Bichon Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

Bichon hosting keeps a private, searchable archive of your email on your own domain. Deploy Bichon 2.1.1 as a self-hosted email archiver: xCloud runs the pinned image as a single container with embedded storage, replaces upstream's published default admin password with a generated one, mounts a persistent volume and publishes it over HTTPS. Bichon archives mail; it does not send or reply to it.

Deploy your Bichon

No terminal
No technical skills needed
No lock-in, cancel anytime

What is Bichon?

Self-hosted Bichon is an email archiver. Its README is explicit that it is an archiver, not an email client: it does not send, compose, forward or reply. It downloads mail from multiple IMAP accounts incrementally, imports EML, MBOX, Thunderbird and Outlook PST data, and offers full-text search, thread grouping, attachment search, tags, content deduplication, an OpenAPI interface and multi-user roles. People use it in place of hosted email archiving services. It is AGPL-3.0 licensed.

On xCloud the template runs the rustmailer/bichon 2.1.1 image as a single container pinned by immutable digest, with embedded storage, so there is no separate database or search service. The bichon_data volume holds messages, the search index, users and encrypted mailbox credentials. HTTPS is published on your domain, and the optional SMTP receiver is off.

From Sign-Up to a Live Email Archive In Just 3 Easy Steps

A self-hosted archive normally means pulling the image, replacing the default admin password, mounting storage, setting up a domain and a certificate before the first message is indexed. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account and pick Bichon from the OneClick catalog. Choose your domain and target server — there are no extra fields to fill in.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We bring up the official Bichon image, pinned by immutable digest, as a single container with embedded storage, mount the bichon_data volume, generate the Admin Password and Encryption Password, and publish it over HTTPS on your domain.
Step 03
Sign In And Add Mail
Save the Admin Password and Encryption Password from the protected installation credentials, open your HTTPS Bichon URL and sign in as admin. Add an IMAP account or import an MBOX, PST or EML file, then create individual users for colleagues.

Everything Bichon Does, On Your Own Server

Bichon runs in full here: an email archive with a web interface and REST API on your own domain, with its data on a volume you own.

IMAP Mailbox Sync
Connect IMAP accounts and let Bichon download their mail into a long-term archive you control.
MBOX, PST And EML Import
Import EML files from the web interface, and MBOX or Outlook PST files with the bichon command-line tool, into the same archive.
Full-Text Search
Search across every archived account from one place instead of opening each mailbox separately.
Web UI And REST API
Use the embedded web interface, or reach archived mail programmatically through the REST API and its documentation pages.
Individual Users
Create separate users for colleagues instead of sharing the admin login, which matters for mailbox contents.
One Container, Embedded Storage
No database or search sidecar to manage: messages, the search index, users and settings live on one persistent volume.

Everything You Need To Run Your Email Archive 24/7

Managed hosting for Bichon, so the parts that keep it online are not your problem.

Bichon 2.1.1 deployed instantly
Official image pinned by digest
Generated admin password
Kept behind xCloud nginx
Free SSL certificate
Server backups and snapshots
Server security updates included
Choose your server region
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With Bichon

Keep a long-term archive of mailboxes
Sync IMAP accounts into one archive so old mail stays searchable even after it is gone from the live mailbox.
Search across several accounts at once
Run one full-text search over every archived account instead of switching between mailboxes.
Bring in existing exports
Import EML files in the web interface, and MBOX or PST files with the command-line tool, and keep them next to your synced mail.
Read archived mail from your own tools
Use the REST API and its documentation pages to reach archived messages programmatically.

Bichon Screenshots

Bichon search results across archived mail

Bichon message view of an archived email

Bichon vs Alternatives

Hosted email archiving services: A hosted service stores your mail with its vendor. Bichon on xCloud keeps the archive on a Cloud VPS you control, in a volume you can copy, with per-user permissions described in its README.
Desktop mail clients such as Thunderbird: A desktop client keeps local copies of mail on one computer. Bichon keeps the archive on a server behind a web interface with separate users, and can import a Thunderbird profile through its command-line tool.
Raw MBOX or PST export files: Export files preserve mail but cannot be searched across accounts on their own. Bichon imports them into one full-text searchable archive with thread grouping and attachment search.
Mailu: Mailu is a full mail server with its own xCloud template that sends and receives mail. Bichon only archives, so it pairs with a mail server like Mailu instead of replacing it.

Simple Pricing. Everything Included.

Dedicated Cloud VPS sizes, pre-configured for Bichon hosting. Pick the one that fits, and resize any time.

