# courier vs. postfix

## McManus

I've been using postfix+cyrus-sasl to send mail for a while, and frankly I'm not overly fond of it.  I'm thinking of switching to courier.  How well does it handle/support TLS/SSL, and is SMTP easy to configure (compared to postfix+cyrus-sasl)?

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## darkphader

What's not to like about Postfix?

Isn't the Courier-MTA somewhat monolithic, locking you into the whole package (courier's imap/pop3/etc.)? Seems to be overkill if you just want an MTA.

There are several books available for Postfix (all are good, one is very up-to-date), lots of howtos, online help, etc. No books for Courier-MTA (that I know of), and I don't see a lot of howtos for it when Googling.

I used to use courier-imap but switched to cyrus-imap (it has always performed better for me).

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## JC99

Isn't courier for maildirs? Are you using maildirs?

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## McManus

I'm currently using maildir with Postfix, so if Courier supports maildir, then great!

Postfix itself is fine, it's just that to get TLS/SSL support it seems like I have to use Cyrus-SASL, which I'm _not_ fond of.  At least, I can't find _good_ documentation about it.

I was just curious as to how Courier compared to Postfix in that regard.  The way I see it, I'm already using Courier-IMAP and Courier-authlib, except with Postfix.  Why not switch to Courier as an MTA as well?

Besides, bloated is fine if it works better and is easier to configure, no?

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## JC99

I use qmail and courier and that combo works great

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## darkphader

 *McManus wrote:*   

> Postfix itself is fine, it's just that to get TLS/SSL support it seems like I have to use Cyrus-SASL, which I'm _not_ fond of.  At least, I can't find _good_ documentation about it.
> 
> I was just curious as to how Courier compared to Postfix in that regard.  The way I see it, I'm already using Courier-IMAP and Courier-authlib, except with Postfix.  Why not switch to Courier as an MTA as well?
> 
> Besides, bloated is fine if it works better and is easier to configure, no?

 

TLS/SSL and SMTP Auth (SASL) are separate (and there is an ssl and an sasl USE flag). You can use one or the other or both. SMTP Auth (SASL) allows only authenticated clients to relay, TLS/SSL encrypts the data (passwords and content) to prevent snooping. Using both is the safest if you want roaming or dial-up users to relay through your server.

"The Book of Postfix" is great and handles these subjects with chapters on both SMTP Auth and TLS. Plus a Chapter dedicated to building a Postfix, Cysur-SASL, Courier Maildrop, and Courier IMAP company mail server.

As to why not to switch I can only say that Postfix may arguably be the most well regarded MTA around currently. It also has a lot of flexibility.

Easier to configure, if that's even the case, doesn't mean it works better. On the other hand, if you believe your bloated quote maybe Exchange Server is something you should look into  :Smile: 

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