Dovecot
An open-source IMAP and POP3 server that stores mailboxes and serves them to mail clients.
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1 more ways to get Dovecot
Package managers
- Homebrew
brew install dovecot
About Dovecot
Dovecot Community Edition is an open-source mail server that stores mailboxes and serves them over IMAP and POP3. It is often paired with a mail transfer agent such as Postfix, and Pigeonhole adds Sieve filtering. The project has been releasing since 2002, with a new release in August 2026.
A commercial Dovecot Pro edition adds support and high-availability features for service providers. The community edition suits anyone building their own mail server.
Strengths
- Very widely deployed
- Standards-compliant IMAP and POP3
- Sieve filtering through Pigeonhole
- Actively released
Limitations
- Handles mailbox access only; needs a separate MTA for sending
- Configuration takes mail server experience
Details
- Pricing
- FreeCommunity Edition is free and open source; Dovecot Pro is a paid commercial product.
- License
- Open source, license not stated
- Developer
- The Dovecot contributors
- Platforms
- Linux, Self-hosted
- How it runs
- Self-hosted
- Account
- Not required
- Best suited for
- Administrators building a mail server who need mailbox storage and IMAP access
- Categories
- Email clients, IT administration
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.
Alternatives to Dovecot
Compare allSoftware that can replace Dovecot for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
Cyrus IMAP
An open-source email, contacts and calendar server with IMAP, JMAP, CalDAV and CardDAV support.
Cyrus IMAP also serves mailboxes over IMAP and adds JMAP, CalDAV and CardDAV, though it is more complex to configure.
Mox
An all-in-one open-source mail server for low-maintenance self-hosted email.
Mox combines IMAP with SMTP and webmail in one program, removing the need for a separate MTA, but is younger and less widely deployed.
Mailu
A full-featured self-hosted mail server delivered as a set of Docker images.
Mailu replaces a hand-built IMAP setup with a complete Docker mail server including webmail, admin interface and antispam.
docker-mailserver
A complete mail server with SMTP, IMAP, antispam and antivirus, packaged as a single container.
docker-mailserver packages IMAP, SMTP, antispam and antivirus in a single container, but offers no webmail or graphical admin interface.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.