MI

Mail-in-a-Box

Self-host

An opinionated single-box mail server for Ubuntu that wires up Postfix, Dovecot, DNS, webmail, and backups in one installer.

Category
Email · Self-host
Cost
Self-host
Country
US
Licensing
FOSS
+ what works
  • +One-command installer produces a working mail server with sane defaults
  • +Bundles webmail (Roundcube), contacts and calendar (Nextcloud), and a control panel
  • +Automatic Let's Encrypt, DNS, DKIM, SPF, DMARC, and DNSSEC out of the box
  • +Code is CC0 public domain, no vendor lock-in
watch out for
  • Single-box design only, no built-in high availability or horizontal scaling
  • Locked to a specific Ubuntu LTS (22.04 as of v75); upgrades follow the project's schedule
  • Opinionated stack, customizing components is explicitly discouraged
  • Effectively a one-maintainer project, so release pacing depends on one person's bandwidth

Self-hosting keeps message data on a VPS or machine you control, with no vendor in the loop. Mail-in-a-Box does not phone home and stores nothing off the box. Operational privacy depends on the operator picking a host they trust, keeping the OS patched, and handling backups responsibly. The installer ships a working DNS, DKIM, SPF, DMARC, and DNSSEC setup by default, which removes a class of common self-hosting mistakes.

gmail
#postfix · #dovecot · #nextcloud · #roundcube · #foss · #cc0

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