wildduck
Scalable no-SPOF IMAP/POP3 mail server.
Maintained, but at a slower pace than the leaders in its category.
Commit activity more than 44% of tracked projects; popularity more than 50%. How this is calculated.
Commits, last 11 months
| Stars | 2.1k |
|---|---|
| Latest release | v1.51.3 · 22 Sept 2026 |
| Repo updated | 27 Sept 2026 |
| Licence | EUPL-1.2 |
| Built with | Nodejs, Docker |
Is wildduck actively maintained?
Development is ongoing. The repository recorded 207 commits over the same window, and the last three months alone account for 45 of them.
The most recent tagged release, v1.51.3, shipped within the last month — a current, installable version exists today.
wildduck ranks #10 of 18 in Communication - Email - Complete Solutions, placing it mid-table for maintenance activity.
What wildduck actually does
Wildduck is a mail server implementation providing IMAP and POP3 protocols designed to avoid single points of failure. Written in JavaScript for the Node.js runtime, it aims to handle horizontal scaling for email delivery and storage. It is distributed under the EUPL-1.2 open source licence.
Best fit: Self-hosters and system administrators looking to run a scalable mail delivery infrastructure using a JavaScript-centric stack.
Worth knowing: Email server deployment involves complex configuration around DNS, SPF, DKIM, and reputation management, which creates a high operational burden regardless of the software used. It also has a smaller community and fewer integrations compared to traditional mail transfer agents like Postfix or Dovecot.
Deployment notes
Because it runs on Node.js and is packaged for Docker, you will typically need to configure persistent volumes for data storage and place a reverse proxy in front for handling TLS termination.
Links
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