Mox alternative.
For when it's not just your inbox anymore.
Mox is a genuinely lovely single-binary mail server — perfect for one person, one domain, run-and-forget. Vectis Mail is what you reach for when email becomes infrastructure: sending on behalf of an app, hosting mail for clients, warming a dedicated IP, answering to customers. Same modern ideas — built for the multi-tenant, production case, with the deliverability tooling and the support line that case demands.
At a glance
What changes when email stops being personal and starts being infrastructure. Current as of June 2026.
| Vectis Mail | Mox | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Multi-tenant platform — apps, agencies, many domains | Single-operator personal / small server |
| Multi-tenant + RBAC | Role-based access · domain-scoped API keys · React admin | Multiple domains; no real multi-tenant model |
| Transactional sending | API keys · per-domain rate limits · delivery analytics | webapi (HTTP send) + delivery webhooks |
| Deliverability tooling | 30-day IP warmup · RBL monitoring · per-domain analytics | Reputation tracking; no warmup scheduler |
| Antispam + antivirus | Full Rspamd + ClamAV | Built-in reputation + per-user Bayesian |
| Updates | Atomic 6-phase orchestrator — auto-rollback on failure | Replace the binary + restart |
| Backups + observability | Scheduled backup/restore · built-in metrics + health alerts | Bring your own |
| Support | Pro $39/tenant/mo · Enterprise from $499 with response SLA | Community — one maintainer |
| Webmail | Roundcube bundled | Built-in webmail |
| Transport security | TLS 1.2+ · SPF/DKIM/DMARC | + DANE · MTA-STS · DNSSEC · REQUIRETLS |
| Footprint + licence | Container stack · BSL 1.1 → Apache 2.0 after 4y | One binary, zero deps · MIT |
Mox's single-binary simplicity, MIT licence and DANE/MTA-STS support are real strengths for a personal server — we cover where they matter. If you're sending for an app or a roster of clients, the top of this table is the list that decides it.
The verdict
Choose Vectis Mail when…
- An application sends email on your behalf, or you host mail for more than one domain or customer.
- You need multi-tenant RBAC and an API key scoped to each customer's domain.
- Inbox placement is mission-critical and you want Rspamd + ClamAV, a real IP-warmup ramp, and per-domain deliverability analytics.
- You want updates that snapshot and roll themselves back, scheduled backups, and built-in monitoring.
- You need a vendor and a response SLA — someone to call — not a single-maintainer community project.
Mox is the better buy when…
- It's genuinely just your own personal email — one person, a domain or two — and it always will be.
- You want the smallest possible thing to run: one MIT-licensed binary, upgraded by replacing the file.
The moment an app starts sending through it, or you add a second customer, you're running a platform — and that's a different job.
How they differ
Mox can send email. Vectis runs your sending operation.
Credit where it's due: Mox isn't just SMTP and IMAP. It ships a webapi for sending over HTTP and delivery webhooks — more than most minimal servers bother with. So "self-hosted transactional email" isn't where we separate.
Where we separate is everything around the send. The day a real application depends on your email, you need a key you can scope and rotate per customer, rate limits so one tenant can't torch a shared IP, analytics to see what's bouncing and why, and a warmup ramp so a fresh IP doesn't get you blocked in week one. That's the difference between an endpoint that sends a message and a platform that runs your sending — and it's the line Vectis Mail is built on.
The day you add a second customer
Mox is designed around one operator running their own server. It can hold multiple domains, but there's no real multi-tenant model — no role-based access, no per-customer API key, no per-domain analytics or spam policy. Vectis Mail treats multi-tenancy as the point: RBAC, domain-scoped keys, per-domain controls, and a React admin built to manage many domains and mailboxes at once. If you're an agency or a SaaS, that's not a nice-to-have — it's the whole job.
DANE is real — but deliverability wins the inbox
Let's be straight: Mox's modern transport security is excellent and ahead of us. DANE, MTA-STS, DNSSEC and REQUIRETLS are first-class, and if downgrade-resistant SMTP is central to your threat model, weigh that honestly.
But for almost every sender, that's not what decides whether mail lands. Inbox placement is won on SPF, DKIM, DMARC, a clean IP, careful warmup and reputation monitoring — and that's exactly where Vectis Mail concentrates: full Rspamd, ClamAV antivirus, a 30-day warmup schedule, RBL monitoring, and per-domain deliverability analytics. DANE hardens how your mail travels; deliverability tooling decides whether it arrives. For a sending platform, the second one moves the revenue.
