# Postal vs Transformer Lab

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

| | Postal | Transformer Lab |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72/100 ✓ | 61/100 |
| Rank in category | #3 of 16 in Mail Server | #12 of 25 in LLM Inference |
| GitHub stars | 16 900 ✓ | 5 199 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +73 ✓ | +2 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 3 | 9 ✓ |
| Latest release | 3.3.7 · 3 Jun 2026 | v0.40.1 · 19 Jun 2026 ✓ |
| Setup | Advanced | Moderate ✓ |
| Official Docker image | Yes ✓ | No |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Main language | Ruby | Python |

## Which one should you pick?

Postal scores 72/100 against 61/100 for Transformer Lab, so it is the safer default.

Transformer Lab ships more often: 9 stable releases in the past year, against 3 for Postal.

If you want the quickest setup, Transformer Lab is easier to run; Postal needs more configuration.

Postal is growing faster right now (+73 stars in 30 days).

## Details

- [Postal](https://selfhost.directory/project/postal) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/postal.md)
- [Transformer Lab](https://selfhost.directory/project/transformerlab-app) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/transformerlab-app.md)

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Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/postal-vs-transformerlab-app