management.
  • Dependency on Other Software
    Postfix often relies on additional software (like Dovecot for IMAP/POP) for full functionality, which can complicate setup and maintenance.
  • Debugging Complexity
    Debugging issues with Postfix can be complicated due to its extensive feature set and numerous configuration options.

Analysis of Postfix

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Postfix is considered good due to its reliability, security, and scalability. It is widely used in the industry and is continually maintained and updated, which ensures it remains a dependable choice for mail server needs.

Why this product is good

  • Postfix is recognized for its robust architecture, strong security features, and ease of administration. With its efficient handling of large volumes of email, it is a preferred choice for many system administrators. Additionally, Postfix has comprehensive documentation and an active community for support, making it accessible even for those who might be new to email servers.

Recommended for

    Postfix is ideal for businesses, educational institutions, or individual users who need a robust and secure email server. It is especially recommended for environments requiring high-performance and stable email systems, as well as those looking for a solution that can handle large-scale email distribution efficiently.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to KumoMTA and Postfix)
Email
16 16%
84% 84
SMTP Server
15 15%
85% 85
Self-hosted Email
21 21%
79% 79
MTA
16 16%
84% 84

Questions and Answers

As answered by people managing KumoMTA and Postfix.

What makes your product unique?

KumoMTA's answer

KumoMTA is the only high-performance, highly flexible MTA built for senders that is Open-Source with a free license.

What's the story behind your product?

KumoMTA's answer

KumoMTA was built by a team of industry veterans to address a need in the market for an Open-Source solution that has the performance and flexibility of the commercial MTA offerings but without the restrictive licensing that the industry has grown weary of.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

KumoMTA's answer

KumoMTA is built on Rust, with Lua used for its Config as Code engine, making extensive customization and integrations straightforward while providing extreme performance and safety.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

KumoMTA's answer

When an organization needs to send up to millions of messages per hour, or needs deep integration in a modern DevOps environment, but doesn't want to be bound by restrictive license agreements and mandatory annual fees.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

KumoMTA's answer

  • Taguchi Marketing

How would you describe your primary audience?

KumoMTA's answer

High-volume multi-tenant senders.

User comments

Share your experience with using KumoMTA and Postfix. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare KumoMTA and Postfix

KumoMTA Reviews

We have no reviews of KumoMTA yet.
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Postfix Reviews

10 Microsoft Exchange Server Alternatives
Postfix is an MTA that allows the user to receive and deliver electronic mail. The platform is open-sourced that is easy to administer, attempts to be fast, and a secure way for the usage of EM. It is also known by the names of IBM Secure Mailer and VMailer. Many of the systems that support Postfix runs such as AIX, BSD, HP-UX, LINUX, macOS, Solaris, Tru64 UNIX, etc. The...
15 Best iRedMail Alternatives 2021
Postfix is very emphatic when it comes to security. Like iRedMail, it is able to encrypt your sessions and perform certificate-based authentication to keep your mail services secure, private, and protected. Postfix also offers stress adaptive features and various content inspection methods to choose from.

Social recommendations and mentions

Postfix might be a bit more popular than KumoMTA. We know about 1 link to it since March 2021 and only 1 link to KumoMTA. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

KumoMTA mentions (1)

Postfix mentions (1)

  • OVH VPS Postfix can't receive external emails
    Read the documentation on postfix.org and/or buy one of the many available Postfix books (it really helps to understand the Postfix philosophy). Source: about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing KumoMTA and Postfix, you can also consider the following products

PowerMTA - PowerMTA is an industrial-strength software for high-volume email delivery.

Zimbra - Zimbra is trusted by over 500 million users to increase productivity with a complete set of collaboration tools while maintaining total control over security and privacy.

MailerQ - MailerQ is a high performance Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) designed for delivering large volume email messages at very high speeds.

iRedMail - A fully fledged, free email server solution, an open source project (GPL v2).

Halon MTA - Scriptable and scalable SMTP server and email framework designed for service providers.

mailcow - An open source mailserver suite.