SnappyMail

Last reviewed Sep 13, 2026 · 741 words

RainLoop stopped getting security fixes and SnappyMail is where its users went. The fork started in 2021, rewrote large parts of the front end, patched the holes RainLoop left open, and kept the thing people liked: a webmail that runs in 128 MB, needs no database, and feels like a desktop mail app rather than a 2009 PHP form. If you run a mail server and want a web interface that non-technical relatives will not complain about, this is the shortlist, and it is a short one.

It's a client, so the hard part is still yours

SnappyMail sends and receives nothing on its own. It talks IMAP and SMTP to a mail server you already have, whether that is Docker Mailserver, Mailu, a hosted mailbox at Fastmail or a Gmail account with an app password. If you have not built that half yet, read self-hosted email, honestly first, because the webmail is the easy 10 percent of the project and the deliverability fight is the other 90.

Zero database, one admin panel, five minutes

Configuration lives in files under the data directory, and contacts are optional, so a plain install has no database at all. The container is the quickest route:

services:
  snappymail:
    image: djmaze/snappymail:latest
    ports:
      - "8888:8888"
    volumes:
      - ./data:/var/lib/snappymail
    restart: unless-stopped

The admin panel is at /?admin, the user is admin, and the generated password is in data/_data_/_default_/admin_password.txt. Log in, change it, then add a domain: the IMAP host and port, the SMTP host and port, and whether to use STARTTLS or TLS. That is the whole install, and it takes less time than reading this section. Put it behind a reverse proxy with a certificate before anyone types a mailbox password into it.

If you want the address book, point the contacts setting at a SQLite file or an existing MySQL or Postgres, and it will also sync with CardDAV, which is how it shares contacts with Nextcloud.

Multi-domain and multi-account is where it beats the rest for families

Each configured domain maps to its own IMAP and SMTP servers, and users log in with a full address, so one SnappyMail instance can front a self-hosted domain, a grandparent's ISP mailbox and a work account with no per-user setup. Inside the client, one person can add several accounts and switch between them. For a household with four people and six mailboxes across three providers, that is the difference between one bookmark and a support job. Roundcube can do multi-account through plugins; SnappyMail does it in the settings screen.

Plugins exist, but Roundcube has more

There is a plugin manager in the admin panel with the ones that matter: two-factor authentication, LDAP address books, a Nextcloud integration that embeds the client inside Nextcloud, and login helpers for various auth setups. Beyond that the catalogue thins out. Roundcube has a decade's head start and a plugin for nearly every workflow, including calendar and managesieve filter editing, and it is the bigger project by a wide margin. SnappyMail does have a built-in sieve filter editor, so server-side rules on Dovecot are covered; it is the long tail of exotic plugins where Roundcube wins.

Security posture: the RainLoop lesson

The reason this fork exists is a lesson worth applying. Webmail is a PHP application that holds mailbox credentials in session and renders HTML from strangers, which is the most attacked shape of software on the internet. SnappyMail's maintainer has been diligent about content security policies and sanitising HTML mail, but you should still run it as a low-privilege PHP process, keep it updated on the same monthly cadence as everything else, and never leave the admin panel reachable from the internet once you have configured it. The email category has the surrounding pieces.

What I'd do

SnappyMail in the container, behind Caddy with a real certificate, admin panel disabled after setup, two-factor plugin on. Domains configured for every mailbox the household uses so everyone shares one URL. If you need calendar in the same window or a specific plugin you can name, run Roundcube instead and accept the heavier install. For everyone else, SnappyMail is the lighter, faster answer, and it is the one I have on the home server.