Dovecot: Secure IMAP mail server
Dovecot is a self-hosted email tool. Secure IMAP mail server.
Why self-host Dovecot
Running Dovecot yourself means you control the data, the uptime policy, and the upgrade schedule. That is a different relationship with software than subscribing to a hosted service.
What it does
Dovecot falls into the Email category of self-hosted software. It is designed to be deployed on your own infrastructure, whether that is a home server, a VPS, or a local machine running Docker.
Community traction
The project has 946 stars on GitHub, which is a reasonable proxy for how widely it is used. Active repositories tend to ship bug fixes faster and have better documentation than projects that stall after the initial release.
Deployment
Docker is the most common deployment path. If you are already running containers at home, adding Dovecot to a compose file is a low-friction way to try it.
Alternatives
If Dovecot does not fit your needs, common alternatives include Gmail, Microsoft Outlook. The self-hosted versions of these tools often differ in resource requirements and feature focus, so it is worth testing the one that matches your workload.
Maturity
The current release is 2.3.21. The project has moved past early development and tends to ship stable, documented releases.
License
It is licensed under LGPL-2.1, making it freely available for personal and commercial use.
Links
If the use case fits, Dovecot is a solid choice. Most of the complexity is in the initial deploy, and the day-to-day operation is low maintenance.