In simple English
Running your own email server usually requires setting up half a dozen separate programs. This makes the job frustrating and easy to break. Mox replaces all of them with one single program written in the Go programming language. It handles sending, receiving, webmail, spam filtering, and security certificates out of the box. You can install it on a dedicated server to host email for your own domains. It costs you only the price of a small server and the time to set up your domain records.
What it is
Mox is a self-hosted mail server that bundles SMTP, IMAP, webmail, anti-spam, and automated TLS certificates into one binary. It is designed to be low-maintenance and secure by default.
What it is good for
Solo builders who want to host their own email and stop relying on big cloud providers without spending days configuring complex server software.
- Combines SMTP, IMAP, webmail, and spam filtering in one package.
- Includes a built-in web admin interface that tells you exactly what DNS records to add.
- Runs on cheap hardware with low memory requirements.
- Requires a dedicated server with a clean IP address to avoid delivery blocks.
- Does not support POP3 or acting as an unauthenticated SMTP relay.
- Moving your primary domain email to a self-hosted server carries a risk of lost mail if misconfigured.
Postfix, Dovecot, SpamAssassin, and Rspamd
Unbound
- mailcow/mailcow-dockerized14k stars
Another complete self-hosted mail server package, but built as a large collection of Docker containers rather than a single binary.
- stalwartlabs/stalwart15k stars
A secure mail server written in Rust with JMAP support, serving a similar all-in-one goal.
- slok/sloth2.6k stars
Generates Prometheus alerting and recording rules from a short specification of a service level objective.
- nicolargo/glances34k stars
A live view of one computer's health, in a terminal, in a browser, or through an AI assistant.
- dokku/dokku32k stars
A small platform you install on one server, which builds and runs an app every time you push code to it.
useradd -m -d /home/mox mox cd /home/mox ./mox quickstart you@example.com