Cloud VPS 6 GB

Cloud VPS 16 GB

More headroom if Bichon sits alongside other apps on the same server.

$59.99per month

16 GB RAM
6 vCPU cores
200 GB NVMe SSD
30 TB
Unlimited

Get started

Every size is a dedicated Cloud VPS we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Billed monthly with no lock-in — delete the server and the unused balance comes back to your account. Bichon itself is licensed by its maintainers under AGPL-3.0.

Docker hosting

Already Have a Server? Bring Your Own

Connect any VPS — DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, Hetzner or bare metal — and deploy Bichon on it through the same panel, for a per-server management fee instead of a Cloud VPS rental.

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$3per server / month

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Priced per connected server, so your rate adjusts automatically as you add or remove servers. You pay your own provider for the server itself.

Self-managed hosting

Ready To Run Your Own Email Archive?

Bichon on xCloud runs on a dedicated Cloud VPS that we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Deploy faster. Own the server. Stay in control.

Fast Provisioning
Deploy faster using an xCloud Managed Server built with optimized stacks and high-speed SSDs.
Enterprise-grade security
Protect your infrastructure with a free SSL certificate and more advanced security features at no additional cost.
Intuitive Control Panel
From Server creation to application deployment, everything can be managed from our intuitive control panel.

Hear what people are saying about us

See why agencies, developers, startups, and growing businesses choose xCloud to power their projects.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

How much RAM does Bichon need?

The manifest sets a floor of one core, 512 MB of RAM and 10 GB of disk, with QA measuring about 61 MiB idle. The 6 GB Cloud VPS sold here sits far above that, but plan the disk by your mailbox size, since the archive grows with every message and attachment you keep.

Is Bichon free and open source?

Yes. Bichon is AGPL-3.0 licensed, per the LICENSE file at the 2.1.1 tag, so the software itself carries no price. xCloud's charge is the dedicated Cloud VPS, and the archived messages stay on the bichon_data volume of your own server.

Can you run Bichon with Docker?

Yes, and this is Bichon Docker hosting prepared for you: the template runs the official rustmailer/bichon 2.1.1 image as one container with embedded storage, pinned by immutable digest, with bichon_data mounted and HTTPS in front on your domain. No database or search sidecar comes with it.

Is Bichon an email client?

No. The README states that Bichon is an archiver, not an email client: it does not send, compose, forward or reply to emails. Its optional SMTP server is for receiving only, and that receiver is off here with its port unpublished, so keep your normal mail client or server.

Can Bichon import MBOX, PST and EML files?

Yes, with a split. Per the README, EML files can be imported directly in the web interface, while MBOX files, Thunderbird profiles and Outlook PST files are imported with the bichon-cli command-line tool. Browser uploads are allowed up to about 1100 MB but can be rejected above roughly 100 MB behind Cloudflare.

How does Bichon sync IMAP mailboxes?

It downloads several accounts concurrently with a password or OAuth 2.0, and fetches incrementally by UID, so after the first pass only new messages are downloaded. You can scope a download by date range or folder. The credentials are stored encrypted using your Encryption Password.

Does Bichon support multiple users and roles?

Yes. The README describes five built-in roles plus custom roles with granular permissions, and account-level isolation so a user sees only the accounts granted to them. Create individual users instead of sharing the admin login, because mailbox contents are sensitive.

What is the Bichon encryption password for?

It protects the IMAP and OAuth credentials Bichon stores. Do not change it after the first start: stored mailbox credentials become unreadable and every account has to be added again. Keep a copy with your backups, since a restored volume is useless without it.

What should I back up on a Bichon server?

A backup is the bichon_data volume, which holds the message store, search index, user accounts and encrypted mailbox credentials, plus a copy of the Encryption Password. Stop the container before copying the volume, keep off-server copies and test a restore.

Backups in xCloud

How do I upgrade Bichon?

Nothing upgrades it for you: the template pins 2.1.1 by immutable digest. To upgrade, back up the bichon_data volume, read the upstream release notes, then adopt a newer template version when one is published; do not edit the image tag or digest yourself. Confirm sign-in and a search afterwards.

Is this Bichon cloud hosting?

It is your own archive on a dedicated Cloud VPS provisioned by xCloud, not a hosted archiving service. The container, the volume and the admin account belong to your install, and the API documentation pages list routes only, while the API itself returns 401 without a token.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. There is no lock-in — cancel any time. Hosting is billed monthly and charged for what you actually use, so when you delete the server the unused balance is refunded to your account, less up to 10% in payment-processing fees.