Self-hosted email
Open-source platforms that run on your own infrastructure. Trade operational ownership for independence from a vendor and the ability to keep all data in your environment.
Open-source email servers and platforms that run on your own infrastructure.
8 Best Self-Hosted Email Tools (2026), Tested
Open-source platforms you can run on your own infrastructure.
Full ranking →- 01
Postal
Self-hosted TransactionalMost mature open-source SMTP-server replacement.
- 02
mailcow
Self-hostedFull Dockerized mail and groupware suite with admin UI, Postfix, Dovecot, Rspamd, and SOGo.
- 03
maddy
Self-hostedCompact all-in-one mail server with SMTP, MX receipt, IMAP, DKIM, SPF, DMARC, DANE, and MTA-STS.
- 04
Plunk
Self-hosted MarketingUnified marketing plus transactional in a single AGPL app.
- 05
Listmonk
Newsletter Self-hostedSingle-binary newsletter manager. Bring your own SMTP.
12 Best Open-Source Email Tools (2026), Tested
A reference stack for teams that want to own every layer.
Full ranking →- 01
Postal
Self-hosted TransactionalOutbound and inbound delivery server.
- 02
mailcow
Self-hostedFull self-hosted mail and groupware suite with a strong admin UI.
- 03
maddy
Self-hostedCompact all-in-one SMTP, MX, IMAP, and authentication stack.
- 04
Listmonk
Newsletter Self-hostedNewsletter manager and broadcast.
- 05
Novu
Notifications Self-hostedNotification orchestration across channels.
Directory (8)
Ghost
Open-source publishing with built-in memberships and email.
Listmonk
Self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager.
Postal
Open-source mail delivery platform.
Plunk
Open-source unified email platform.
Novu
Open-source notification infrastructure.
maddy
Composable all-in-one mail server.
mailcow
Dockerized groupware and email server suite.
Cuttlefish
Open-source transactional email server with a web UI.
reading this as teams building autonomous agents
An agent stack treats email as a two-way primitive. Inbound has to arrive as structured JSON a tool call can consume, sends have to be safe to retry when a model loop repeats itself, and every action needs an audit trail. A provider without inbound parsing only solves half the problem.
Applied to self-hosted email, that means weighing inbound parsing, idempotency keys, webhook coverage, and operating track record ahead of the rest, against inbound parsing into tool calls and model-generated sends that must not duplicate.