{"slug": "mailcow", "name": "mailcow", "category": "communication", "category_name": "Email and chat", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 7, "warners": 0, "score": 4.267, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2026-01-23", "latest": "2026-10-15", "why": "i switched to mailcow ~1 year ago and it now is so much easier to maintain and onboard friends & family.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "i switched to mailcow ~1 year ago and it now is so much easier to maintain and onboard friends & family.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "mailcow.email", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://mailcow.email", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["mailcow", "Mailcow"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 759958281, "item_id": 47497392, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47497392", "by": "exiguus", "date": "2026-03-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mail/Cal/Card: Self-hosted with Mailcow (since +5 years / good setup & nice documentation)", "excerpt": "My next phone will be also one that is supported by GraphenOS. Currently, my private setup is: - VPN: Windscribe [CA] - AI: Mistral [FR] - Phone: De-Googled Fairphone [NL] (F-Droid/Aurora/OpenStreetMap) - Search: Self-hosted SearXNG + YACY (since ~10 years / good setup & documentation) - Domain Provider: INWX [DE] (since +10 years / good setup & documentation) - DNS: Self-hosted AdGuard Home / dnscrypt-proxy 2 + dnsd", "context": "", "use_case": "Mail, calendar, contacts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Migrating to the EU"}, {"id": 759804752, "item_id": 47487797, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47487797", "by": "yellowsir", "date": "2026-03-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://mailcow.email/vps/", "excerpt": "https://mailcow.email/vps/", "context": "", "use_case": "Self-hosted email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Migrating to the EU"}, {"id": 754176432, "item_id": 47136027, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47136027", "by": "npodbielski", "date": "2026-02-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am running Mailcow BTW.", "excerpt": "> however it's quite a lot of ongoing effort - it's not just set up and forget. I have seen those kinds of opinions on internet already few times. No it is not that complicated. Yes you need to buy server. Yes you need to setup the DNS. Yes you need to maintain, and update server and its software. But this is like that with everything you selfhost. Beside that you need mostly 1 time operations like: - setup domain en", "context": "", "use_case": "Self-hosted mail server", "switched_from": "", "story": "A simple web we own"}, {"id": 753986832, "item_id": 47124177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47124177", "by": "yellowsir", "date": "2026-02-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i switched to mailcow ~1 year ago and it now is so much easier to maintain and onboard friends & family.", "excerpt": "can only agree, i switched to mailcow ~1 year ago and it now is so much easier to maintain and onboard friends & family.", "context": "", "use_case": "Self-hosted email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Don't host email yourself \u2013 your reminder in 2026"}, {"id": 747750848, "item_id": 46734428, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46734428", "by": "0x1ch", "date": "2026-01-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's nearly hands free (mailcow)", "excerpt": "About six months ago I switched to completely self hosted email in Hetzner, waited the billing period to receive outbound access, but still use free forwarding for outbound by default. People always complain on forums about the struggles of self hosting, but outside of an occasional email I have to whitelist because of spam filters, it's nearly hands free (mailcow). I setup aliases for every single one of my existing", "context": "self-hosts email on Hetzner", "use_case": "self-hosted email", "switched_from": "Proton Mail", "story": "Proton Spam and the AI Consent Problem"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "0x1ch", "context": "self-hosts email on Hetzner", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46734428", "date": "2026-01-23"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["self-hosted email", "self-hosted mail server", "mail, calendar, contacts"], "compared": [{"slug": "proton", "name": "Proton", "co": 2, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "gmail", "name": "Gmail", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47487436", "title": "Migrating to the EU", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50109715", "title": "What I self-host", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49261634", "title": "Ask HN: What email provider do you recommend for personal email?