Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

SpamAssassin VS iRedMail

Compare SpamAssassin VS iRedMail and see what are their differences

SpamAssassin logo SpamAssassin

Use this program to "Unspam" your mailbox(es).

iRedMail logo iRedMail

A fully fledged, free email server solution, an open source project (GPL v2).
  • SpamAssassin Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-11-24
  • iRedMail Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-18

SpamAssassin features and specs

  • Open Source
    SpamAssassin is a free and open-source project under the Apache License, allowing users to modify and distribute the software freely.
  • Highly Customizable
    Users can tailor the filtering rules according to their specific needs, allowing for enhanced flexibility and effectiveness in spam detection.
  • Robust Community Support
    Being an open-source project with an active community, SpamAssassin benefits from continuous updates and a wealth of shared knowledge.
  • Effective Spam Detection
    SpamAssassin uses a wide range of heuristic and statistical analysis techniques to identify spam with high accuracy.
  • Support for Plugins
    The software supports various plugins, allowing users to extend its functionality and improve spam filtering capabilities.
  • Integration Capabilities
    SpamAssassin can be integrated with various mail servers and email clients, making it a versatile tool for different environments.

Possible disadvantages of SpamAssassin

  • Resource Intensive
    SpamAssassin can be resource-intensive, particularly for large-scale email servers, potentially impacting server performance.
  • Complex Configuration
    Setting up and configuring SpamAssassin requires a good understanding of the system and its rules, which can be daunting for inexperienced users.
  • False Positives
    Despite its effectiveness, SpamAssassin can sometimes misclassify legitimate emails as spam, leading to potential communication issues.
  • Manual Updates Needed
    Users need to manually update filtering rules and software, which can be cumbersome and requires regular attention.
  • Limited Immediate Support
    While there is a strong community, official support resources are limited, which can be a drawback for businesses needing immediate help.
  • Dependency on External Tools
    SpamAssassin may require integration with other software components or libraries, which adds to the complexity of deployment and maintenance.

iRedMail features and specs

  • Open Source
    iRedMail is open source, which means it is free to use and its source code is available for anyone to inspect, modify, and enhance.
  • Comprehensive Features
    Includes a wide range of features such as anti-spam, anti-virus, webmail, and support for multiple domains and mailboxes, providing a complete email server solution.
  • Easy Installation
    Offers a straightforward installation process with a well-documented guide, making it accessible even for users with limited server management experience.
  • Excellent Documentation
    Comes with thorough and clear documentation that helps users set up, configure, and troubleshoot the mail server.
  • Strong Community Support
    An active community and forum that can provide support and assist with common issues and best practices.
  • Security Features
    Integrates robust security features, including SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and SSL/TLS, helping to protect against email spoofing and ensuring email privacy.

Possible disadvantages of iRedMail

  • Resource Intensive
    Can be resource-intensive, requiring significant server resources, which might not be ideal for small-scale deployments or low-power servers.
  • Learning Curve
    The complexity of the mail server can present a steep learning curve for new users, especially those unfamiliar with email server configurations.
  • Limited GUI Options
    While it includes a basic web interface, advanced configuration and management typically require command-line proficiency, which can be challenging for non-technical users.
  • Manual Upgrades
    Requires manual interventions for upgrades and updates, which can be time-consuming and risk potential downtimes if not handled correctly.
  • Support Costs
    While the software itself is free, businesses might need to invest in professional support for complex configurations or troubleshooting, which can incur additional costs.
  • Potential Compatibility Issues
    Compatibility with certain third-party software or custom configurations might require additional tweaks, posing potential challenges during integration.

Analysis of SpamAssassin

Overall verdict

  • Yes, SpamAssassin is considered a good tool for filtering out spam. It is well-supported, consistently updated by an active community, and offers reliable performance with a high detection rate of unwanted emails.

Why this product is good

  • SpamAssassin is highly regarded for its robust, open-source spam-filtering capabilities, which rely on a wide array of techniques such as header and text analysis, Bayesian filtering, DNS blocklists, and collaborative filtering databases. Its flexibility allows users to customize rules and settings to meet their specific needs, making it a popular choice among individuals and businesses seeking effective spam protection.

Recommended for

  • System administrators seeking a flexible and customizable spam filtering solution for their servers.
  • Businesses looking for an open-source product to integrate with their current email systems.
  • Individuals who are highly technical and prefer an easily configurable and powerful spam filter.

Analysis of iRedMail

Overall verdict

  • iRedMail is considered a good and reliable choice for those needing a robust mail server solution. It offers excellent value for small to medium-sized businesses or individuals who need an open-source alternative. Its comprehensive features and active community support make it highly effective for managing email services at a low cost.

Why this product is good

  • iRedMail is a popular open-source mail server solution due to its comprehensive feature set, ease of installation, and strong community support. It integrates seamlessly with major Linux distributions and offers a wide range of features including anti-spam, webmail, and SSL encryption. Its all-in-one nature helps simplify the deployment and maintenance of a full-featured mail server.

