📧 Postfix vs Dovecot Core Function Comparison
🧭 Why Build Your Own Email Server?
- Filter out spam from Gmail and other email providers
- Prevent third parties from permanently storing your emails, protect privacy
- Full control over your email data without relying on third-party services
🔍 Postfix vs Dovecot: In-Depth Core Function Comparison
📮 Postfix: Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)
✅ Role: Responsible for sending and receiving emails
- Receive external emails (SMTP): Accept emails from other mail servers (e.g., Gmail)
- Send local emails to external (SMTP): Users sending emails to the outside world
- Deliver emails to local mailbox directories (e.g., Maildir): For user viewing
🧠 Analogy: Like a postal worker, responsible for sorting, receiving, and delivering mail.
📚 Dovecot: Mail Delivery Agent (MDA) + Mail Access Server (IMAP/POP3)
✅ Role: Responsible for letting users read emails
- Provides mail access protocols (IMAP/POP3): Allows email clients (Outlook, Thunderbird, mobile mail apps) to access server emails
- User authentication: Verifies username and password
- Reads locally stored emails (Maildir or mbox): Enables clients to display email content
🧠 Analogy: Like a librarian, fetching “books” (emails) on request and showing them to you.
🧾 Summary Comparison Table:
Feature | Postfix | Dovecot |
---|---|---|
Main Role | Send and receive emails (SMTP) | Provide mail access services (IMAP/POP3) |
Service Type | MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) | MDA + IMAP/POP3 server |
User Interface | Not directly user-facing | Provides user access interface (email clients) |
Mail Storage | Optional (usually handled by Dovecot) | Reads and serves mail |
👉 If you want to build an email server, these two components must work together:
- Postfix handles sending and receiving mail;
- Dovecot handles user mail reading and access.
🛠️⚙️ How to configure and set up
Click here How to Build a Secure Email Server with Postfix and Dovecot: Step-by-Step Guide
📖 Authoritative References
- Google Email Sender Guidelines (2024): Emphasizes DKIM/SPF as key anti-spam measures
- Dovecot Docs: The most authoritative configuration guide
- Postfix Docs: The official website for Postfix, the open-source Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)
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How to Build a Secure Email Server with Postfix and Dovecot: Step-by-Step Guide.
🔐 Learn how to build a secure email server using Postfix and Dovecot on Ubuntu or Debian. This step-by-step guide covers SMTP, IMAP, TLS/SSL encryption, spam protection, DNS records, SSL certificates, and user authentication—everything you need to run a private, secure, self-hosted mail system.