Mailu Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

Mailu hosting on xCloud gives you a self-hosted mail server for your own domain, with SMTP, IMAP, Roundcube webmail, the Rspamd spam filter and an admin console. Deploy Mailu from the OneClick catalog and xCloud starts the pinned 2024.06.61 multi-container stack, creates the first administrator mailbox, mounts eight volumes and requests a certificate for your hostname. You add the DNS records, free ports 25, 465, 587 and 993, and test deliverability yourself.

Deploy your Mailu

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

What is Mailu?

Mailu is, in its README's words, a simple yet full-featured mail server as a set of Docker images, free software that aims to be easy to set up and maintain without shipping proprietary software. Its features include IMAP, SMTP and submission, aliases and domain aliases, webmail and an administration interface, DKIM signing, SPF and DMARC, Rspamd antispam with greylisting, Let's Encrypt and no tracker. Self-hosted Mailu is mail you run yourself instead of renting a hosted service such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. It is licensed under MIT.

Deployed on xCloud, this template starts Mailu 2024.06.61 as a pinned set of digest-pinned containers: the nginx mail proxy, admin console, Dovecot, Postfix, Rspamd, Redis, Roundcube and Mailu's own DNS resolver. The first start takes several minutes while a certificate is requested. It publishes ports 25, 465, 587 and 993, so only one Mailu fits per server, and outbound deliverability was not verified.

From Sign-Up to a Live Mail Server In Just 3 Easy Steps

A Mailu install normally means eight containers, a certificate for the mail hostname, an administrator bootstrap, persistent volumes and the right published ports before the first mailbox can exist. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account and pick Mailu from the OneClick catalog. Choose your domain and server, point that hostname at the server as a DNS-only record, and enter your Mail Domain. The administrator name defaults to admin and the password is generated if you leave it empty.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We bring up the pinned Mailu stack (front, admin, imap, smtp, antispam, webmail, redis and a resolver), mount the eight mailu_ volumes, publish TCP 25, 465, 587 and 993, request a Let's Encrypt certificate for the hostname and serve the admin console and webmail over HTTPS.
Step 03
Sign In And Create Mailboxes
Allow about 3 to 6 minutes for the first start and certificate issue. Open the HTTPS URL at /admin or /webmail, sign in with the generated administrator login, create your mailboxes, then add the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records for the mail domain.

Everything Mailu Does, On Your Own Server

Mailu runs in full here: a complete mail stack with its web interfaces, on a domain and a server you control.

SMTP, IMAP And Submission
Host email for your own domain on the standard mail ports, with auto-configuration profiles for clients.
Admin Console
Manage domains, mailboxes and aliases from the Mailu admin console at /admin.
Roundcube Webmail
Read and send mail in the built-in Roundcube webmail at /webmail; setting WEBMAIL to snappymail switches the client.
Spam Filtering
Antispam with auto-learn, greylisting, DMARC and SPF checks, handled by the bundled Rspamd component.
DKIM And TLS
Outgoing DKIM signing and a Let's Encrypt certificate for the hostname, with the signing keys kept on their own volume.
Aliases And Delegation
Upstream lists aliases, domain aliases, auto-reply, auto-forward, quotas and per-domain delegation for admins.

Everything You Need To Run Your Own Mail 24/7

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

Mailu 2024.06.61 deployed in one click
Webmail and admin console included
Administrator password generated
Eight persistent volumes
Free SSL certificate
Server backups and snapshots
Server security updates included
30+ server locations
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With Mailu

Run mail for your own domain
You create mailboxes and aliases for your domain and read mail in webmail or any IMAP client, on a server you control.
Keep email off a hosted workspace
A small organisation that does not want its mail with a large provider keeps messages in volumes on its own server.
Manage several domains
An administrator adds more mail domains and per-domain delegation in the admin console as the organisation grows.
Filter spam on your own terms
Rspamd scores incoming mail with auto-learn, greylisting, DMARC and SPF checks that you can tune.

