Stalwart Mail Server review (2026): is the free plan enough?
Open-source mail and collaboration server written in Rust
Black Friday: is there a Stalwart Mail Server sale?
Stalwart Mail Server report card
Fair · out of 4.0 · graded Nov 13, 2026
Best for a mail and collaboration server in Rust
Stalwart is an open-source mail and collaboration server. The Community edition is free to run yourself, and Enterprise costs $2.40 a mailbox a year with a 25-mailbox minimum. You run and update it either way, and the hosted service is not out until 2027.
Who Stalwart Mail Server is for
- Fits if you run mail for a company and want a modern single-binary server
- Works for admins who want multi-tenancy and are fine paying per mailbox
Who Stalwart Mail Server is not for
- Skip it if you want a hosted service, as the cloud edition is listed for 2027
- Not for you if you have fewer than 25 mailboxes on Enterprise
- Skip it if you don't want to run and update a server
- Watch out: the monthly-billing rate isn't shown and prices switch between euros and dollars
Why Stalwart Mail Server gets a 2.2
Five grades, each with its reason. The GPA is their average: an A is 4 points, an F is none.
- CValue for moneyCommunity is free if you host it. Enterprise is $2.40 a mailbox a year, but you pay for at least 25 mailboxes, which is $60 a year.
- BFree plan and trialThe full server is free to run under the AGPL, plus a 30-day trial of Enterprise. You need your own server.
- BFeaturesMail and collaboration in one server, with spam filtering, encryption at rest and clustering. The listing shows no gap in the job.
- DEase of useYou install, configure and update the server yourself, in either edition.
- CPlatforms and integrationsA web admin and standard protocols, with Sieve, LDAP and OpenID Connect. No apps of its own.
What these grades rest on. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Stalwart Labs's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. How we review and grade.
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<a href="https://toolgpa.com/tools/stalwart#review"><img src="https://toolgpa.com/badge/stalwart.svg" alt="Stalwart Mail Server: 2.2 GPA on ToolGPA" width="196" height="56"></a>Where Stalwart Mail Server stands among email apps
Stalwart Mail Server's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 29 of the 122 other email apps we grade, and level with 24.
It stands best on features (B, above 79 of 122) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0).
Its paid plans start at $0.20 a month when paid by the year, against a middle price of $4.92 for the category: 0 of the 76 others that charge start lower.
On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.0 out of 4. 12 tools score higher and cost less.
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 123 email apps we grade, cut by the letter each got. Stalwart Mail Server’s own letter is outlined.
- CValue for moneyAbove 13 of 122, level with 53
- BFree plan and trialAbove 69 of 122, level with 27
- BFeaturesAbove 79 of 122, level with 43
- DEase of useAbove 0 of 122, level with 19
- CPlatforms and integrationsAbove 10 of 122, level with 46
Price against what you get
Each dot is one of 107 email apps. Further left costs less, and higher up scores better on features, ease of use and platforms. Point at a dot to see which tool it is.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Keep Stalwart Mail Server, or make your own?
Keep it
To replace Stalwart Mail Server you would be making an email client: sending, receiving, threading and searching years of mail. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.
That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 69 of the 122 other email apps grade higher. It costs $2.40 a year. Stalwart Mail Server is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself.
What you could make
- Calendar: an app builder makes this well.
What you could not
- An email client: sending, receiving, threading and searching years of mail.
- Storing and serving files for other people.
- Reading the reports inbox providers send about your domain.
- Sharing with other people, which means accounts and invitations.
- The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.
What this rests on. Stalwart Mail Server’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
What is Stalwart Mail Server?
Stalwart is a single server that handles email, calendars, contacts and shared files, with spam and phishing filtering built in. It speaks JMAP, IMAP, POP3, SMTP, CalDAV, CardDAV and WebDAV. A free Community edition is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and a paid Enterprise edition adds multi-tenancy, branding and archiving.
Worth knowing
- Prices are shown in euros or dollars through a toggle; billing can be annual or monthly, and the monthly rate is not shown.
- Enterprise has a 25-mailbox minimum, and deployments above 100,000 mailboxes are quoted.
- Stalwart Enterprise Cloud, the hosted service, is listed as available in 2027, with interest registration only.
- You run and update the server yourself in either edition.
Key features
- Mail and collaboration in one server
- JMAP, IMAP and POP3 for mail, SMTP for delivery, plus calendars, contacts and file storage over CalDAV, CardDAV and WebDAV.
- Built-in spam and phishing filtering
- A statistical classifier, public blocklists, sender reputation and AI-driven analysis run inside the server.
- Sender authentication and transport security
- Handles DKIM, SPF, DMARC and ARC, plus DANE, MTA-STS and TLS reporting, with automatic certificate renewal over ACME.
- Encryption at rest
- Mailboxes can be encrypted with the user's own S/MIME certificate or OpenPGP key.
- Clustering
- Runs as a single node or as a cluster across regions.
- Enterprise multi-tenancy
- The Enterprise edition isolates tenants with their own accounts, domains, quotas and branding, for hosting many customers.
Stalwart Mail Server pricing
As of Nov 13, 2026, Stalwart Mail Server has a free plan, and paid plans start at $2.40 per mailbox / year, billed annually (25-mailbox minimum).
- Starts at
- $2.40 per mailbox / year, billed annually (25-mailbox minimum)
- Free plan
- Community edition: the full mail server under AGPL-3.0, free to run on your own infrastructure.
- Free trial
- 30-day trial of the Enterprise edition with full access to Enterprise features.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Community | $0 | Free AGPL-3.0 edition you host yourself, with the same protocols and core mail features as Enterprise. |
| Enterprise | $2.40per mailbox / year, billed annually, 25 to 499 mailboxes | Adds multi-tenancy, branding, archiving and telemetry. Rate falls to $2.04 at 500 and $1.74 at 1,000 mailboxes. |
Read from stalw.art on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Stalwart Mail Server before you buy.
Works with
- Sieve
- ACME
- LDAP
- OpenID Connect
Stalwart Mail Server alternatives
- Stalwart Mail Server vs iRedMail
Free plan · from $499/yr
Common questions
Does Stalwart Mail Server have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 13, 2026. Stalwart Mail Server is listed for Web.
Does Stalwart Mail Server have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 13, 2026. Stalwart Mail Server is listed for Web.
Is Stalwart Mail Server open source?
Yes. Stalwart Mail Server is open source, according to its own site. It can also be run on a server of your own.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026.