I’m currently evaluating a few alternatives to Hestia for managing a large number of users, and I have to say that I really like the project. I particularly appreciate its simplicity and many of the design choices behind it.
That said, I have a few questions and concerns:
The biggest blocker for me: Exim.
Personally, I don’t consider Exim a suitable mail server for this kind of setup. Is there any way to use Postfix instead, or is Exim too deeply integrated into Hestia?
Mail autodiscover/autoconfig.
This is a really nice feature when it’s available, and it seems fairly straightforward to implement (*). I noticed that the automatically generated DNS records already include SPF, DKIM and DMARC (), but there doesn’t seem to be anything for mail autodiscover/autoconfig. Is this something that is planned or supported?
Custom DNS records.
How does Hestia handle custom DNS records? Can users add and manage their own records in addition to the automatically generated ones?
Custom Nginx configuration.
What is the recommended way to handle custom Nginx configurations? For example, if I want to run a Node.js application behind an Nginx reverse proxy, is there a supported way to configure this without fighting against Hestia’s configuration management?
Outgoing mail / compromised accounts.
What protections are in place if a user’s password gets compromised? Are there rate limits on outgoing mail, and can an account/mailbox automatically be blocked or quarantined when suspicious sending activity is detected?
I have quite a few more ideas and questions based on my experience with other hosting control panels, but I’ll keep those for later.
Thanks in advance for your answers, and thanks for the work on Hestia!
Sacha
(*) For reference, here is one possible approach to implementing mail autodiscover/autoconfig in AlternC:
but sincerely, I don’t know how many popular mail clients support them.
Hestia doesn’t provide a supported way to automatically add autodiscover/autoconfig. I use my own scripts to handle this, but I would need to integrate them in Hestia and that won’t happen at least until 1.10.0 version is released.
For me, Postfix is preferable for a production mail infrastructure, especially when managing many users and domains. Some 10 important points are:
Multiple outgoing relays — Postfix makes it straightforward to configure different relay hosts and switch to another relay if an outgoing IP gets blocked or has a poor reputation.
Per-domain / per-sender routing — It is easy to route mail through different SMTP relays depending on the sender, domain, destination or other criteria.
Flexible failover — Having several relay paths makes it easier to build resilient outgoing mail infrastructure and quickly work around a blocked or degraded IP.
LDAP integration — Postfix has very good support for LDAP-backed users, domains, aliases and recipient verification, which is important for a multi-user hosting platform.
SQL integration — Domains, mailboxes, aliases and routing information can also be stored in MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL, making it easy to integrate with an existing provisioning system.
Clean integration with Rspamd — Postfix integrates very well with Rspamd through Milter, allowing spam filtering, DKIM signing, DMARC handling and policy enforcement to remain separate from the MTA itself.
Fine-grained SMTP policies — Client, HELO, sender and recipient restrictions provide very precise control over who can connect, relay and deliver mail.
Strong queue management — Postfix has a robust queue architecture, with good control over retries, deferred mail, concurrency and delivery rates. This is particularly important when operating a large mail system.
Modular architecture — Postfix separates SMTP reception, queue management, cleanup, routing and delivery into different services. This makes the system easier to understand, troubleshoot, monitor and scale.
Large production ecosystem — Postfix is widely deployed in large-scale mail infrastructures and has extensive documentation, monitoring integrations and existing tooling. It is therefore easier to build a long-term, maintainable mail platform around it.
These are the main reasons why, for my use case, having Postfix as an alternative MTA in HestiaCP would be very valuable. I am not saying that Exim cannot technically accomplish these things; rather, I prefer Postfix’s architecture and operational model for a large multi-user production environment.
Automatic mail client configuration (Autoconfig/Autodiscover)
Thunderbird, Outlook, K-9 Mail and other clients can automatically discover the IMAP/SMTP configuration. The user only needs to enter their email address, and the mail client can configure itself automatically.
AutoConfig and Autodiscover are great for email clients, but isn’t that exactly what SRV records are for? Just asking, I’m not well-versed in this area, but whatever’s good for the end user, I’m all for it as long as it’s standardized.
Hi,
For me, RFC 6186 is a rather useless RFC, written by Chris Daboo from Apple some time ago. It might have been useful with some Apple clients, but if I understand correctly, modern mail clients are now using mechanisms such as Autodiscover and autodiscover.xml, for example:
A panel I also use have sorted this out earlier this year. Turns out that only for outlook exceptions need to be made. They have documented the process. See the section ‘What Clients Receive (Behind the Scenes)’ @ New Feature: Email Autoconfiguration - BlueOnyx
), but there doesn’t seem to be anything for mail autodiscover/autoconfig. Is this something that is planned or supported?