Self-hosted Mailcow,
fully managed.
A complete self-hosted mail suite: Postfix, Dovecot, Rspamd, and SOGo webmail in one dockerized stack. Your domains, your mailboxes, your data, with the optional MailChannels relay for outbound.
Billed yearly on a 6 GB server, or $24 month to month. Mailcow itself is $0.
- Daily snapshots
- Free migration
- 500% SLA
- 4.4 on Trustpilot
- 500% SLA credited automatically
- Engineers 24/7, real humans
- Free migration of your Mailcow
- Since 2001, independent
At a glance
Mailcow here, in four lines.
What it is, what we install, what management covers and what it needs. The rest of this page is detail.
- What it is
- Mailcow is the complete self-hosted mail suite: Postfix, Dovecot, Rspamd, and SOGo webmail in one dockerized stack. Your domains, your mailboxes, your data, with a real admin UI over all of it. Here it comes paired with what self-hosters usually cannot get: a managed server underneath and, as an add-on, MailChannels carrying your outbound.
- What we install
- The playbook deploys Mailcow dockerized per the official documentation, DNS records (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, PTR) prepared with you, TLS issued, and the stack placed behind the managed network so port 25 life starts on the right foot. With the MailChannels relay added (from $8/mo), outbound mail leaves preconfigured through our authenticated gateway, so your first message delivers like your thousandth.
- What managed covers
- Stack and server updates with snapshots first; daily snapshots plus optional Dual Backups of every mailbox; monitoring on queues and services; the managed firewall; and a team whose actual specialty is mail infrastructure.
- What it needs
- 6 GB RAM
Fits on SC-6GB, from $20/mo. Bigger sizes leave room for the apps you stack beside it.
Your options
Three ways to run Mailcow.
Installing Mailcow is the easy part. The real question is who keeps it running.
| Do it yourselfOn any unmanaged VPS | One-click imageAt most clouds | RemarkableCloudManaged Mailcow, from $20/mo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Installing Mailcow | You: dependencies, database, HTTPS | Preinstalled once, then it is yours | Deployed by a tested playbook, database and HTTPS wired |
| Updates | You | You | Us, with a snapshot first |
| Monitoring and security | You | You | Us, 24/7: monitoring, firewall and IDS |
| Backups | You | Usually a paid add-on | Daily snapshots included, Dual Backups optional |
| Other apps on the server | Yours to wire up | One app per server | As many as fit, $0 each |
| When something breaks | You fix it | You fix it | Our engineers fix it, day or night |
Built for
What people run on Mailcow here.
On your own server, using it more never costs more.
Your domain's real mailboxes
Company email on your server: IMAP, SMTP, webmail, aliases, on a domain you fully control.
Leaving Google Workspace bills
Ten mailboxes on Workspace costs more per year than the server that hosts unlimited ones here.
Privacy-first email
No scanning, no ads, no third-party processor between you and your mail.
Calendars and contacts included
SOGo brings shared calendars and contacts, the Workspace features people forget mailcow has.
Stack it
Mailcow works better with company.
Everything here can run on the same server as Mailcow, at $0 per app. The server only needs the room.
Pick your server
Choose the size. Mailcow is $0.
Mailcow needs 6 GB. Bigger servers leave room for the apps you stack beside it. Every size is fully managed, and you can resize in minutes.
SC-6GB
The right size for Mailcow
$24 month to monthSave 17% yearly
- 6 GB RAM
- 3 vCPU
- 150 GB NVMe
- 15 TB transfer
SC-8GB
Mailcow plus a few more apps
$32 month to monthSave 17% yearly
- 8 GB RAM
- 4 vCPU
- 200 GB NVMe
- 20 TB transfer
SC-16GB
A fuller stack beside Mailcow
$64 month to monthSave 17% yearly
- 16 GB RAM
- 6 vCPU
- 400 GB NVMe
- 40 TB transfer
The details
Mailcow here, in plain words.