Who do you call?
Mox is the work of one excellent maintainer — which is part of its charm and, for a business, part of the risk. When production mail is down and your customers aren't getting password resets, "open a GitHub issue" is not an incident response. Vectis Mail has a company behind it and a response SLA on the Enterprise tier, with priority support on Pro. You're buying not just the software but someone who is accountable when it matters.
Migrating from Mox to Vectis Mail
Both expose IMAP, so mailbox data moves with standard tooling:
- Stand up Vectis Mail on a fresh VPS via the installation guide, DNS still on Mox.
- Sync mailboxes with
imapsyncfrom Mox's IMAP to Vectis Mail's Dovecot IMAP. - Generate new DKIM keys on Vectis Mail and publish alongside the existing ones; run both in parallel during cutover.
- Re-point your app from Mox's webapi to the Vectis sending API — issue a domain-scoped key, update the endpoint and payload.
- Cut DNS over: switch MX to Vectis Mail. If you published DANE (TLSA) or MTA-STS records for Mox, review or remove them as part of the switch.
- Verify + decommission after a few clean days.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between Mox and Vectis Mail?
Scale and scope. Mox is a beautifully simple single Go binary built for low-maintenance personal email — one person, one domain, minimal moving parts. Vectis Mail is a multi-tenant platform for when email becomes infrastructure: sending on behalf of an app, hosting mail for many domains or clients, warming a dedicated IP, with RBAC, domain-scoped API keys, per-domain analytics, Rspamd + ClamAV, atomic updates with rollback, and a support SLA. Mox is where you start; Vectis is where you go when one mailbox becomes a mail operation.
Does Mox have a transactional email API?
Yes — Mox ships a webapi for sending over HTTP plus delivery webhooks, which is more than most minimal servers offer. The difference is everything around the API. Vectis Mail wraps sending in domain-scoped keys, per-domain rate limits and delivery analytics, multi-tenant RBAC, and IP-warmup tracking — the machinery you need the moment you're sending for more than yourself. Mox can send email; Vectis runs your sending operation.
Is Mox more secure than Vectis Mail?
Mox is ahead on modern SMTP transport security — DANE, MTA-STS, DNSSEC and REQUIRETLS are first-class, a genuine strength. But weigh what actually determines whether your mail reaches the inbox: SPF, DKIM, DMARC, a clean IP, careful warmup and reputation monitoring. That's the game for nearly every sender, and it's exactly where Vectis Mail invests — full Rspamd, ClamAV, a 30-day warmup ramp, RBL monitoring and per-domain deliverability analytics. DANE hardens the transport; deliverability wins the inbox.
Is Mox a good fit for multi-tenant or SaaS email?
Mox can host multiple domains, but it's designed around a single operator running their own server — there's no real multi-tenant model. Vectis Mail is built for exactly that case: RBAC, an API key scoped per customer domain, per-domain analytics and spam controls, IP-warmup tracking, and a React admin UI to manage it all. If you're sending for an app or running mail for clients, that's the line where you've outgrown Mox.
When is Mox the right choice over Vectis Mail?
When it's genuinely just your own personal email and always will be: one person, one or two domains, no app sending on your behalf, no customers, and you want the smallest possible thing to run — one MIT-licensed binary you upgrade by replacing the file. Mox is excellent at that, and its permissive licence is a real plus there. The moment an application starts sending through it, or you add a second customer, you're running a platform — and that's what Vectis Mail is for.
Try Vectis Mail
The multi-tenant mail platform, on your own VPS. Free to start, no per-email pricing.
Other Vectis Mail alternatives
Coming from a different stack? Read the comparison that matches it.
vs Stalwart →
The from-scratch Rust all-in-one vs the proven stack with a transactional API and a support SLA.
vs Mailcow →
Same Postfix/Dovecot/Rspamd stack, modern surface: declarative YAML, REST API, atomic updates.
vs SendGrid →
Same API surface, no per-email pricing. Flat pricing covers unlimited sending volume.
vs Postmark →
Flat self-host pricing vs the developer-loved transactional SaaS. Same API, mailboxes included.