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Self-Hosting Mailcow: Complete Email Solution

Mailcow is a dockerized email server suite. If you must self-host email, Mailcow makes it as manageable as possible.

mailcowemailmail-serverdocker

What Is Mailcow?


Mailcow is a dockerized email server suite. It bundles Postfix, Dovecot, rspamd, ClamAV, and SOGo into a managed Docker Compose stack.


Components


  • Postfix (SMTP)
  • Dovecot (IMAP/POP3)
  • rspamd (spam filtering)
  • ClamAV (antivirus)
  • SOGo (webmail + calendar + contacts)
  • Admin UI
  • Autodiscover/Autoconfig

    • Features


  • Domain and mailbox management
  • Alias management
  • Spam filtering with rspamd
  • DKIM signing
  • Let's Encrypt integration
  • Two-factor authentication
  • Quarantine management
  • Push notification support

    • The Email Warning


    Self-hosting email is hard. Before deploying Mailcow:

  • Get a clean IP (not on blacklists)
  • Set up SPF, DKIM, DMARC correctly
  • Set up rDNS (reverse DNS)
  • Monitor deliverability
  • Plan for 24/7 availability

    • Deployment


    Resources: 2 CPU, 4 GB RAM (email stacks are resource-heavy).


    Mailcow is the best option if you've decided to self-host email despite the warnings. It handles the complexity of running a mail server stack.