Hello everyone, I’m planning to deploy a setup using ISPConfig specifically for email hosting services only, and I would like some guidance from the community. My goal is to: Use ISPConfig to manage mailboxes, domains, and email accounts only Integrate the ISPConfig Billing module to automate customer provisioning (orders → email account creation) Sell email hosting plans (storage-based or mailbox-based) Allow users to manage their email (via webmail like Roundcube, etc.) Important: I do NOT want to provide: Website hosting DNS hosting (if possible) This would be a dedicated email hosting platform only. My questions: Is it possible to install and configure ISPConfig in a way that only email services are active (Postfix, Dovecot, etc.) without web hosting features? Can the ISPConfig Billing add-on be used effectively for: Creating email domains and mailboxes automatically after purchase Managing quotas (per mailbox or per domain) Is there a recommended setup or best practice for: Email-only environments (single server vs multi-server) Required services (Postfix, Dovecot, Amavis/SpamAssassin, etc.) Can DNS be fully external (e.g., Cloudflare), while ISPConfig handles only mail? Are there any limitations or drawbacks when using ISPConfig in this “email-only SaaS” model? My use case: I’m building a small email hosting business (similar to Zoho Mail / ProtonMail-style offerings), where customers: Purchase email plans Get mailboxes automatically provisioned Access webmail and SMTP/IMAP No website hosting or traditional shared hosting involved. If anyone has experience running ISPConfig this way or has documentation or examples, I would really appreciate your insights. Thank you in advance!
A mail server, basically need web service, unless you mean a purely mx server. As one can either build one that have all three, mail, web and mx servers, or a separate mail with web server, and another mx server, I think you mean the latter. All is in this tutorial main page: https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/ispconfig-multiserver-setup-debian-ubuntu/ For mx mail server only, check step 3: https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/ispconfig-multiserver-setup-debian-ubuntu/3/ For web mail server only, check step 6: https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/ispconfig-multiserver-setup-debian-ubuntu/6/. You can read to understand more on the advanced option here: https://www.howtoforge.com/ispconfig-autoinstall-debian-ubuntu/#-advanced-options, if you wish to find the right command to install combination of both (which will also include a web service too).
That is possible without much hassle. What is concerning me is that if you want to build this as a business similar to Zoho Mail / ProtonMail-style offerings, you need to consider alot of things around a simple ISPConfig installation. There are several questions that come to mind: - How do you handle High Availability for the setup? Do you have Co-Location? - How do you backup these data in separate locations? - What about the anti-spam solution? When you host for different customers this can easily become a job on it's own - How do you integrate privacy and security features like for example ProtonMail does? So there is a lot more to this then just installing ISPConfig and configuring it the correct way.
