# Stalwart Mail Server review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Open-source mail and collaboration server written in Rust Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. 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. - **Category:** Email Apps - **Made by:** Stalwart Labs - **Website:** https://stalw.art - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you want a hosted service, as the cloud edition is listed for 2027. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## 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). - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **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 | $2.40 per 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 https://stalw.art/pricing on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Stalwart Mail Server before buying. ## 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. ## Good for - Self-hosters who want one program instead of a separate MTA, spam filter and calendar server - Hosting providers needing multi-tenant mail with per-tenant branding - Organizations that want a per-mailbox license on their own infrastructure ## 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. 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. - **Value for money: C.** Community 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. - **Free plan and trial: B.** The full server is free to run under the AGPL, plus a 30-day trial of Enterprise. You need your own server. - **Features: B.** Mail and collaboration in one server, with spam filtering, encryption at rest and clustering. The listing shows no gap in the job. - **Ease of use: D.** You install, configure and update the server yourself, in either edition. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** A web admin and standard protocols, with Sieve, LDAP and OpenID Connect. No apps of its own. These are ToolGPA's own grades. 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. ## Where it 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. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/email ## Keep it, 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. - You could make: Calendar: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: An email client: sending, receiving, threading and searching years of mail. - You could not: Storing and serving files for other people. - You could not: Reading the reports inbox providers send about your domain. - You could not: Sharing with other people, which means accounts and invitations. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Sieve, ACME, LDAP, OpenID Connect **Tags:** Open source, Self-hostable, Email client, Calendar, File sharing, DMARC ## Alternatives - [mailcow](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailcow): Dockerized open-source mail server with a web admin UI. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mailcow-vs-stalwart) - [Mailu](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailu): Free Docker-based mail server with webmail and admin UI. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mailu-vs-stalwart) - [docker-mailserver](https://toolgpa.com/tools/docker-mailserver): Self-hosted mail server packaged as a Docker container. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/docker-mailserver-vs-stalwart) - [Modoboa](https://toolgpa.com/tools/modoboa): Open-source mail server with a web admin panel and webmail. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/modoboa-vs-stalwart) - [iRedMail](https://toolgpa.com/tools/iredmail): Open-source mail server installer for Linux and BSD. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/iredmail-vs-stalwart) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://stalw.art/ - https://stalw.art/pricing - https://stalw.art/compare - https://stalw.art/cloud - https://stalw.art/enterprise Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/stalwart Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).