Wanted to share a real-world self-hosting story since this sub is where I'd have looked for one before starting.
Before: IceWarp, 10,000 mailboxes, ~$70k/year in licensing. After: Self-hosted Stalwart Mail Server (open source), same user count, under $4k/year in infrastructure cost. Full data residency, no foreign cloud dependency.
Why Stalwart specifically: JMAP support instead of being stuck with legacy IMAP, a built-in admin panel that was good enough we didn't need to build our own, and it's actively developed.
What we added on top:
- SMS one-time-password login (and 2FA) — mattered more for adoption at this scale than any webmail feature.
- Opt-in email-to-SMS notifications.
What I'd do differently: migrate department-by-department instead of all at once — we caught a couple of DNS/DKIM issues on a small group instead of on all 10k users at once.
Full write-up with more detail: https://fanpino.com/en/projects/lorestan-university
(Full disclosure: we're the company that did this migration, sharing because it's a genuinely useful data point for anyone considering the same move — happy to answer technical questions either way.)
Source: r/selfhosted · by /u/hamzezn