Installing WildDuck
WildDuck itself is an IMAP, POP3, and HTTP API server. Together with Haraka (inbound SMTP) and ZoneMTA (outbound SMTP), it functions as a complete mail server. Below are instructions for installing a complete mail server, or only WildDuck itself.
Requirements
The current WildDuck release requires Node.js 22.19.0 or later, MongoDB, and Redis. See Requirements for optional components. The standalone WildDuck image does not include the other mail-suite services.
Complete mail server
Scripted install
If you have a blank VPS and a free domain name that you can point to that VPS than you can try out the scripted all-included install
Install script installs and configures all required dependencies and services, including Let's Encrypt based certs, to run WildDuck as a mail server. Tested on Ubuntu 22.04+.
Docker
This method can be used on both new or existing servers, no matter the distro. If it supports docker, it will work (amd64 and arm64 are both supported). Docker also makes updating or uninstalling all components quite easy.
The docker-compose.yml together with the default configuration script will set up all required dependencies and services, including Let's Encrypt based certs, to run WildDuck as a mail server.
WildDuck only
Manual install
Assuming you have MongoDB and Redis running somewhere.
Step 1. Get the code from github
$ git clone https://github.com/zone-eu/wildduck.git
$ cd wildduck
Step 2. Install dependencies
Install dependencies from npm
$ npm install --omit=dev
Step 3. Run the server
To use the default config file, run the following:
node server.js
Or if you want to override default configuration options with your own, run the following (custom config file is merged with the default, so specify only these values that you want to change):
node server.js --config=/etc/wildduck.toml
For additional config options, see the wild-config documentation.
Step 4. Create a user account
Create an account with POST /users. See the API reference for the request fields. Set up API access control before allowing other hosts to reach the management API.
For a graphical administration interface, see WildDuck Admin, which connects to an existing WildDuck HTTP API.
Step 5. Use an IMAP/POP3 client to log in
Use the account credentials, or an application-specific password when two-factor authentication is enabled. The standalone defaults are IMAP over TLS on 9993 and POP3 over TLS on 9995. The scripted and Docker Compose installations may publish the standard ports 993 and 995 instead. Configure trusted TLS certificates for client access.
Docker Install
The easiest way to setup wildduck with a docker image is given below, for more documentation about configuration options in the docker image, refer to the in-depth page on Docker.
A GHCR image built using the Dockerfile in the repo is also available
To pull the latest pre-built image of wildduck:
docker pull ghcr.io/zone-eu/wildduck
It is also possible to pull a specific version of wildduck by specifying the version as the image tag. (example, for version 1.55.1):
docker pull ghcr.io/zone-eu/wildduck:1.55.1
On Linux, to run the image using the default config and MongoDB and Redis from the host machine, use:
docker run --network=host ghcr.io/zone-eu/wildduck
For container networking and configuration overrides, see Docker. For an existing deployment, read the upgrade guidance before updating WildDuck and its SMTP integrations.