{"slug": "dovecot", "name": "Dovecot", "category": "communication", "category_name": "Email and chat", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 15, "warners": 1, "score": 5.607, "rising": 1.35, "first": "2025-11-04", "latest": "2026-10-14", "why": "Personally I prefer to have email history online in the form of a local IMAP server like Dovecot.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 10, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Personally I prefer to have email history online in the form of a local IMAP server like Dovecot.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "dovecot.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.dovecot.org/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Dovecot"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 801446656, "item_id": 50090416, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50090416", "by": "secabeen", "date": "2026-10-14", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm going to turn this on right away", "excerpt": "Historically that hasn't been my experience, but it looks like that's because I never enabled the Solr-based Full-Text Search! Thanks for mentioning this, as I'm going to turn this on right away: https://doc.dovecot.org/2.3/configuration_manual/fts/", "context": "", "use_case": "IMAP full-text search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 791898352, "item_id": 49493647, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49493647", "by": "mpol", "date": "2026-08-29", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally I prefer to have email history online in the form of a local IMAP server like Dovecot.", "excerpt": "Personally I prefer to have email history online in the form of a local IMAP server like Dovecot. It is saved in maildir format where each email is a separate file. I can then use an email client to move emails and folders between accounts. Make sure to have backups. I assume you currently don't have a backup, if it sits in gmail.", "context": "", "use_case": "local email archive", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to archive 25 years of emails"}, {"id": 784676401, "item_id": 49042275, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49042275", "by": "aspbee555", "date": "2026-07-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "my backend is still dovecot+postfix, still works beautifully", "excerpt": "I still handle email for multiple small businesses (for over 20 years) and recently switched from the mailscanner+spamassasin to rspamd and the scanning is so much better/easier now my backend is still dovecot+postfix, still works beautifully. I am able to run rspamd+dovecot proxy on a small vps and the storage is handled by a backend office server with dovecot. If VPS has an issue can spinup another easily/anywhere ", "context": "handles email for small businesses for 20+ years", "use_case": "IMAP mail backend", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-host your mail server"}, {"id": 768406385, "item_id": 48025399, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48025399", "by": "exceptione", "date": "2026-05-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it works perfect for `boring old and feature complete software\u00b4 like Dovecot.", "excerpt": "Sure, but these are development dependencies we are talking about. Running old versions of these dependencies block your projects. But it isn't limited to self-developed software, quite often for of the shelve software you run at the same problem. To each their own, but this is the reason I advice newcomers to stay away from Debian based distro's. I don't intend a distro flamewar, it works perfect for `boring old and", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Should I Run Plain Docker Compose in Production in 2026?"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 735828802, "item_id": 45989300, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45989300", "by": "cookiengineer", "date": "2025-11-19", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "weeks of trying to make postfix and dovecot work", "excerpt": "I can recommend trying out Mox as an email server. The author built everything from scratch and does a lot of great work when it comes to unifying everything. The wizard spits out all the discovery, DKIM, DMARC, DANE and MTA STS related subdomains you have to change the entries of (that is the most painful part) but everything else really works like a charm. Much much easier installation process than weeks of trying ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support"}]}], "who": [{"by": "spl757", "context": "self-hosts all infrastructure including email", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49336572", "date": "2026-08-17"}, {"by": "aspbee555", "context": "handles email for small businesses for 20+ years", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49042275", "date": "2026-07-24"}, {"by": "levl289", "context": "runs own mail server since early 2000s", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041845", "date": "2026-07-24"}, {"by": "drnick1", "context": "self-hosts email", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48563771", "date": "2026-06-16"}, {"by": "f30e3dfed1c9", "context": "ran own mail server 2008-2023", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46332277", "date": "2025-12-19"}, {"by": "e38383", "context": "20+ years enterprise IT, now project lead, EU contractor", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45815037", "date": "2025-11-04"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["imap server", "imap full-text search", "local email archive", "self-hosted email server", "imap mail backend", "imap mail server"], "compared": [{"slug": "postfix", "name": "Postfix", "co": 10, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "fastmail", "name": "Fastmail", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "opendkim", "name": "OpenDKIM", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "opendmarc", "name": "OpenDMARC", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49328911", "title": "Self hosted email continues to steeply decline", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49020751", "title": "Self-host your mail server", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50072913", "title": "Thunderbird for iOS", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49489306", "title": "Ask HN: Best way to archive 25 years of emails", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48559935", "title": "Apple is about to make Hide My Email useless", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47962032", "title": "Should I Run Plain Docker Compose in Production in 2026?