Mox — Self-Hosted, Open-Source

Features

• Quick and easy to start/maintain mail server, for your own domain(s).
• SMTP (with extensions) for receiving, submitting and delivering email.
• IMAP4 (with extensions) for giving email clients access to email.
• Webmail for reading/sending email from the browser.
• SPF/DKIM/DMARC for authenticating messages/delivery, also DMARC aggregate
• Reputation tracking, learning (per user) host-, domain- and
• Bayesian spam filtering that learns (per user) from (Non-)Junk email.
• Slowing down senders with no/low reputation or questionable email content
• Internationalized email (EIA), with unicode in email address usernames
• Automatic TLS with ACME, for use with Let's Encrypt and other CA's.

How to install Mox

Most self-hosted apps including Mox install through Docker or Docker Compose. The typical workflow is: install Docker on your host, pull the official image (or clone the repository), supply a configuration file with database credentials and storage paths, then start the container. Many homelabbers run Mox alongside other self-hosted services behind a reverse proxy like Caddy, Traefik, or nginx-proxy-manager for HTTPS and routing. Check the official repository for the most current instructions.

Why self-host Mox

Self-hosting gives you three things SaaS can’t: data ownership (the files live on disks you control), cost predictability (a one-time setup vs. recurring per-seat fees that grow with your household or team), and longevity (open-source means the app keeps working even if the maintainers move on, since you can pin a working version). The trade-off is that you take on the operational work of running a server, applying updates, and handling backups.

Hardware notes

can start with a machine with 512MB RAM, any CPU will do. For storage you

Where to go from here

• Browse the full self-hosted app directory
• Compare self-hosted alternatives side-by-side
• DevOps roadmap — learn the skills to run your own server