Mail-in-a-Box lets you become your own mail service provider in a few easy steps. It’s sort of like making your own gmail, but one you control from top to bottom.

Technically, Mail-in-a-Box turns a fresh cloud computer into a working mail server. But you don’t need to be a technology expert to set it up.

Here’s how you can get a Mail-in-a-Box running:

Each Mail-in-a-Box provides webmail and an IMAP/SMTP server for use with mobile devices and desktop mail software. It also includes contacts and calendar synchronization.

• Roundcube Webmail
• Nextcloud Contacts
• A Control Panel //

If you are an expert and have a domain name and a completely fresh Ubuntu 18.04 machine running in the cloud, you basically just run on that machine:

curl -s https://mailinabox.email/setup.sh | sudo bash

You will be asked to enter the email address you want and a few other configuration questions. The script will install (and uninstall!) and configure a few dozen Ubuntu packages and the Mail-in-a-Box control panel. Consult the setup guide for complete details. See the README on github for advanced instructions.

Please note that the goal of this project is to provide a simple, turn-key solution. There are basically no configuration options and you can’t tweak the machine’s configuration files after installation. If you are looking for something more advanced, try iRedMail or Modoboa.