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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 ships pinned releases, each tied to a single issue. October brought resolver fixes for the DNSSEC KSK rollover and SERVFAIL healthchecks, Roundcube 1.6.20, then PHP2Shell CVE mitigations in webmail followed by the patched PHP runtime. 2024.06.68 on 8 November carries the same PHP2Shell mitigation note again.
What is Rocket.Chat?
Rocket.Chat 9.0 reaches rc.8 with a migration fix as candidates shrink to single patches.
The 9.0 candidate line opened on 27 October with a licensing change: LDAP, SAML and Custom OAuth now require a premium plan. Since rc.4 the candidates have been fixes, and rc.8 on 7 November carries a single one: servers that started during another server's database migration no longer keep stale settings until restart. On 6 November 8.9.1 LTS backported the 9.0 load fixes plus a security hotfix.
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 ships pinned releases, each tied to a single issue. October brought resolver fixes for the DNSSEC KSK rollover and SERVFAIL healthchecks, Roundcube 1.6.20, then PHP2Shell CVE mitigations in webmail followed by the patched PHP runtime. 2024.06.68 on 8 November carries the same PHP2Shell mitigation note again.
◆ 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 9.0 reaches rc.8 with a migration fix as candidates shrink to single patches.
◆ 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. Since rc.4 the candidates have been fixes, and rc.8 on 7 November carries a single one: servers that started during another server's database migration no longer keep stale settings until restart. On 6 November 8.9.1 LTS backported the 9.0 load fixes plus a security hotfix.
◆ Where it's heading
9.0 is in stabilization: each candidate is smaller than the last, and the load fixes are being carried to the LTS line rather than held for the major. Native LiveKit video is being promoted step by step, from alpha to beta and now as the named default provider option.
◆ Prediction
With rc.7 down to a handful of fixes, 9.0.0 GA is the next likely release, followed by further 8.9.x LTS patches carrying the same fixes.
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.
Twilio
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Salesmsg
Salesmsg adds call-back requests and a one-click Emergency Stop for all outbound texts.
Element
Element 1.12.35 follows the call picture-in-picture release with one desktop storage fix.
Krisp
Krisp moves call transcripts and live captions to cloud transcription in KrispCX 2.84.4.
Misskey
Misskey 2026.11 ships: a leaner start script, and Node.js 22 no longer boots.
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.
- 5d agoMailu2024.06.68 re-ships the PHP2Shell webmail mitigation
- 7d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.8: settings refresh after concurrent migrations
- 8d agoRocket.Chat8.9.1 LTS: load fixes from 9.0 plus a security hotfix
- 8d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.7: client memory leak fixed, LiveKit video moves to beta
- 9d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.6: Matrix federation auth header fix
- 9d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.5: removed-license features shut off, OAuth codes redacted
- 10d agoRocket.Chat9.0 rc.4: notifications, presence and startup fixed under load
- 22d agoMailuMailu ships patched PHP for PHP2Shell CVEs
- 22d agoMailuMailu mitigates PHP2Shell webmail CVEs
- 24d agoMailuMailu 2024.06.65: Roundcube 1.6.20 update
- 1mo agoMailu2024.06.64 re-ships the resolver healthcheck fix
- 1mo agoMailu2024.06.63 makes the resolver healthcheck catch SERVFAIL
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 0 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 0 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.