Mail-in-a-Box
Hacker ApprovedRanked 8 of 9 mail servers by recommenders
People recommend it as an easy way to run your own complete mail server, bundling the mail services that would otherwise take manual setup. Owners who said anything report running it for years with little trouble.
People recommend it as an easy way to run your own complete mail server, bundling the mail services that would otherwise take manual setup. Owners who said anything report running it for years with little trouble.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 5 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Easier than configuring services manually
“makes management a lot easier than configuring each service manually”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “Self-host your mail server” “Very easy with something like Mailinabox”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “A new Android malware from Google” Quick, reliable way to get running
“the fastest reliable way to get up and running is mail-in-a-box or mailcow”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “Google Broke reCAPTCHA for De-Googled Android Users” “Very easy with something like Mailinabox”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “A new Android malware from Google” Works well, long-term happy use
“Hosting my own server with mailinabox. low traffic, but keeping their random subscriptions, newsletters and occasional single purpose address. Haven't had any issues so far.”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Self hosted email continues to steeply decline” “Mail-in-a-box works incredibly well”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “The Cloudflare outage might be a good thing” “I've been very happy with it.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “All I wanted was a custom domain email”
Other mail servers people recommend
The four most recommended other mail servers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stalwart Mail Server | 27 | 4 | 87% | 10 | 3 mo3 owners | Approved |
| Postfix | 21 | 5 | 81% | 9 | 22 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Dovecot | 18 | 1 | 95% | 11 | 15 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| qmail | 15 | 5 | 75% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Mail-in-a-BoxThis page | 11 | 0 | 100% | 5 | 5 yrs3 owners | Approved |
What people said
11 of the 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“pixelfed, Mail-in-a-Box, nextcloud, cryptpad”
“I've been very happy with it.”
“Hosting my own server with mailinabox. low traffic, but keeping their random subscriptions, newsletters and occasional single purpose address. Haven't had any issues so far.”
“use something like Zimbra, Mailcow, iRedMail, mail-in-a-box”
“mailinabox if you're low on RAM”
“makes management a lot easier than configuring each service manually”
“Very easy with something like Mailinabox”
“the fastest reliable way to get up and running is mail-in-a-box or mailcow”
“I haven't done any maintenance for at least 3 years”
“I switched to mail-in-a-box in 2014, and contributed a few minor fixes”
“Mail-in-a-box works incredibly well”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.