IN THE FIELD GUIDE
stalw
stalw.art
Stalwart is an open-source mail and collaboration server written in Rust, supporting standard protocols like JMAP, IMAP4, POP3, SMTP, CalDAV, CardDAV, and WebDAV. It integrates email, calendars, contacts, and shared files with built-in spam and phishing protection, designed for security, scalability, and ease of operation.
THE PRODUCT, BEYOND THE PITCH
Editorially reviewed · Sources checked Sep 12, 2026
A good fit for
- Organizations seeking a secure, scalable, and easy-to-operate mail and collaboration server with modern and legacy protocol support.
- Teams wanting an all-in-one solution for email, calendars, contacts, and file sharing with integrated spam and phishing protection.
Know the limitations
- Requires root access and outgoing HTTPS connectivity for installation on Linux or MacOS.
- Temporary administrator password is shown only once at startup and must be retrieved from logs for initial setup.
What you can do
Not confirmed yet.
Features
- Supports standard email protocols including JMAP, IMAP, POP3, and SMTP for delivery.
- Includes calendars, contacts, and shared files with standard CalDAV, CardDAV, WebDAV, and JMAP equivalents.
- Built-in spam and phishing protection using statistical filters, public blocklists, sender reputation, and AI-driven analysis without extra daemons.
- Runs as a single node or as a cluster across regions with memory-safe Rust implementation, encrypted mailboxes, automatic TLS, and end-to-end transport security.
- SMTP server authenticates senders with DKIM, SPF, DMARC, ARC, queues across cluster, and routes per domain without separate relay tier.
Integrations
- Supports authentication via built-in directory, LDAP, Active Directory, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and SQL directories.
- Full-text search can be internal or delegated to Meilisearch, Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, PostgreSQL, or MySQL/MariaDB.
- Cluster coordination can be coordinator-less with peer-to-peer Zenoh or use Apache Kafka, Redpanda, NATS, or Redis.
- Automated DNS publishing supports Cloudflare, AWS Route 53, Google Cloud DNS, Azure DNS, DigitalOcean, OVH, Bunny DNS, Porkbun, DNSimple, Spaceship, deSEC, and RFC 2136 dynamic updates.
- Built-in spam filtering plus integration with SpamAssassin, RSPAMD, Pyzor, and DNSBL providers via Milter or MTA Hooks.
Platforms & data export
Not confirmed yet.
THE COST FOR YOUR TEAM
Go beyond the starting price.
Published plan prices for your team size and usage. Results update as you type. Taxes, currency conversion and unlisted add-ons are excluded, and anything the source did not state is called out rather than guessed.
Known monthly subtotal
$0.00/month
1 of 1 tools could not be priced with these inputs, so this is not the full cost.
| Tool / plan | Monthly | Per year | What this assumes |
|---|---|---|---|
| No pricing recorded yet. Check the official site, or ask the owner to add it. | |||
A practical workflow
- Install by running a script that downloads the latest release, creates a service account, installs the binary, writes a service unit, enables and starts the daemon.
- Retrieve the temporary administrator credentials from system logs after first start to access the setup wizard.
Based on the sources below. Editorial review does not imply hands-on product testing.
Alternatives to explore
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