Boost Your Email Workflow: 12 Dockerized Mail Servers That Deliver (Literally!)
Discover 12 Dockerized open-source mail servers for secure, scalable, and effortless email management. Perfect for developers and agencies seeking modern, reliable solutions.
Table of Content
A Dockerized open-source mail server is essentially an email server packed into a Docker container. Think of Docker as a magic box that wraps up everything your mail server needs—software, settings, and dependencies—into one neat package. This makes it super easy to deploy, manage, and scale without worrying about compatibility issues or messing up your system.
Why is this awesome? First off, setting up a traditional mail server can feel like solving a Rubik's Cube blindfolded—it’s complicated! But with Docker, you just pull the pre-configured image, run a few commands, and boom, you’ve got yourself a fully functional mail server in minutes. It’s perfect for agencies or small teams who need reliable email services without spending days on setup.
Speed isn’t just about deployment; it’s also about performance. Docker containers are lightweight, meaning they use fewer resources than running full virtual machines. Plus, updates and scaling become a breeze since you can spin up new instances instantly.
Security-wise, Docker shines too. Since the mail server runs isolated inside its container, vulnerabilities in other parts of your system won’t easily affect it. And backups? Piece of cake! Just back up the Docker volumes where all your data lives—it’s straightforward and hassle-free.
In short, Dockerized mail servers are fast, secure, simple to set up, and built for modern workflows. If you want something dependable yet flexible, this is the way to go. Trust me, once you try it, there’s no turning back!
In this post, we offer you the best open-source docker-based mail servers, so keep up!
1- Poste.io
Poste.io is the ultimate all-in-one mail server solution—SMTP, IMAP, POP3, anti-spam, antivirus, web admin, and webmail bundled into a sleek Docker package. With fast deployment in minutes, secure design, and effortless backups, it’s perfect for modern workflows. Built on open-source tech, it’s robust, simple, and ready to rock your email game!
It is our first and top recommendation to build a reliable mail server for enterprise, agencies and small and mid-size companies.
You can install the pro version, or the free version easily, it depends on your requirements!
Features
- native implementation of SPF, DKIM, DMARC, SRS with simple wizard
- Antivirus engine for detecting trojans, viruses, malware (ClamAV)
- Built-in spam filter (RSPAMD)
- Webmail client on HTTPS (Roundcube)
- Email redirection, autoreply and other filtering by Sieve scripts (email owner managed, every action can be scripted)
- Quota for limiting mailbox space or email count
- Web administration with different rights for system administrator, domain administrator, email owner.
- Built in autodiscovery for Microsoft products, Thunderbird...
- Diagnostics to help setup domain and mailserver properly
- SMTP - port 25, 465 (TLS), 587
- POP3 - port 110, 995 (TLS)
- IMAP - port 143, 993 (TLS)
- SSLTLS everywhere! No personal data, emails, logins go through internet unencrypted.
- All passwords are by default stored as salted SHA512 hash (5000 rounds). Attackers will have hard time to crack your passwords.
- Whole mail server container is isolated by Docker from other apps.
Install the free version
$ docker run \
--net=host \
-e TZ=Europe/Prague \
-v /your-data-dir/data:/data \
--name "mailserver" \
-h "mail.example.com" \
-t analogic/poste.io2- Mailu
Mailu is a simple yet full-featured mail server as a set of Docker images. It is free software (both as in free beer and as in free speech), open to suggestions and external contributions. The project aims at providing people with an easily setup, easily maintained and full-featured mail server while not shipping proprietary software nor unrelated features often found in popular groupware.
Features
- Standard email server, IMAP and IMAP+, SMTP and Submission with auto-configuration profiles for clients
- Advanced email features, aliases, domain aliases, custom routing, full-text search of email attachments
- Web access, multiple Webmails and administration interface
- User features, aliases, auto-reply, auto-forward, fetched accounts, managesieve
- Admin features, global admins, announcements, per-domain delegation, quotas
- Security, enforced TLS, DANE, MTA-STS, Letsencrypt!, outgoing DKIM, anti-virus scanner, Snuffleupagus, block malicious attachments
- Antispam, auto-learn, greylisting, DMARC and SPF, anti-spoofing
- Freedom, all FOSS components, no tracker included
You can easily download and install it using Docker-Compose, it also provide a Kubernetes setup, and a developer & DevOps friendly documentation.
Mailu
3- Docker Mailserver
This Dockerized mail server is a powerhouse in a box—simple, secure, and production-ready! Packed with Postfix, Dovecot, Rspamd, ClamAV, and more, it handles SMTP, IMAP, LDAP, anti-spam, and anti-virus effortlessly.
