Alternatives to Gmail
3 self-hosted alternatives — 3 hard
Why people look for alternatives
- Emails scanned for ad targeting
- 15GB shared storage across Google services
- Google accounts can be locked without recourse
- No end-to-end encryption
| App | Difficulty | Min RAM | Docker | Mobile | Active | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailcow Full-featured mail server suite with web UI and antispam. | hard | 4 GB | — | Yes | ||
| Mailu Simple but full-featured mail server as Docker containers. | hard | 2 GB | — | Yes | ||
| Stalwart Mail Modern all-in-one mail server with JMAP, IMAP, and SMTP support written in Rust. | hard | 1 GB | — | — | Yes |
Mailcow
Full-featured mail server suite with web UI and antispam.
Pros
- + Complete mail solution
- + Good web UI
- + Antispam included
- + Easy backup
Cons
- - Resource intensive
- - Email deliverability challenges
- - Complex DNS setup
- - Maintaining reputation is ongoing work
Mailu
Simple but full-featured mail server as Docker containers.
Pros
- + Simpler than mailcow
- + Docker-native
- + Reasonable resource usage
- + Web admin included
Cons
- - Email self-hosting is inherently complex
- - Deliverability challenges remain
- - Less polished UI
- - Fewer features than mailcow
Stalwart Mail
Modern all-in-one mail server with JMAP, IMAP, and SMTP support written in Rust.
Pros
- + Written in Rust for performance
- + Modern JMAP protocol support
- + All-in-one server
- + Low resource usage for a mail server
Cons
- - Newer project with less battle-testing
- - Smaller community than Mailcow
- - Email self-hosting is inherently complex
- - Deliverability still requires careful setup