The Stalwart mail server is really starting to make waves. Why do I say that? Well, even though the project is only about two years old, it’s already built up a solid following among self-hosting enthusiasts. If you’re unfamiliar with it, let me give you a quick rundown.
It is a free and open-source all-in-one mail server solution written in Rust that features support for JMAP, IMAP4, POP3, and SMTP and is designed to be secure, fast, robust, and scalable. The best part? All its administration happens through a convenient web-based UI. And now, Stalwart is ready to take the next big step in its journey.
Thanks to a new grant from the NLnet Foundation and the European Commission’s Next Generation Internet program, the team behind Stalwart is set to expand its open-source platform beyond email hosting – get ready for Stalwart Collaboration Server.
The funding is dedicated to building a privacy-focused, fully integrated collaboration environment complete with calendaring, contact management, and file-sharing features. Yeah, it definitely sounds like a direct alternative to Microsoft Exchange—it seems to have everything in place to become one.
So, users seeking a modern and scalable collaboration suite fully under their control—without sacrificing important features like security—will likely find this development extremely appealing. When will this become a reality? We won’t wait long. Thanks to this new grant, the Stalwart team will roll out these new capabilities under the AGPL-3.0 license over the year.
On the technical side, among the highlights is a fully integrated CalDAV and CardDAV server, eliminating the need for external software when managing calendars and contacts.
In addition, Stalwart’s existing JMAP implementation will be upgraded to support JMAP for Calendars and JMAP for Contacts, which involves building parsers for JSCalendar and JSContact and developing converters between JSCalendar/iCalendar and JSContact/vCard.
File sharing also takes center stage with plans for a WebDAV-based storage system built upon Stalwart’s internal blob store. From a technical perspective, this approach will enable seamless uploading, organizing, and sharing of files via standard WebDAV clients or JMAP-based applications.
Finally, I’ll just add that one clear sign of the platform’s growing impact is Nextcloud’s announcement of a joint collaboration with Stalwart. Together, they will offer a version of Nextcloud Groupware bundled with the Stalwart Mail Server. So, the future looks bright for this seld-hosted alternative offering a full-featured email solution.
As always, we’ll monitor its development and update you when the Stalwart Collaboration Server becomes a reality. For more information, see the official announcement.