Mailu Screenshots

Mailu admin console user list showing created mailboxes

Mailu Roundcube webmail showing a sent message

Mailu vs Alternatives

Google Workspace: Google Workspace is a hosted mail and productivity suite. Mailu provides mail, webmail and an admin console on a server you run, with your own DNS and certificates.
Microsoft 365: Microsoft 365 is a hosted mail and office suite. Mailu is a self-hosted mail server, with your own DNS, certificates and deliverability to look after.
Roundcube: Roundcube is a separate webmail client with its own OneClick page. Mailu already ships Roundcube as its webmail, so a standalone Roundcube suits an existing mail server.
SnappyMail: SnappyMail is a separate webmail client with its own OneClick page. Use it in front of an IMAP server you already have, instead of a full mail stack like Mailu.

Simple Pricing. Everything Included.

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

Cloud VPS 6 GB

Cloud VPS 16 GB

More room for mail storage and larger mailbox counts.

$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. Mailu itself is licensed by its maintainers under MIT.

Docker hosting

Already Have a Server? Bring Your Own

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

Free

Start your journey without cost.

$0forever

1 server
10 sites

Start free

Starter

Professional

The same platform, discounted at 6–10 servers.

$4per server / month

6–10 servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

Get started

Agency

The same platform, discounted at 11+ servers.

$3per server / month

11+ servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

Get started

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 Mail Server?

Mailu 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

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Frequently Asked Questions

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

Is Mailu free?

Yes. Mailu is free software under the MIT licence, and the licence file is linked from here at the pinned 2024.06.61 tag. xCloud bills for the Cloud VPS under it, not for Mailu, and there is no per-mailbox fee. You still need a domain, and a provider that allows mail ports.

Can you self-host Mailu with Docker?

Yes, and this Mailu Docker hosting template does it for you: the official Mailu images, pinned by digest, run together on your own server with the mail ports published and HTTPS in front of the admin console and webmail. It is not a Mailu cloud account, so mail stays with you.

How much RAM does Mailu need?

The floor in the manifest for Mailu is 2048 MB of RAM, because eight containers run together, including the spam filter and the resolver. Mailbox size and mail volume grow the volumes. The entry 6 GB tier sold on this page is well beyond that.

Does Mailu include webmail?

Yes. This template ships Roundcube webmail alongside the admin console, both behind HTTPS on your site domain, and you can also use any IMAP client on port 993. It does not ship antivirus, calendar and contacts, fetchmail or attachment-indexing containers.

How do I sign in to Mailu for the first time?

Open /admin or /webmail and sign in with the administrator mailbox, which is the name you chose at install at your mail domain, and the generated password. The first start takes about three to six minutes, and the site shows an error page until the services and certificate are ready.

Can I use a Cloudflare-proxied hostname with Mailu?

Not for mail clients. The hostname must resolve straight to the server, DNS only, because proxied hostnames make ports 465, 587 and 993 time out. Use a DNS-only record, or point a separate DNS-only name at the server and use it as the mail server in your clients.

Why is outgoing Mailu mail not arriving?

Many hosting providers block outbound port 25, so set RELAYHOST in the Environment editor to relay outgoing mail. Outbound deliverability, SPF, DKIM, DMARC records, MX reachability and port-25 egress were not verified, so test them in your own environment before you rely on it for production mail.

What DNS records does Mailu need?

An MX record pointing at your site's domain, an SPF TXT record, the DKIM and DMARC records shown in the admin console under the domain's details, and a reverse DNS PTR record for the server IP matching the hostname. Without them, other servers may reject or spam-filter your mail.

Can failed sign-ins lock Mailu users out?

Sign-ins through the platform proxy share one failed-sign-in counter, so repeated failures can pause web sign-in for all users for up to an hour. Mail clients connect directly and are counted separately. The admin console is reachable by anyone who can reach the site.

How do I back up Mailu?

Back up all the Mailu volumes together: mailu_mail holds the mailboxes, mailu_dkim the signing keys, mailu_data the admin database, plus the queue, filter, certificates and webmail volumes, and keep SECRET_KEY. Stop the stack for a consistent copy and test a restore.

Backup and restore Docker apps

How do I upgrade Mailu?

Catalog updates do not touch a running 2024.06.61 install, and you pick the moment to adopt a newer template version. Back up every volume and keep SECRET_KEY first, then read the upstream upgrade notes. Afterwards, send and receive a test message.

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.