Straight answers to what people ask before they choose where to run it.
What does managed Mailcow hosting include?
The whole suite deployed correctly, DNS done properly the first time, mailboxes in daily snapshots (twice offsite with Dual Backups), and monitoring on the queues. Mail is the most operations-heavy thing you can self-host, and this is a host whose differentiator is mail operations.
Why self-host email at all?
Unlimited mailboxes at flat cost, aliases and domains without per-seat pricing, and mail data under your jurisdiction. Per-mailbox SaaS pricing makes a twenty-inbox company pay forever for what one server does; Mailcow makes mailboxes free to mint.
Is self-hosted mail deliverability hopeless?
Not on infrastructure built for it. Deliverability lives and dies on IP reputation, correct DNS, and authentication, which is precisely the stack we run for a living: SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and rDNS set up as part of the install, on network space we keep clean. Test it yourself with our deliverability tester afterward.
How big a server does Mailcow need?
6 GB of RAM is the official requirement and the catalog respects it: the suite runs a dozen services. SC-8GB is the natural home, with room left for an Uptime Kuma watching it.
How does a brand-new mail server deliver from day one?
Because with the relay active, outbound never leaves from a cold IP. The relay is an add-on from $8/mo. Your Mailcow arrives preconfigured with our gateway as its smart host, every message relays out through MailChannels on reputation that is already established, while inbound arrives directly at your server and its own filtering. DKIM stays yours (Mailcow signs, the relay preserves it), and your domains add one SPF include, include:_spf.protectedserver.net, which stays valid even as we grow the gateway behind it. Heavier senders pick a larger gateway package in the cart or later from the client area.
FAQ
Mailcow hosting, answered.
Still deciding? These are the questions we hear most.
How much RAM does Mailcow need?
6 GB minimum per the Mailcow documentation, and the resource meter enforces it. Large mailbox counts or heavy filtering move you toward 16 GB.
Are mailboxes backed up?
Daily snapshots cover the full stack: mailboxes, settings, and DKIM keys. Add Dual Backups for two offsite copies. A deleted mailbox is a restore, not a funeral.
Will you help with DNS?
Yes, all of it: MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and reverse DNS are set with you at install, then verified with a real send through our own testing tools.
Does the gateway read or store my mail?
It relays and filters outbound in transit, the same as any reputable smart host; your mailboxes, archives, and inbound flow live entirely on your server. Newsletters and bulk campaigns are a different traffic class with their own rules, so keep those on a campaign platform rather than the mailbox relay.
Why a managed Mailcow instead of running it on a bare VPS?
Running mail alone means being your own sysadmin, deliverability engineer, and blacklist firefighter. Here the pairing does that work: humans patch, monitor, and back up the server, and the MailChannels relay (an add-on) carries outbound reputation, so the part of self-hosted email that usually fails, getting your mail actually read, is handled from the first message. You keep everything that makes Mailcow worth it: your data, your domains, unlimited mailboxes, no per-user fees.
Will my mail actually reach inboxes?
Deliverability is DNS discipline: correct SPF, DKIM and DMARC (the install generates the records, you publish them) plus a clean IP, which non-oversold infrastructure helps keep clean. Our deliverability docs cover the checklist, and Fully Managed includes our help.
Can I migrate existing mailboxes?
Yes, imapsync moves mail from any IMAP host preserving folders and flags. We run migrations with you on Fully Managed; DNS cutover is the only visible moment.
Is this Mailcow on a VPS or on shared hosting?
A VPS. Mailcow runs on your own private virtual server with dedicated, non-oversold resources and its own IP. You get real isolation and performance, with the setup, TLS and hardening handled for you.
Can I run other apps on the same server?
Yes. Add any other catalog app to this server from your client area, one click each, no per-app charge. How much fits is a question of RAM, and resizing is minutes.
Mailcow runs. You sleep.
Managed Mailcow from $20/mo, free migration and a 30-day money-back guarantee.