Self-host Hermes-Secure-Email-Gateway
v261026Open-source email gateway and mail server with encryption
- Stars
- 141
- CPU
- 4 vCPUs minimum
- RAM
- 8 GB minimum, 16 GB+ recommended for production
- Storage
- Config/OS disk: 120 GB minimum; Data, Archive, Vmail, Nextcloud tiers sized to usage (~275 GB total for single-disk test install)
- Ports
- 25 (SMTP (inbound/outbound mail)), 465 (SMTPS (SMTP over TLS)), 587 (SMTP Submission), 80 (HTTP (redirects to HTTPS)), 443 (HTTPS (admin console, user portal, Nextcloud, CipherMail UI)), 993 (IMAPS), 995 (POP3S), 143 (IMAP), 110 (POP3), 4190 (Sieve (ManageSieve))
- Requires
- MariaDB, OpenLDAP, Redis
What is Hermes-Secure-Email-Gateway?
This self-hosted email security platform works as a secure email gateway, a full mail server, or both in hybrid mode. It bundles Apache SpamAssassin, ClamAV with third-party signature feeds, Amavisd-new, OpenDKIM, OpenDMARC, and OpenARC for mail filtering and authentication. Dovecot 2.4 provides IMAP/POP3/SMTP mailbox hosting with quotas, Sieve rules, and shared folders. Nextcloud adds file sync, webmail, calendars, and contacts. Authelia handles SSO with TOTP, WebAuthn, and Duo Push MFA. CipherMail manages S/MIME, PGP, and encrypted PDF delivery. An internal CA and Let's Encrypt automation handle certificates. The Community Edition is AGPLv3 and free for commercial use; Pro adds time-of-click URL protection, organizational signatures, email disclaimers, intrusion prevention UI, console firewall UI, and LDAP RemoteAuth. Deployment uses a single Docker Compose file with a guided installer, requiring Docker Engine 25+ and Compose v2 on Linux (tested on Ubuntu 24.04).
Should you self-host Hermes-Secure-Email-Gateway?
Hermes-Secure-Email-Gateway scores 48/100 on selfhost.directory (how scoring works) and ranks #49 of 78 in Security. It has 141 GitHub stars.
It shipped 20 stable releases in the past year. The latest, v261026, came out on 24 October 2026. New versions land roughly every 1 days.
Setup is advanced: plan for several services and some ongoing maintenance. It is AGPL-3.0-licensed and written mostly in JavaScript.
Its closest alternative on selfhost.directory is pentagi (83/100, 32 648 stars). It scores higher overall, so compare the two before you pick. See Hermes-Secure-Email-Gateway vs pentagi side by side.
Features
- Anti-virus protection
- ARC signing and verification
- At-rest mailbox encryption
- DKIM signing and verification
- DMARC verification and reporting
- Email Archiving
- Encrypted PDF delivery
- Hybrid domains
- Mailbox hosting
- PGP Encryption
- Quarantine management
- Recipient auto-provisioning
- S/MIME Encryption
- Spam Protection
- Third-party malware signature feeds
Hermes-Secure-Email-Gateway README
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