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 801446656, "item_id": 50090416, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50090416", "by": "secabeen", "date": "2026-10-14", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm going to turn this on right away", "excerpt": "Historically that hasn't been my experience, but it looks like that's because I never enabled the Solr-based Full-Text Search! Thanks for mentioning this, as I'm going to turn this on right away: https://doc.dovecot.org/2.3/configuration_manual/fts/", "context": "", "use_case": "IMAP full-text search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 791898352, "item_id": 49493647, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49493647", "by": "mpol", "date": "2026-08-29", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally I prefer to have email history online in the form of a local IMAP server like Dovecot.", "excerpt": "Personally I prefer to have email history online in the form of a local IMAP server like Dovecot. It is saved in maildir format where each email is a separate file. I can then use an email client to move emails and folders between accounts. Make sure to have backups. I assume you currently don't have a backup, if it sits in gmail.", "context": "", "use_case": "local email archive", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to archive 25 years of emails"}, {"id": 789385153, "item_id": 49336572, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49336572", "by": "spl757", "date": "2026-08-17", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "My stack is postfix and dovecot", "excerpt": "I've also been hosting all of my own infrastructure including email. I have only used small cheap VPSs and one thing I have learned is that the reputation of the IP address you are assigned may or may not have a history of delivering mail, and it's just luck if you get an IP that hasn't been blacklisted or known for SPAM in the past. I have put off migrating to a new hosting provider and actually just finished that t", "context": "self-hosts all infrastructure including email", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self hosted email continues to steeply decline"}, {"id": 789273569, "item_id": 49329598, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49329598", "by": "gommm", "date": "2026-08-17", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've been running my own email server with exim and dovecot for 20ish years, I like the freedom it gives me", "excerpt": "I've been running my own email server with exim and dovecot for 20ish years, I like the freedom it gives me but I have to say it's a significant investment. Not so much keeping things up to date but instead making sure that my emails are actually delivered. I've eventually switched to using fastmail just for sending emails and even with that, I don't get perfect delivery.", "context": "", "use_case": "self-hosted email server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self hosted email continues to steeply decline"}, {"id": 784676401, "item_id": 49042275, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49042275", "by": "aspbee555", "date": "2026-07-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "my backend is still dovecot+postfix, still works beautifully", "excerpt": "I still handle email for multiple small businesses (for over 20 years) and recently switched from the mailscanner+spamassasin to rspamd and the scanning is so much better/easier now my backend is still dovecot+postfix, still works beautifully. I am able to run rspamd+dovecot proxy on a small vps and the storage is handled by a backend office server with dovecot. If VPS has an issue can spinup another easily/anywhere ", "context": "handles email for small businesses for 20+ years", "use_case": "IMAP mail backend", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-host your mail server"}, {"id": 784669522, "item_id": 49041845, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041845", "by": "levl289", "date": "2026-07-24", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Everything else is postfix, spamassassin, dovecot imap", "excerpt": "I'd run my own email server since the early 2000's - in several forms over time. A VA Linux 2U rack server that I got from work (noisy, overkill), a personal Mac Mini (Frankenstein macport upgrade-resistant), and now a single-node k8s instance with everything neatly managed (an excuse to really dive into k8s from the ground up). I use dyndns to handle IP changes (incredibly rare with Frontier FIOS, actually). I use m", "context": "runs own mail server since early 2000s", "use_case": "IMAP server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-host your mail server"}, {"id": 777020339, "item_id": 48563771, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48563771", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2026-06-16", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Postfix and Dovecot", "excerpt": "This is absolutely not difficult to get right. Run OpenDKIM and OpenDMARC on your server along with your email stack (I use Postfix and Dovecot). Use a tool such as mail-tester.com to verify compliance.", "context": "self-hosts email", "use_case": "IMAP server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple is about to make Hide My Email useless"}, {"id": 768406385, "item_id": 48025399, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48025399", "by": "exceptione", "date": "2026-05-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it works perfect for `boring old and feature complete software\u00b4 like Dovecot.", "excerpt": "Sure, but these are development dependencies we are talking about. Running old versions of these dependencies block your projects. But it isn't limited to self-developed software, quite often for of the shelve software you run at the same problem. To each their own, but this is the reason I advice newcomers to stay away from Debian based distro's. I don't intend a distro flamewar, it works perfect for `boring old and", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Should I Run Plain Docker Compose in Production in 2026?"