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Comparison · Comms
Mailu vs Rocket.Chat
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Mailu and Rocket.Chat — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Mailu vs Rocket.Chat: at a glance
What is Mailu?
Mailu's October: patched PHP for webmail, and a resolver that reports DNS failures
Mailu's 2024.06 branch shipped six pinned releases in October, each tied to a single issue. Three dealt with the resolver: handling the DNSSEC KSK rollover, then making the healthcheck fail on SERVFAIL, re-shipped once. Three were webmail: Roundcube 1.6.20, mitigations for the PHP2Shell CVEs, and then the patched PHP runtime. Late September releases fixed boolean settings that could not be turned off and stale webmail sessions after switching accounts via SSO.
What is Rocket.Chat?
Rocket.Chat's fifth 9.0 candidate is about load: notifications, presence and startup.
The 9.0 candidate line opened on 27 October with a licensing change: LDAP, SAML and Custom OAuth now require a premium plan, and seven login providers are removed. rc.3 moved REST refusals to a single 403 shape, and rc.4 on 3 November is a performance and reliability batch: push and email notifications no longer stall under load, presence stops writing on every heartbeat, and a failed startup step now exits instead of hanging. 8.9.0 LTS remains supported until 31 October 2027.
Mailu vs Rocket.Chat: editorial side-by-side
Mailu
5.0COMMS
Mailu's October: patched PHP for webmail, and a resolver that reports DNS failures
◆ Current state
Mailu's 2024.06 branch shipped six pinned releases in October, each tied to a single issue. Three dealt with the resolver: handling the DNSSEC KSK rollover, then making the healthcheck fail on SERVFAIL, re-shipped once. Three were webmail: Roundcube 1.6.20, mitigations for the PHP2Shell CVEs, and then the patched PHP runtime. Late September releases fixed boolean settings that could not be turned off and stale webmail sessions after switching accounts via SSO.
◆ Where it's heading
The project remains in one-fix-per-release maintenance on the 2024.06 line, with upstream webmail and PHP security driving much of the cadence. Nothing in the entries points to a new main release.
◆ Prediction
The next releases will most likely follow upstream Roundcube or PHP security fixes, as three of the last six did.
Rocket.Chat
6.3COMMS
Rocket.Chat's fifth 9.0 candidate is about load: notifications, presence and startup.
◆ Current state
The 9.0 candidate line opened on 27 October with a licensing change: LDAP, SAML and Custom OAuth now require a premium plan, and seven login providers are removed. rc.3 moved REST refusals to a single 403 shape, and rc.4 on 3 November is a performance and reliability batch: push and email notifications no longer stall under load, presence stops writing on every heartbeat, and a failed startup step now exits instead of hanging. 8.9.0 LTS remains supported until 31 October 2027.
◆ Where it's heading
The candidates have moved from what 9.0 removes to whether it holds up on busy workspaces. The rc.4 fixes target large deployments, the same customers the premium SSO requirement is aimed at, and one of them fixes SAML login after a restart.
◆ Prediction
The fixes in rc.4 read like final hardening, so a 9.0.0 release is the next likely entry, carrying the licensing change from rc.0 unchanged.
Alternatives to Mailu and Rocket.Chat
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 Mailu or Rocket.Chat.
Stoat
Stoat moves to release candidates and Gerrit, and gives server admins more control.
Element
Element 1.12.34 RC pops calls into picture-in-picture and lets modules shut off public rooms.
Synapse
Synapse 1.164 advertises Matrix v1.16 and v1.17 amid a run of dependency security patches
Subsplash
Subsplash gives church staff notes on every person and every Workflow card.
Maddy
maddy's latest release is a security fix, five months after its last feature work.
See all Mailu alternatives → · See all Rocket.Chat alternatives →
Recent activity from Mailu and Rocket.Chat
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.4: notifications, presence and startup fixed under load
- 4d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.3: REST refusals become 403; /hooks status codes change
- 5d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.2: version bump only
- 7d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.1: noise cancellation choice for LiveKit calls
- 8d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.0: LDAP, SAML and Custom OAuth become premium-only ⚡
- 12d agoMailuMailu ships patched PHP for PHP2Shell CVEs
- 13d agoMailuMailu mitigates PHP2Shell webmail CVEs
- 15d agoMailuMailu 2024.06.65: Roundcube 1.6.20 update
- 20d agoMailu2024.06.64 re-ships the resolver healthcheck fix
- 22d agoMailu2024.06.63 makes the resolver healthcheck catch SERVFAIL
- 23d agoMailu2024.06.62 handles the DNSSEC KSK rollover
- 27d agoRocket.Chat8.9.0 LTS: 12-month support, Deno removed, hybrid AI Search
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Mailu and Rocket.Chat?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Rocket.Chat is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 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 Mailu better than Rocket.Chat?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Rocket.Chat is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 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 Mailu?
Top Mailu alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Mailu alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/mailu for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Rocket.Chat?
Top Rocket.Chat alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Rocket.Chat alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rocketchat for the full list with editorial commentary on each.