Self-hosted alternatives to SendGrid

Your own transactional email sending server. Below are 10 open source options you host on your own server — with no monthly per-user fee and full control of your data.

Haraka

★ 5,588

Fast, highly extensible, and event driven SMTP server.

Communication - Email - Mail Transfer Agents MIT

OpenTrashmail

★ 867

Complete trashmail solution that exposes an SMTP server and has a web interface to manage received emails. Works with multiple and wildcard domains and is fully file based (no database needed). Includes RSS feeds and JSON API.

Communication - Email - Mail Transfer Agents Apache-2.0

OpenSMTPD

★ 576

Secure SMTP server implementation from the OpenBSD project.

Communication - Email - Mail Transfer Agents ISC

DragonFly

★ 259

A small MTA for home and office use. Works on Linux and FreeBSD.

Communication - Email - Mail Transfer Agents BSD-3-Clause

chasquid

SMTP (email) server with a focus on simplicity, security, and ease of operation.

Communication - Email - Mail Transfer Agents Apache-2.0

Courier MTA

Fast, scalable, enterprise mail/groupware server providing ESMTP, IMAP, POP3, webmail, mailing list, basic web-based calendaring and scheduling services.

Communication - Email - Mail Transfer Agents GPL-3.0

EmailRelay

A small and easy to configure SMTP and POP3 server for Windows and Linux.

Communication - Email - Mail Transfer Agents GPL-3.0

Exim

Message transfer agent (MTA) developed at the University of Cambridge.

Communication - Email - Mail Transfer Agents GPL-3.0

Postfix

Fast, easy to administer, and secure Sendmail replacement.

Communication - Email - Mail Transfer Agents IPL-1.0

Sendmail

Message transfer agent (MTA).

Communication - Email - Mail Transfer Agents Sendmail

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free self-hosted alternative to SendGrid?

Yes. We've gathered 10 self-hosted, open source alternatives to SendGrid — including Haraka, OpenTrashmail, OpenSMTPD. You run all of them on your own server.

What is the best open source alternative to SendGrid?

Haraka is one of the most popular (5,588 GitHub stars). The "best" depends on your case — compare the options below.

Do I need a server to replace SendGrid?

Yes. You can use a home server (homelab) or a cheap VPS (from ~€4/mo). See the hosting suggestions on this page.