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Which Mailserver stack to use these days?
sirpumpkin
Member
Hey,
I'm looking for a good and well supported mailserver stack.
Currently I'm using mailcow (the non-dockerized version), but the main problem with that is, that it currently isn't being supported anymore and I'm having some weird problems with it, for example when receiving mails with attachments, which is very important to me and my users. To be honest, I also don't like the way the non-dockerized version was more or less abandoned from one day to another and I don't want to switch to the docker variant.
I used iRedMail in the past and highly enjoyed it, especially the good support by the developer, if there were any problems. It is also possible to purchase support tickets for a fair price, which I love, just in case it is ever needed. Its webinterface though doesn't allow a lot of settings. While it is possible to make necessary changes via the MySQL database, I'd have to manually document them somewhere and the users can't perform these actions themselves, which is annoying as well. Paying 500$ for the panel is not an option (although I'd love to support the dev).
Zimbra uses a lot of resources, which isn't a problem for me though. I've ran a test installation of Zimbra and to be honest, I don't really "get it". It just seems that it has way too many functions for a mailserver that maybe 10-20 people will use with a maximum of 50 mailboxes. It simply is too bloated.
Other alternatives come to mind as well, for example mail-in-a-box. Here I'm mainly worried about the risk of being disappointed after some time of usage, just as with mailcow currently (migrating mail servers isn't fun 
) Also, mail-in-a-box is using Roundcube, and I'd prefer SOGo or another "light" groupware solution.
Then there is the possibility of using a hosted service like mxroute. While I do prefer to maintain the mail server myself, it is a possibility I can think of, at least. The main problem with mxroute for me is privacy. It would be a lot easier for me if I could keep the mail servers within the same country (Germany) or at least the EU. I'm not suggesting with that that keeping mails within the EU or Germany might be more secure, but it is at least easier from a juridical view due to privacy laws.
For my private mails I use mailbox.org, which I like, but it is too expensive for multiple users.
The club, that is hosted on my mail server, might also want to send their newsletters through the service (only to their members, it is not a big number, so it shouldn't be a problem).
What are your recommendations based on the requirements that I have? Thank you for your help.
Comments
If you're fine with 2GB Mailbox space, Posteo might be of your interested. Absolutely privacy orientated. Though, i still prefer the good old "no webinterface + postfix"
2 GB might be enough at first, but won't be enough in the long run. Also, I'm looking for more of a solution where I can create multiple mail adresses, domains and so on from an admin panel, and as far as I see it, posteo can't offer that.
@mailcheap looks interesting, I have to say, but although very respected here, it still seems to be a quite small and new provider, so I'm a bit hesitant. Also, they seem to not only host within EU, if I understand it correctly.
mxroute, @jarland... 'nuff said.
Zarafa has ended and they don't seem to offer any downloads or support for it and insist that everyone move to Kopano, which has EVEN MORE features that I'd care less about.
Yeah I was going to try it but was left with that
Edit: Their last community release is available here http://archives.z-hub.io/7.2/
Their commercial variant is unavailable anymore.
I'd go with MXRoute too but no servers in germany yet and thats my main criteria :<
Oops, I actually meant Zimbra (although I used zarafa a looooong time ago).
Zimbra really eats up huge amounts of ram, like 16GB or such. That is way too much for a small number of users. I'd recommend mail-in-a-box as you have already mentioned; I've been using that stack for half an year and it was solid stable. Another stack came into mind is citadel.org, which you might need to play around with for a little while to make it work.
Mailcow
well actually we have our zimbra open source edition server running on kvm with 8gb of ram since it is a single server instance and well it just works which is really nice considering we have a license for microsoft exchange as well but choose zimbra over exchange because it is just easier to install, maintain and upgrade.
as I just say stick with what works for you. if Zimbra works or Mailcow works great for you don't fix something that isn't broken though if you are looking for updates I would suggest using Zimbra Open Source Edition like we do if you want updates.
I'll consider it.
I will have a look, have never heard of it. To be honest, their website and the screenshots don't look really appealing to me.
Thank you, but that is not an option. Please read my post before commenting
+1 for Posteo!
Great and reliable service & the mailbox space is expandable. I use 8 GB for example...
Posteo looks great, but I'm very happy with mailbox.org and they do have a similiar pricing. The problem with this kind of service is, that I can't manage accounts myself. What I'm more looking for is a service where I get, say 50 GB of storage, and then can create mail accounts as I wish.
I'm offering mail hosting for free to a club currently (I'm also hosting their website) and I'd like to continue to offer that to them, which would be hard with a product like this.
I actually just read that you can't use your own domain with posteo, in which case they aren't an option. Actually quite surprised by that (although they explain why they don't do it in great detail).
https://github.com/atech/postal looks interesting.
Edit: this might only be for SMTP, doesn't actually host the incoming mail accounts
^ looks to be the old AppMail gone open source. Nice find!
Thanks for the mention. All data incl. backups are located in France, EU. Premium Mail servers are located in FR while basic plans (frontend) are located in CA.
Pavin.
MXRoute does have an offering in London (and we are still part of the EU).
I've used zimbra open source and zextras in the past and it's a very good combo. Someone mentioned that Zimbra had been canned, I can't see any evidence of that but would be interested in the source as I still have some zimbra servers in the wild!
London is no option at all as you'll leave the EU pretty soon. May stays in position to get you out of our union. So a lot providers will switch to germany
if you can coding and your needed for web interface really basic, ex : create account, delete, reset password, add domain
setup postfix, mariadb, dovecot, roundcube and coded your own web admin, only few sql query to do above task
Did you try yunohost, cloudron and sandstorm? Ubuntu also has a mail server package...(never used it though)
We have at least another 2 years in the union, and I suspect it will be a lot longer, but I know the uncertainty isn't helping any business!
Although we are getting a lot of new DCs... Amazon, Microsoft, OVH are all standing up UK presences...
I'll probably go with iredmail again. Stuff that can't be done via the free webinterface can just be managed via PHPMyAdmin relatively easy, so it is fine for me. I might even code a small interface myself for it.
Thank you for all your suggestions.
My ISP/Comcast Cable's webmail used to or still uses them lol, I remember seeing it say "Zimbra Webmail" for a quick sec in the title bar while it was loading.
Edit: yep you can even see it in their URLs https://web.mail.comcast.net/zimbra/mail?app=mail
Do they support personal domain? And the webmail choice is only Open-Exchange webmail client or there are other options?
Have you considered Axigen ?
Free version for 20 users with really nice webmail interface and tons of features.
Zimbra!?! Wow that's a blast from the past. Great product, but haven't seen it in a loooong time. Yes, a RAM hog, but was quick to setup and maintain, and relatively cheap compared to other exchange alternatives out there.
Yes, Comcast still uses Zimbra, and has since the beginning. I too was surprised to see them using it. Probably what keeps Zimbra afloat. Is Zimbra dead now!?!
Postfix/Dovecot/MariaDB/RSpamd is my preference now. Easy config, Speedy, and easy to tie into any webmail/portal/website for a customized front end.
I use Mailcow standard, on a 1GB ram OpenVZ from Hostsolutions @cociu (an easter offer). Mailcow standard version seems quite good, even though it was not updated for quite some time by @servercow, because he is fascinated by Docker.
VestaCP also can be considered for a basic mail server setup with DKIM support.
Webmin can also be used for mail server management.
Zimbra issnt dead (yet used in in the past and about to setup again. Yes it does need a lot of ram but it works and keeps working! https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Zimbra_Releases