Vectis Mail for developers.
Email infrastructure you own, on a $20 VPS.
Vectis Mail is the email platform for solo developers, indie hackers, and small teams who want to own their infrastructure instead of paying SendGrid every month for a side project. Starter is free forever: full REST API, inbound webhooks, IMAP/POP3 mailboxes, monitoring. Runs comfortably on a $20/month VPS. Source-available under BSL 1.1; free to self-host and modify.
The developer-specific case
Six things solo developers want from email infrastructure. Each maps to a specific Vectis Mail capability.
1. Starter is free, no upsell games
Up to 3 domains, 25 mailboxes per domain, full REST API, inbound webhooks, monitoring, backups, all in Starter. Not freemium-tease where every interesting feature is gated. The Pro tier is for scale + advanced features, not for unlocking the API.
2. Runs comfortably on a $20 VPS
A 4 vCPU / 8 GB / 80 GB Ubuntu host (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or Vultr, all around $20/month at that spec) is the recommended baseline. The whole stack (Postfix, Dovecot, Rspamd, Traefik, the API, the React dashboard, plus the optional Prometheus/Grafana/Loki observability profile) fits with room for sending growth. Same spec as the recommendation on the install docs.
3. One YAML config, no Postfix wizardry
Declarative config.yaml + vectis apply. You write intent (domains, mailboxes, API keys); the system generates Postfix, Dovecot, Rspamd, Traefik configs and reloads what changed. Audit the generated configs if you want, but you don't have to write them.
4. Source-available: read it, modify it, run it
The entire platform is on GitHub under the Business Source License 1.1. Free to self-host, modify, and run for your own product. The only restriction is selling Vectis Mail as a competing managed service. Each version converts to Apache 2.0 four years after release.
5. Real REST API + webhooks
40+ endpoints covering sending (single + batch with attachments), inbound webhooks (HMAC-signed, retry-with-backoff), mailbox CRUD, domain management, analytics, audit logs. OpenAPI spec, code samples. The same surface you'd want from SendGrid, but yours.
6. Personal email + transactional in one box
Host you@yourdomain alongside the transactional flows you build. IMAP/POP3 mailboxes + Roundcube webmail + Sieve filter management all in the same install. One DNS setup, one set of DKIM keys, one product to operate.
The cost story for solo developers
A real side-project budget compared.
| Setup for a typical side project | Vectis Mail Starter | SendGrid + Workspace |
|---|---|---|
| VPS (recommended 4 vCPU / 8 GB) | $20/mo | $0 (managed) |
| Transactional sending (under 10K emails/mo) | $0 (Starter) | $19.95 (Essentials) |
Personal mailbox (you@yourdomain) | Included | $6 (Workspace Starter) |
| Inbound webhooks for support flows | Included | Included on SendGrid |
| Domain (~$15/yr ÷ 12) | $1.25/mo | $1.25/mo |
| Total monthly | $21.25 | $27.20 |
Provider pricing per twilio.com/en-us/products/email-api/pricing + Google Workspace public pricing retrieved 2026-05-13. Vectis Mail Starter covers up to 3 domains and 25 mailboxes per domain, which fits the vast majority of personal projects. The $20 VPS line matches the same baseline used on every other Vectis Mail page; the install docs cite 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 40 GB as the hard minimum if you're sending very low volume and want a cheaper host.
What developers actually build
Concrete patterns Vectis Mail handles cleanly for individual technical practitioners.
Side project with transactional email
You're shipping a SaaS side project. Users sign up, you need to send password
resets, magic links, weekly digests. POST to /api/v1/send with JSON,
done. Same call from your local dev environment + production. Domain-scoped API
keys mean you can keep dev sending off the same reputation pool as prod.
Personal newsletter / mailing list (manual send)
Your weekly newsletter to a few hundred subscribers. Use the batch sending API (up to 100 messages per call) to fan out without paying per-email. Open + click tracking is opt-in per message, useful for engagement metrics on the newsletter, off for transactional mail where tracking pixels feel slimy.
Reply-to-resolve for a support inbox
Users email support@yourdomain. Vectis Mail's inbound webhook POSTs
the full message to your app (body text, HTML, attachments, SMTP envelope) with
HMAC signature + exponential-backoff retry. Your app creates a ticket, replies via
the sending API, no second mail vendor.
