Mail-in-a-Box vs Mox
| Tagline | Turn any Ubuntu VPS into a complete, self-hosted mail server in one command | Complete, modern self-hosted email server with JMAP, DANE, and built-in junk filtering |
| Category | Email & Newsletters | Email & Newsletters |
| Replaces | Gmail / Google Workspace, Mailchimp, SendGrid | Gmail / Google Workspace, SendGrid, Mailchimp |
| GitHub stars | 15k | 5.7k |
| Language | Shell | Go |
| License | CC0-1.0 | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Manual | Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 25 days ago | 11 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Mail-in-a-Box
- Requires a dedicated Ubuntu VPS with a clean IP reputation; shared hosting is not supported
- No built-in bulk mailing or newsletter campaign tools
- Limited horizontal scalability; single-server architecture only
- Webmail (Roundcube) is functional but far less polished than Gmail's UI
Mox
- No Docker image provided officially; manual binary deployment only
- Not designed for high-volume transactional or bulk email sending
- Admin UI and webmail are functional but lack polish compared to hosted solutions
- Relatively young project; some edge-case RFC compliance gaps may exist
Bottom line
Choose Mail-in-a-Box if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Mail-in-a-Box for the larger community and ecosystem. Mox has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Mail-in-a-Box
Turn any Ubuntu VPS into a complete, self-hosted mail server in one command
Mox
Complete, modern self-hosted email server with JMAP, DANE, and built-in junk filtering