Stalwart Mail Server: Secure and modern all-in-one mail server
Stalwart Mail Server is a self-hosted email tool. Secure and modern all-in-one mail server.
Why self-host Stalwart Mail Server
The case for running Stalwart Mail Server at home is straightforward: you get the full feature set, no subscription cost, and no data sitting on someone else’s server.
What it does
Stalwart Mail Server 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 4k 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
Most users run Stalwart Mail Server via Docker Compose. The typical setup involves one or two containers and a volume for persistent data.
Alternatives
If Stalwart Mail Server 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 version is 0.9.0, which means the project is still pre-1.0. That is not a disqualifier, but it is worth checking the changelog before upgrading in a setup where stability matters.
License
It is licensed under AGPL-3.0, making it freely available for personal and commercial use.
Links
Stalwart Mail Server is worth a look if you are building out a homelab or trying to reduce your dependence on hosted services. The setup cost is usually low and the upside is real data ownership.