{"slug": "stalwart", "name": "Stalwart", "category": "communication", "category_name": "Email and chat", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 3.498, "rising": 1.67, "first": "2026-04-09", "latest": "2026-10-29", "why": "Its been excellent for self hosting email on a small hetzner instance. Highly recommended", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 2], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Its been excellent for self hosting email on a small hetzner instance. Highly recommended", "icon": false, "domain": "stalw.art", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://stalw.art", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Stalwart"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 804679648, "item_id": 50292478, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50292478", "by": "romanmandryk", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Stalwart as mail server but for outgoing email I set it up with sending service (like AWS SES, Sendgrid, Brevo...).", "excerpt": "I use Stalwart as mail server but for outgoing email I set it up with sending service (like AWS SES, Sendgrid, Brevo...). Most have sufficient free tier for one or few users.", "context": "self-hosts email", "use_case": "self-hosted mail server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How do people self host email and maintain deliverability?"}, {"id": 803956752, "item_id": 50247297, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50247297", "by": "Depurator", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Its been excellent for self hosting email on a small hetzner instance. Highly recommended", "excerpt": "I really like running rust infra projects, and have been using stalwart for a long time. Its been excellent for self hosting email on a small hetzner instance. Highly recommended, and happy to see the rare 1.x release in the rust ecosystem. Wrote a bit about my experiences here: https://lindfors.no/blog/self-hosted-newsletter/", "context": "self-hosts on a small Hetzner instance", "use_case": "self-hosted email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stalwart v1.0: The Fastest Mail Server on the Planet"}, {"id": 784658288, "item_id": 49041143, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041143", "by": "fisian", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Stalwart as a mail server and it was not too hard to setup", "excerpt": "I started hosting my email at home some months ago and it works great. However, my ISP blocks some ports necessary for running a mailserver (incoming SMTP), so I have to use an SMTP relay (which is on a VPS and does port 25 to some other port that is not blocked). Additionally, to not worry about deliverability, I let my mailserver send all outgoing mail through another service. The additional costs for this are abou", "context": "hosts email at home", "use_case": "self-hosted mail server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-host your mail server"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "romanmandryk", "context": "self-hosts email", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50292478", "date": "2026-10-29"}, {"by": "joshka", "context": "solo hoster", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50254794", "date": "2026-10-27"}, {"by": "Depurator", "context": "self-hosts on a small Hetzner instance", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50247297", "date": "2026-10-26"}, {"by": "fisian", "context": "hosts email at home", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041143", "date": "2026-07-24"}, {"by": "ryanleesipes", "context": "works on Thundermail", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47712461", "date": "2026-04-09"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["self-hosted mail server", "backup email server", "self-hosted email", "mail server for thundermail"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50245945", "title": "Stalwart v1.0: The Fastest Mail Server on the Planet", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50218062", "title": "Ask HN: How do people self host email and maintain deliverability?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49020751", "title": "Self-host your mail server", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47700388", "title": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804679648, "item_id": 50292478, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50292478", "by": "romanmandryk", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Stalwart as mail server but for outgoing email I set it up with sending service (like AWS SES, Sendgrid, Brevo...).", "excerpt": "I use Stalwart as mail server but for outgoing email I set it up with sending service (like AWS SES, Sendgrid, Brevo...). Most have sufficient free tier for one or few users.", "context": "self-hosts email", "use_case": "self-hosted mail server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How do people self host email and maintain deliverability?"}, {"id": 804076704, "item_id": 50254794, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50254794", "by": "joshka", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I really want to give this a try for a backup to my main email", "excerpt": "I really want to give this a try for a backup to my main email (hosted on fastmail), but a couple of those enterprise features are things I'd want to really try out as a solo hoster (AI Sieve and masked addresses). I can't justify paying $50/year for those though. :|", "context": "solo hoster", "use_case": "backup email server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stalwart v1.0: The Fastest Mail Server on the Planet"}, {"id": 803956752, "item_id": 50247297, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50247297", "by": "Depurator", "date": "2026-10-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Its been excellent for self hosting email on a small hetzner instance. Highly recommended", "excerpt": "I really like running rust infra projects, and have been using stalwart for a long time. Its been excellent for self hosting email on a small hetzner instance. Highly recommended, and happy to see the rare 1.x release in the rust ecosystem. Wrote a bit about my experiences here: https://lindfors.no/blog/self-hosted-newsletter/", "context": "self-hosts on a small Hetzner instance", "use_case": "self-hosted email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stalwart v1.0: The Fastest Mail Server on the Planet"}, {"id": 784658288, "item_id": 49041143, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041143", "by": "fisian", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Stalwart as a mail server and it was not too hard to setup", "excerpt": "I started hosting my email at home some months ago and it works great. However, my ISP blocks some ports necessary for running a mailserver (incoming SMTP), so I have to use an SMTP relay (which is on a VPS and does port 25 to some other port that is not blocked). Additionally, to not worry about deliverability, I let my mailserver send all outgoing mail through another service. The additional costs for this are abou", "context": "hosts email at home", "use_case": "self-hosted mail server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-host your mail server"}, {"id": 763399376, "item_id": 47712461, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47712461", "by": "ryanleesipes", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Our stack is based on Stalwart", "excerpt": "No, we rely on PGP encrypted email. What I'm talking about is the latter. Emails are encrypted with your public key before being stored in the database. (Our stack is based on Stalwart, you can read about how it works here: https://stalw.art/docs/encryption/overview )", "context": "works on Thundermail", "use_case": "mail server for Thundermail", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}]}