Free Mail Servers

The free mail servers (sometimes called Mail Transfer Agents, or MTA for short) on this page allow you to transmit email from one computer to another, using something called the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or SMTP for short. For example, it can receive email from an email client (software) and send it to another system. They can also allow email clients to retrieve its stored messages using either the Post Office Protocol, or POP3 for short, or the Internet Message Access Protocol, or IMAP. The email servers can either deliver the messages directly to the destination (end-to-end delivery) or relay them to another mail server for further transmission.


Please note the following:

The programs mentioned on this page are not for the ordinary email user. If all you want is a computer program that allows you to read and write email, please see the Free Email Clients page instead. On the other hand, if you want free email services (like webmail or the like), please go to the Free Email, Webmail, and Email Forwarding page.

If you are here because you want to put a contact form or feedback form on your website, please see the Free Feedback Form Wizard page instead.

Note that some of the software packages listed below are noted as being available only as source code. For non-programmers, in plain English, this means that the programs are distributed in a form that cannot be run directly on your computer. It has to be converted into a machine-readable form using a process known as "compilation" — that is, in programming lingo, you will need to "compile the program" before it can be used. For most non-programmers who only want to set up and use a program rather than muck around with technical stuff, this basically implies that you should probably skip that particular piece of software and look for another one that comes with a ready-to-run package.