}, {"id": 756723538, "item_id": 47295221, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47295221", "by": "tuxmail", "date": "2026-03-07", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Postfix + Dovecot backend", "excerpt": "Hi HN, I\u2019m currently running a small infrastructure project and wanted to share something that might be interesting for people who prefer controlling their own email setup. I\u2019ve set up a Postfix + Dovecot + PostfixAdmin mail platform where users can manage their own email domains through a web interface. The idea is simple: If you own a domain, you can connect it and manage your mailboxes yourself via PostfixAdmin. Y", "context": "", "use_case": "IMAP server", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 753665184, "item_id": 47104074, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47104074", "by": "thangalin", "date": "2026-02-21", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "to get dovecot, postfix, and virtual users set up on my new server", "excerpt": "> Email is an open, federated protocol. Anyone can run a mail server. In practice, running your own mail server is painful. Wizards can be difficult to develop and maintain. Writing a working, useful, functional, robust, informative, environment-agnostic, and re-entrant script (or GUI/TUI) can take scads of effort. Now that LLMs abound, much of the grind is quickly solved. For example, here's a vibe-coded script that", "context": "", "use_case": "IMAP mail server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Be Wary of Bluesky"}, {"id": 747974000, "item_id": 46748375, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46748375", "by": "alphax314", "date": "2026-01-24", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to do the same for many years woth dovecot as well.", "excerpt": "I used to do the same for many years woth dovecot as well. Its not too difficult plus now with the llms it can probably be easier to maintain the configuration fires (I havent tried). However I did have issues with the VPS provider I was using getting blocked and not just my VPS\u2019 IP but the entire block. So at some point it became tok tedious to have to follow the unblock process. And so I switched to fastmail and ha", "context": "", "use_case": "Self-hosted IMAP mail", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bye Bye Gmail"}, {"id": 745210257, "item_id": 46575641, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46575641", "by": "pepa65", "date": "2026-01-11", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "if I use Thunderbird on my Maildirs (served by Dovecot)", "excerpt": "Actually, that is what I would like, but if I use Thunderbird on my Maildirs (served by Dovecot), the search (particularly in the mail body) is not really feasible. Perhaps there is a search integration for Dovecot that I am not aware of??", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bichon: A lightweight, high-performance Rust email archiver with WebUI"}, {"id": 741316434, "item_id": 46332277, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46332277", "by": "f30e3dfed1c9", "date": "2025-12-19", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "migrated over the years to postfix and dovecot", "excerpt": "I ran my own mail server from about 2008 to 2023 on a $5 per month (not including backups) VPS. Started with sendmail, some anti-spam tools, and qpopper, migrated over the years to postfix and dovecot, added some more anti-spam tools, dealt with all the SPF, DKIM, DMARC fooforaw as that became necessary, etc. All in all, it worked fine. Might still be doing it except that I decided to run it on CentOS 6, and when it ", "context": "ran own mail server 2008-2023", "use_case": "IMAP server", "switched_from": "qpopper", "story": "Ask HN: Running your own email service?"}, {"id": 735828802, "item_id": 45989300, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45989300", "by": "cookiengineer", "date": "2025-11-19", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "weeks of trying to make postfix and dovecot work", "excerpt": "I can recommend trying out Mox as an email server. The author built everything from scratch and does a lot of great work when it comes to unifying everything. The wizard spits out all the discovery, DKIM, DMARC, DANE and MTA STS related subdomains you have to change the entries of (that is the most painful part) but everything else really works like a charm. Much much easier installation process than weeks of trying ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support"}, {"id": 733040594, "item_id": 45815037, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45815037", "by": "e38383", "date": "2025-11-04", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Mail (dovecot, postfix, \u2026)", "excerpt": "Location: Mannheim, Germany Remote: Yes (hybrid/onsite ok) Willing to relocate: No Technologies: AI, IT-Security, Data Privacy, GDPR, SOC2, ISO27001, project/product management, Mail (dovecot, postfix, \u2026), simple web stuff (with Cursor, Lovable \u2013 not only \"vibe\"/AI), Linux, \u2026 CV: https://uweschwarz.eu/ Email: mail@uweschwarz.eu I've been in the enterprise sector for over 20 years, seen everything, started as Linux gu", "context": "20+ years enterprise IT, now project lead, EU contractor", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (November 2025)"}]}