# qmail

15 Hacker News commenters recommended qmail and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Admired for simple design, security built in from the start, and very few bugs. Common caveat: no forks allowed, so it fell behind modern needs like spam filtering.

## Why people recommend it

- Security designed in from the start (4 comments): "A simple design, it had security baked in from the start, and remains one of the most secure software packages in history." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49819255)) "DJB, with Qmail and DjbDNS ... showed that one could have (mostly) security bug free software" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48114942)) "its security withstood scrutiny for quite a lot of years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46479944))
- Very few bugs, little patching (3 comments): "DJB, with Qmail and DjbDNS ... showed that one could have (mostly) security bug free software" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48114942)) "the best example of software with very few bugs is something like qmail" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762554)) "those didn't need a ton of patching over time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50223477))
- Rewarding to learn and run (3 comments): "Honestly one of the best, but annoying, things I've done, well worth the time invested" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45848883)) "I relied heavily on qmail for about a decade, and learned a lot from the experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47442792)) "It was a lot of fun to do as a student sysadmin." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49044200))
- Simple, compartmentalized design (2 comments): "A simple design, it had security baked in from the start, and remains one of the most secure software packages in history." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49819255)) "where he took a very different and compartmentalized approach to the more common monolithic tooling" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47102383))

## What people warn about

- Fell behind modern needs (3 comments): "Djb didn’t allow forking and repackaging so quail did not keep up with an increasingly hostile environment" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47764430)) "it failed to keep up and DJBs attitude didn't help" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47764996)) "The official release is not standard compliance. It does not support anything modern spam filter need." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48117156))
- Author's attitude and maintenance criticized (2 comments): "I feel he didn't responsibly maintain Qmail/DJBdns/Publicfile" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48116772)) "it failed to keep up and DJBs attitude didn't help" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47764996))
- Too locked down to function (2 comments): "it was a case of security being so tight that users had to break it in order to make the system functional" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48787423)) "that does mean it's essentially unusable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48115806))
- Memory-unsafe; advised against running (2 comments): "there is no reason to run a memory-unsafe MTA" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48112876)) "I don't think anyone should run qmail." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48112923))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Stalwart Mail Server](https://hackerapproved.com/p/stalwart-mail-server.md): 27 recommend
- [Postfix](https://hackerapproved.com/p/postfix.md): 21 recommend
- [Dovecot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dovecot.md): 18 recommend
- [mailcow](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mailcow.md): 15 recommend
- [Mox email server](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mox.md): 14 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "qmail", https://hackerapproved.com/p/qmail/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).