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Comparison · Comms
Maddy vs mailcow
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Maddy and mailcow — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:mail-serverself-hosted
Maddy vs mailcow: at a glance
What is Maddy?
maddy's latest release is a security fix, five months after its last feature work.
maddy is an all-in-one Go mail server for SMTP and IMAP. Its most recent release, 0.9.6 in October, requires explicit trust for PROXY protocol headers and closes an auth misconfiguration that could skip password checks. Before that, the 0.9 line ran from March to May: no-downtime config reload in 0.9.0, an LDAP injection fix, and removal of long-deprecated commands.
What is mailcow?
mailcow's monthly releases are mostly upstream security updates with small UI work
mailcow ships named monthly releases with lettered revisions, and most exist to pull in upstream security fixes for components like SOGo, Nginx, Redis, Unbound and Rspamd. The September release also added an ACL and global switch to stop external alias forwarding, a show-password toggle on login pages, and fixes such as an auth-cache wipe during nginx outages. October moved PHP to an Alpine 3.24 base and brought SOGo 5.12.12, Nginx 1.30.6 and a UI update.
Maddy vs mailcow: editorial side-by-side
Maddy
0.0COMMS
maddy's latest release is a security fix, five months after its last feature work.
◆ Current state
maddy is an all-in-one Go mail server for SMTP and IMAP. Its most recent release, 0.9.6 in October, requires explicit trust for PROXY protocol headers and closes an auth misconfiguration that could skip password checks. Before that, the 0.9 line ran from March to May: no-downtime config reload in 0.9.0, an LDAP injection fix, and removal of long-deprecated commands.
◆ Where it's heading
The project is moving from convenient defaults to safer ones, accepting breaking changes on the way. Older conveniences such as SASL LOGIN, STARTTLS plaintext fallback and the maddyctl symlink have been removed, and 0.9.1 flagged several DNS providers for removal in 0.10.0. Two of the last four releases were security fixes.
◆ Prediction
0.10.0 is scoped by the deprecations announced in 0.9.1: expect the flagged DNS providers to go and gandi to require Bearer tokens. The five-month gap gives no date for it.
mailcow
5.0COMMS
mailcow's monthly releases are mostly upstream security updates with small UI work
◆ Current state
mailcow ships named monthly releases with lettered revisions, and most exist to pull in upstream security fixes for components like SOGo, Nginx, Redis, Unbound and Rspamd. The September release also added an ACL and global switch to stop external alias forwarding, a show-password toggle on login pages, and fixes such as an auth-cache wipe during nginx outages. October moved PHP to an Alpine 3.24 base and brought SOGo 5.12.12, Nginx 1.30.6 and a UI update.
◆ Where it's heading
Keeping a dozen bundled upstreams current is the product, and the cadence is built around that. Feature work arrives in small admin and web UI controls alongside the security updates.
◆ Prediction
Expect a revision of the October release carrying further upstream updates, following the lettered-revision pattern.
Alternatives to Maddy and mailcow
Other Comms products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Maddy or mailcow.
Grain
Grain adds consent controls and rule-based privacy as its meeting data reaches more AI tools.
Converse.js
Converse.js 14.0.1 fixes OMEMO:2 group decryption broken by Chromium 153.
Element iOS
Element Classic now asks its own users to move to Element X, if their server opts in.
Brosix
Brosix follows its communities launch with a referral push and a private-room how-to.
VerneMQ
VerneMQ follows its year-in-the-making 2.2.0 with a quick round of subscription fixes.
See all Maddy alternatives → · See all mailcow alternatives →
Recent activity from Maddy and mailcow
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 12d agomailcow🎃🐮 Mooctober 2026 | Security Update: PHP 8.2.35, SOGo 5.12.12 & Nginx 1.30.6
- 27d agomailcow2026-09a: Rspamd 4.2.1 and postfix-tlspol bumps
- 1mo agoMaddymaddy 0.9.6 fixes PROXY trust and auth bypass misconfig
- 1mo agomailcow🍂🐮 Mootember 2026 | Unbound 1.26.1, SOGo 5.12.11 & Redis 7.4.11
- 2mo agomailcow🏖️🐮 Mooly 2026 | Postfix 3.10.12, Rspamd 4.1.0 & Nginx 1.30.3 - Revision B
- 3mo agomailcow🏖️🐮 Mooly 2026 | Postfix 3.10.12, Rspamd 4.1.0 & Nginx 1.30.3 - Revision A
- 3mo agomailcow🏖️🐮 Mooly 2026 | Postfix 3.10.12, Rspamd 4.1.0 & Nginx 1.30.3
- 5mo agoMaddymaddy 0.9.5 fixes nested pipeline logging and systemd reload reporting
- 6mo agoMaddymaddy 0.9.4 removes the maddyctl symlink and implicit run command
- 6mo agoMaddymaddy 0.9.3 patches an LDAP injection flaw in auth.ldap
- 7mo agoMaddymaddy 0.9.2 fixes an rspamd panic on unspecified tls_client
- 7mo agoMaddymaddy 0.9.1 flags libdns providers for removal in 0.10.0
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Maddy and mailcow?
Both compete on the same themes — mail-server, self-hosted — within Comms. mailcow is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Maddy better than mailcow?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. mailcow is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Comms products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Maddy?
Top Maddy alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Maddy alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/maddy for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to mailcow?
Top mailcow alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "mailcow alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/mailcow for the full list with editorial commentary on each.