Homelab / personal infrastructure
You want to run your own email because it's there to run. Vectis Mail fits the homelab pattern: one server, Docker Compose, declarative config, one update command. Pair with a personal Nextcloud or other self-hosted tools on the same VPS if you've got headroom.
Open-source project transactional email
You maintain an open-source project that emails contributors, sends digest mails, triggers webhook events. Vectis Mail's Starter tier handles the volume; running it on your own infrastructure means no third-party email vendor in the dependency chain.
Where Vectis Mail isn't the right fit for developers
What's painful or missing for the solo-dev case.
You need pre-warmed IPs from day one
Self-hosting puts you on a fresh IP. Reputation builds over 2–4 weeks of gradual volume. If you're launching tomorrow and need password resets in inboxes immediately, start on SendGrid or Postmark; the managed providers ride a shared pre-warmed pool. Migrate to Vectis Mail later when reputation has built.
You really don't want to operate any infrastructure
Vectis Mail is one VPS to keep running, one update command to run periodically, one set of backups to verify occasionally. If you want zero infrastructure to think about, managed SaaS is the right call. Vectis Mail is for people who'd rather operate a server than operate a vendor relationship.
You need calendar / contacts (CalDAV / CardDAV)
Vectis Mail doesn't yet ship calendar / contacts; that's a Phase 4 roadmap item. If you need full Google Workspace / Exchange-replacement personal infrastructure today, pair Vectis Mail with a separate CalDAV server (Radicale, Baikal) or stay on Mail-in-a-Box for the bundled Nextcloud groupware.
You're going to ignore IP warmup
Sending 100K cold emails on day one will get your IP block-listed. Vectis Mail can't protect you from that, and neither can SendGrid. If you're not going to run a warmup schedule, you'll have a bad time on any self-hosted setup.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Starter tier actually free, or is it freemium-tease?
Free forever, all platform features included. Up to 3 domains and 25 mailboxes per domain. The full REST API, inbound webhooks, monitoring, backup/restore, IP warmup tracking, automatic TLS, and DKIM/SPF/DMARC, all in Starter. Pro is only for when you outgrow those caps or want advanced spam controls, OIDC SSO, or per-domain analytics. No artificial gating of core features.
What VPS do I need for a small side project?
The recommended baseline is a $20/month VPS (4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD on Ubuntu 22.04+): the same spec we use for the cost math on every other Vectis Mail page. That's the comfort zone for production use, including Rspamd's memory needs and the observability stack. The hard minimum from the install docs is 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 40 GB, which works for very low-volume personal use, but Pro features and the spam stack run more cleanly with the recommended spec.
Can I host my personal email on Vectis Mail?
Yes. IMAP + POP3 + Roundcube webmail are included in Starter. You can host
you@yourdomain alongside any transactional flows you build.
Sieve filter management ships in the admin UI. Up to 25 mailboxes per domain
on Starter, so a few family members or a small team fit easily.
Do I need to learn Postfix and Dovecot config?
No. Vectis Mail generates and manages Postfix, Dovecot, Rspamd, and Traefik
configs from one config.yaml. You write declarative intent
(which domains, which mailboxes, which API keys) and run vectis apply.
The system regenerates affected service configs and reloads what changed.
You can read the generated configs to learn what's happening underneath, but
you don't have to write any of them.
Is the source available? What's the licence?
Vectis Mail is source-available under the Business Source License 1.1. The entire platform is on GitHub — read it, audit it, modify it for your own use. The Additional Use Grant restricts only one thing: commercial managed-service resale (you can't relaunch Vectis Mail as a hosted SaaS competitor). For most solo-developer use cases this is more permissive than AGPL would be — you can modify the code privately for your own product without the copyleft obligation. Each version converts to Apache License 2.0 four years after its first public release.
What if my side project takes off and I outgrow Starter?
Upgrade to Pro ($29 USD/tenant/month) when you hit one of: more than 3 domains, more than 25 mailboxes per domain, or you want per-domain analytics, advanced spam controls, OIDC SSO, or priority support. The upgrade is a license-key change — no migration, no data movement, no downtime. Same install, more features unlocked.
Try Vectis Mail
Starter is free forever. Spin up a $20 VPS, install in 20 minutes, send your first transactional email.