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47124149", "title": "A simple web we own", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47120901", "title": "Don't host email yourself \u2013 your reminder in 2026", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47099160", "title": "Andrej Karpathy talks about \"Claws\"", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 2}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "quotes": [{"id": 801782320, "item_id": 50111395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50111395", "by": "ebrahimh", "date": "2026-10-15", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I know it can easily be done with things like mailcow.", "excerpt": "I've never tried to set it up even though I know it can easily be done with things like mailcow. The downside is never really knowing if your email reached your recipient (maybe it got blocked by Gmail because of your IP, maybe some other reason). If I use Gmail/proton etc, then I can be pretty sure that the other person got my email.", "context": "", "use_case": "self-hosted email", "switched_from": "", "story": "What I self-host"}, {"id": 788187842, "item_id": 49261740, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49261740", "by": "emn4tor", "date": "2026-08-11", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I always like selfhosting either at home, or using a cheap VPS - iRedMail, MailCow etc.", "excerpt": "Fastmail natively supports JMAP, is pretty cheap ($3-5). I always like selfhosting either at home, or using a cheap VPS - iRedMail, MailCow etc.", "context": "", "use_case": "self-hosted email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What email provider do you recommend for personal email?"}, {"id": 759958281, "item_id": 47497392, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47497392", "by": "exiguus", "date": "2026-03-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mail/Cal/Card: Self-hosted with Mailcow (since +5 years / good setup & nice documentation)", "excerpt": "My next phone will be also one that is supported by GraphenOS. Currently, my private setup is: - VPN: Windscribe [CA] - AI: Mistral [FR] - Phone: De-Googled Fairphone [NL] (F-Droid/Aurora/OpenStreetMap) - Search: Self-hosted SearXNG + YACY (since ~10 years / good setup & documentation) - Domain Provider: INWX [DE] (since +10 years / good setup & documentation) - DNS: Self-hosted AdGuard Home / dnscrypt-proxy 2 + dnsd", "context": "", "use_case": "Mail, calendar, contacts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Migrating to the EU"}, {"id": 759804752, "item_id": 47487797, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47487797", "by": "yellowsir", "date": "2026-03-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://mailcow.email/vps/", "excerpt": "https://mailcow.email/vps/", "context": "", "use_case": "Self-hosted email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Migrating to the EU"}, {"id": 754176432, "item_id": 47136027, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47136027", "by": "npodbielski", "date": "2026-02-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am running Mailcow BTW.", "excerpt": "> however it's quite a lot of ongoing effort - it's not just set up and forget. I have seen those kinds of opinions on internet already few times. No it is not that complicated. Yes you need to buy server. Yes you need to setup the DNS. Yes you need to maintain, and update server and its software. But this is like that with everything you selfhost. Beside that you need mostly 1 time operations like: - setup domain en", "context": "", "use_case": "Self-hosted mail server", "switched_from": "", "story": "A simple web we own"}, {"id": 753986832, "item_id": 47124177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47124177", "by": "yellowsir", "date": "2026-02-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i switched to mailcow ~1 year ago and it now is so much easier to maintain and onboard friends & family.", "excerpt": "can only agree, i switched to mailcow ~1 year ago and it now is so much easier to maintain and onboard friends & family.", "context": "", "use_case": "Self-hosted email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Don't host email yourself \u2013 your reminder in 2026"}, {"id": 753686864, "item_id": 47105429, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47105429", "by": "andoando", "date": "2026-02-21", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Setup mailcow, anslytics, etc on my server.", "excerpt": "I use it for stuff like this from my phone: - Setup mailcow, anslytics, etc on my server. - Run video generation model on my linux box for variations of this prompt - At the end of every day analyze our chats, see common pain points and suggest tools that would help. - Monitor my API traffic over night and give me a report in the morning of errors. Im convinced this is going to be the future", "context": "", "use_case": "Self-hosted mail server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Andrej Karpathy talks about \"Claws\""}, {"id": 747750848, "item_id": 46734428, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46734428", "by": "0x1ch", "date": "2026-01-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's nearly hands free (mailcow)", "excerpt": "About six months ago I switched to completely self hosted email in Hetzner, waited the billing period to receive outbound access, but still use free forwarding for outbound by default. People always complain on forums about the struggles of self hosting, but outside of an occasional email I have to whitelist because of spam filters, it's nearly hands free (mailcow). I setup aliases for every single one of my existing", "context": "self-hosts email on Hetzner", "use_case": "self-hosted email", "switched_from": "Proton Mail", "story": "Proton Spam and the AI Consent Problem"}]}