Mox

Infrastructure

mail server

SHOW HN2023

Legend

Mox

Modern full-featured low-maintenance self-hosted mail server

github.com

#self-hosted mail server#smtp server#imap server#dkim#go mail server

471points
130comments
#62of 3,109 in 2023
Top 2%of 2023 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

10 positive, 16 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 7 critical, out of 35 comments about the project. Thread score +0.06.

Idea: 8 for, 4 againstExecution: 1 for, 1 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Impressive feature set and automatic DNS record setup

    From 2 comments
    • This project's scope is rather impressive, and from what I've gleaned from skimming its docs, it might be the perfect solution for people who want to self-host email. It tries to…
      c0l0 on HN
    • Wow, impressive feature set! How long was the incubation time of this project? I see that the initial git commit already contains quite a lot :-) I think this server hits a very…
      theK on HN
  • Single Go binary, easy to configure

    From 2 comments
    • I suppose it's mostly from a technical perspective: Single code-base, single binary, written in modern language (Go). There are advantages to an integrated solution: The…
      mjl- on HN
    • Looks really nice! Even though I'm a SMTP/IMAP admin since ages I feel the need for easy-to-use mail solutions.
      psic4t on HN

Objections

  • Young project, not yet mature enough to rely on

    From 2 comments
    • I highly suggest that technical people like HN readers use the https://workaround.org/ispmail tutorials instead and set up postfix/dovecot from their OS repos. You'll learn…
      superkuh on HN
    • Looks good, but since it's a young project I would suggest to anyone interested to consider Mailu [1], which is a mature project and looks easier to configure. [1] https://mailu.io
      GTP on HN
  • Self-hosted mail has deliverability problems with large providers

    From 2 comments
    • The project looks cool! However, I think the hard part of self-hosting email is not the tech stack, it's getting email delivered to your recipients using Google or Microsoft…
      p4bl0 on HN
    • When I tried a similar project, every email I sent from a self-hosted email server were considered spam from Gmail. In some cases, websites weren't even allowing email…
      Lucasoato on HN
  • No webmail or calendaring yet

    From 1 comment
    • I've set up my email using Mail-in-a-box [0] and it's worked wonderfully. How does this compare with Mail-in-a-box? Also, webmail, calendaring are future features in this…
      thunderbong on HN

Requests

  • Sieve filtering support

    From 2 comments
    • Very cool features! I hope SIEVE filtering is coming also, i consider it essential.
      Tepix on HN
    • Sieve is becoming a commonly requested feature. (; For now, mox supports delivering to mailboxes with configurable rules, search for "Rulesets:" on…
      mjl- on HN
  • Relay outbound mail through SES or SendGrid

    From 1 comment
    • I'd love the ability to send mail through a public SMTP relay, such as Amazon SES or Sendgrid, so the server could be hosted on "untrusted" IP space and send outbound mail…
      dblitt on HN
  • OAuth2 support

    From 1 comment
    • I added "implement oauth2 support" to the todo list from that comment. Shouldn't be too hard. If anyone has tips for simple-to-setup-oauth2 setups to test against, let me know.…
      mjl- on HN

Questions

  • How it compares to Mail-in-a-box and Maddy

    From 2 comments
    • I've set up my email using Mail-in-a-box [0] and it's worked wonderfully. How does this compare with Mail-in-a-box? Also, webmail, calendaring are future features in this…
      thunderbong on HN
    • I wonder how does it compare to Maddy mail server: https://github.com/foxcpp/maddy
      yamrzou on HN
  • Whether it scales to tens of thousands of users

    From 1 comment
    • Can this scale to 10's of 1000's of users on a big server? I wanted to open an alternative to gmail where users can use their domains and open several mailboxes for a small fee…
      oron on HN

Alternatives named

  • Mailcow

    From 2 comments
    • Wow, impressive feature set! How long was the incubation time of this project? I see that the initial git commit already contains quite a lot :-) I think this server hits a very…
      theK on HN
    • Mailcow is another option. I’ve been using it for a few years without any problems.
      develatio on HN
  • Mailu

    From 1 comment
    • Looks good, but since it's a young project I would suggest to anyone interested to consider Mailu [1], which is a mature project and looks easier to configure. [1] https://mailu.io
      GTP on HN
  • Maddy

    From 1 comment
    • I wonder how does it compare to Maddy mail server: https://github.com/foxcpp/maddy
      yamrzou on HN
  • Mail-in-a-box

    From 1 comment
    • I've set up my email using Mail-in-a-box [0] and it's worked wonderfully. How does this compare with Mail-in-a-box? Also, webmail, calendaring are future features in this…
      thunderbong on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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