# Mail-in-a-Box vs ZPan

> Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.

| | Mail-in-a-Box | ZPan |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72/100 ✓ | 56/100 |
| Rank in category | #3 of 16 in Mail Server | #8 of 11 in Cloud Storage |
| GitHub stars | 15 446 ✓ | 2 080 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +27 ✓ | +2 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 4 | 10 ✓ |
| Latest release | v77 · 26 Sept 2026 ✓ | v2.9.0 · 30 Aug 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate ✓ |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes ✓ |
| License | CC0-1.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Main language | Python | Typescript |

## Which one should you pick?

Mail-in-a-Box scores 72/100 against 56/100 for ZPan, so it is the safer default.

ZPan ships more often: 10 stable releases in the past year, against 4 for Mail-in-a-Box.

Mail-in-a-Box is growing faster right now (+27 stars in 30 days).

## Details

- [Mail-in-a-Box](https://selfhost.directory/project/mail-in-a-box) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/mail-in-a-box.md)
- [ZPan](https://selfhost.directory/project/zpan) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/zpan.md)

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Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/mail-in-a-box-vs-zpan