No SQL database, just clean config files for easy versioning. Deploy or upgrade in minutes, with SSL support, OAuth2, and fail2ban for modern security needs. Perfect for pros who value simplicity and control!
docker-mailserver (Github Organization)
docker-mailserver
4- IRedMail
iRedMail is a powerful, open-source mail server solution trusted by thousands of companies worldwide—and now it’s Dockerized! This official beta edition simplifies deployment with just one config file (iredmail-docker.conf) and supports SMTP, IMAP, LDAP, anti-spam, and anti-virus out of the box. Built on Ubuntu 22.04, it’s free, secure, and easy to set up.
While not yet production-ready, its flexibility and active community make it a cool choice for modern email needs. Perfect for testing and small companies!
Hazem Abbas
5- bulktrade/mailserver
Yet another docker-based mail server, that packs everything within one Docker image for easy setup.
6- docker-mailserver
Docker Mailserver based on the famous ISPMail guide. All images are based on Alpine Linux and are so small as possible. You can install the admin panel for it using separate docker container from here.
Features
- POP3, IMAP, SMTP with user authentication
- TLS enforced
- Webmail interface
- Server-side mail filtering, rule configuration via web frontend
- Spam- and malware filter
- Catchall address support
- Restricted sender addresses
- Spamfilter is trained just by moving emails to or out of the junk folder
- Uses RBL (real time black hole lists) to block already known spam senders
- Greylisting only when incoming mail is likely spam
- DKIM message signing
- Quota support
- Notifications when exceeding the quota
- Web management interface to create / remove accounts, domains and aliases
- Support of send only accounts which are not allowed to receive but send mails
- IMAP, POP3 and malware filters can be disabled if they are not used
- FTS (Full-Text Search) support using fts-xapian for fast message searching
- Permanent self testing by Docker's healthcheck feature
- Developed with high quality assurance standards
- Address extension (-)
7- Stalwartlabs imap-server
Stalwart Mail Server is the ultimate Dockerized mail solution, offering JMAP, IMAP, and SMTP in one sleek package—or standalone for flexibility.
For a quick setup: pull the image, configure with a script, and choose your storage (RocksDB is recommended). Enable DKIM, SPF, DMARC, and auto-TLS for rock-solid security.
8- Tvial Docker Mailserver
Tvial Docker Mailserver is a fullstack but simple mail server (SMTP, IMAP, Antispam, Antivirus...). Only configuration files, no SQL database. Keep it simple and versioned. Easy to deploy and upgrade.
9- hardware/ mailserver
hardware/mailserver is a simple and full-featured mail server build as a set of multiple docker images. However, it is important to note it is no longer maintained.
It includes:
- Postfix : a full-set smtp email server
- Dovecot : secure IMAP and POP3 email server
- Rspamd : anti-spam filter with SPF, DKIM, DMARC, ARC, ratelimit and greylisting capabilities
- Clamav : antivirus with automatic updates and third-party signature databases
- Zeyple : automatic GPG encryption of all your emails
- Sieve : email filtering (vacation auto-responder, auto-forward, etc...)
- Fetchmail : fetch emails from external IMAP/POP3 server into local mailbox
- Rainloop : web based email client
- Postfixadmin : web-based administration interface
- Unbound: recursive caching DNS resolver with DNSSEC support
- NSD : authoritative DNS server with DNSSEC support
- Træfik : modern HTTP reverse proxy
- SSL : let's encrypt with auto-renewal (SAN and wildcard certificates), custom and self-signed certificates support
- OpenLDAP : [BETA] ldap support available (only in
1.1-latestfor now) - Supporting multiple virtual domains over MySQL/PostgreSQL backend
- Integration tests with Travis CI
- Automated builds on DockerHub
hardware10- MailDev
MailDev is a simple way to test your project's generated email during development, with an easy to use web interface that runs on your machine built on top of Node.js.
Install easily using Docker
$ docker run -p 1080:1080 -p 1025:1025 maildev/maildev11- Dockerized IMAP server
This Dockerized SMTP/IMAP/POP3 server is a developer’s best friend for debugging and testing email workflows. Built on Postfix and Dovecot, it features a catchall mailbox ([email protected]) to safely capture all incoming emails—perfect for simulating real-world scenarios without spamming users.
Optionally, add custom mailboxes for more control. Set it up effortlessly with docker-compose, configure your email client, and test away! With SSL support and GitLab-CI integration ready to roll, it’s simple, safe, and slick.
virtua-sa12- Dockerised mailserver
A sleek Dockerized mailserver with SMTP, IMAP, and SPF/DKIM/DMARC support. Fully automated setup, auto-renewing certs, Fail2Ban protection, and optional monitoring dashboards—your modern, secure email solution just got cooler!
t-lo