Recommended for

    iRedMail is recommended for small to medium-sized businesses, educational institutions, and tech-savvy individuals seeking a cost-effective, fully-featured mail server solution. It's ideal for users who want control over their email infrastructure and prefer open-source software options.

SpamAssassin videos

spamassassin antispam - redhat

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How to enable and setup SpamAssassin in cPanel

iRedMail videos

Part 1: iRedMail

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Complete Email Server iRedMail Installation Tutorial

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to SpamAssassin and iRedMail)
Email Security
100 100%
0% 0
Email
30 30%
70% 70
SMTP Server
0 0%
100% 100
Cyber Security
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using SpamAssassin and iRedMail. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

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

SpamAssassin Reviews

We have no reviews of SpamAssassin yet.
Be the first one to post

iRedMail Reviews

10 Microsoft Exchange Server Alternatives
iRedMail is a free email server solution that is a fully-fledged and open source project. This platform can use the official binary package from the distributions of Linux/BSD, having the support of both i386 and x86/64. It is easy to use with a fast deployment process in almost less than one minute. iRedMail allows the user to work on both virtualized and non-virtualized...
15 Best iRedMail Alternatives 2021
You might want a service that offers better security and protections, more features, or faster processes than what iRedMail provides. Hence, it’s important to consider other options out there that can competently replace iRedMail.
The BEST Email Hosting Providers for Small Business in 2021
There are three products offered by iRedmail. The first one is the iRedMail downloadable installer. To start with iRedMail you need to download the installer package, and after installation, you need to set up DNS records for your iRedMail server. After you have done these two steps, you will need to upgrade with additional installations. The second one is iRedMail Easy....
15 Best Email Hosting for Small Business (2019)
iRedMail is an open source mail server since 2007. It works on most Linux/BSD distributions. It offer paid version ($499/year) with professional support.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, SpamAssassin should be more popular than iRedMail. It has been mentiond 6 times since March 2021. 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.

SpamAssassin mentions (6)

  • Will Your Marketing Email End Up in Spam? We Built a Tool to Find Out
    Apache SpamAssassin is an open-source spam detection platform maintained by the Apache Software Foundation, which is a widely used tool for many email clients and email filtering tools to classify messages as spam. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Build an API to Keep Your Marketing Emails Out of Spam
    Apache SpamAssassin is a widely used tool for many email clients and email filtering tools to classify messages as spam. In this post, we’ll explore how to leverage SpamAssassin to validate if your email will be marked as spam and why it's marked so. The logic will be packaged as an API and deployed online, so that it can be integrated into your workflow. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Ok, I've migrated email to selfhosted
    Spamassassin or rspamd or ASSP. All very good. Spamassassin just works, but you need to feed it a good cohort of spam and ham (about 1000 messages each). Most people only send it the spam which will then bias it quite a bit and not have it classify spam as spam unless it's the worst of the bunch. Spamassassin is a filter for your mail server. Rspamd is the same idea. ASSP is highly configurable and a proxy. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Using Flask for a personal website - add dynamic component?
    I'm currently looking into using a Bayesian spam filter like Bogofilter or Apache Spamassassin to help out. I'd run the contents of my Contact Us form through the filter after the initial validation, and if the contents are below my spam threshold, I would actually send out the contact us request. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Domain or Dedicated Email account to improve deliverability?
    The famous spam filter SpamAssassin. Score: -0.6. A score below -5 is considered spam. -0.1 DKIM_SIGNED Message has a DKIM or DK signature, not necessarily valid This rule is automatically applied if your email contains a DKIM signature but other positive rules will also be added if your DKIM signature is valid. See immediately below. 0.1 DKIM_VALID Message has at least one valid DKIM or DK... Source: almost 4 years ago
View more

iRedMail mentions (3)

  • Ask HN: Custom domain for personal email – yay or nay?
    Yay! I use the free version of iRedMail [0] under OpenBSD since 2017 and every email I send gets through with any issues (except the first days when I screwed up my SPF/DKIM configuration). [0] https://iredmail.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Selfhosted backup solution for iCloud Backup
    For photo I use Immich. For contact and calendar I use my own mail server (iRedMail). For Cloud I have my own nextcloud server. With nextcloud you can sync contact and calendar of uou don't have a mail server likes iRedMail. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • I am highly excited and overjoyed to share this post.
    I used to spend all my time maintaining e-mail quirks for my server. Adjust this, updated that, fix this breakage, yada yada. But then I decided to setup iRedMail which uses postfix, dovecot, certbot, roundcube, spamassasin, mariadb, ldap and all the bells and whistles. All I have to do now is make sure I don’t break it doing any software upgrades on freebsd. 10/10 scores after configuring and blacklist free. Source: about 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing SpamAssassin and iRedMail, you can also consider the following products

Proxmox Mail Gateway - Protect mail server against spam, viruses and malware with Proxmox Mail Gateway security for businesses, government, education and non-profit organizations.

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.

Rspamd - Rspamd is an advanced spam filtering system that allows evaluation of messages by a number of rules...

mailcow - An open source mailserver suite.

MailScanner - MailScanner is a open source email security system design for Linux-based email gateways.

Roundcube - Web-based IMAP email client