Self-host Sympa
6.2.80Mailing list manager for large-scale email discussions
- Stars
- 315
- Requires
- MTA (Mail Transfer Agent), Perl
What is Sympa?
Sympa (Système de Multi-Postage Automatique) is a mature mailing list management system designed for large-scale deployments. It automates list management functions including subscription handling, message moderation, and archive management. The software supports virtual domains for hosting multiple mailing list domains on a single instance, provides a web interface for listmasters and users, and offers a command-line interface for administration. Sympa runs on POSIX-compliant Unix-like systems (Linux, BSD, macOS, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX) and requires Perl 5.16+, a database (MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle, or SQLite), an MTA (Postfix, Sendmail, exim, OpenSMTPD), and an HTTP server (Apache, nginx, lighttpd). It is licensed under GPL-2.0 and actively maintained by the Sympa Community organization.
Should you self-host Sympa?
Sympa scores 56/100 on selfhost.directory (how scoring works) and ranks #40 of 106 in Email. It has 315 GitHub stars.
It shipped 2 stable releases in the past year. The latest, 6.2.80, came out on 14 August 2026. New versions land roughly every 5 months.
Setup is advanced: plan for several services and some ongoing maintenance. It is GPL-2.0-licensed and written mostly in Perl.
Its closest alternative on selfhost.directory is Listmonk (80/100, 24 017 stars). It scores higher overall, so compare the two before you pick. See Sympa vs Listmonk side by side.
Features
- Command Line Interface
- Internationalization (I18N)
- Large list support
- Listmaster portal
- Mailing list management
- Message archives
- Multi-domain (virtual domains)
- Role-based Access Control
- SOAP API
- Template customization
- Web Interface
Sympa README
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