Hello Mailcow community,
I would like to ask a question and, at the same time, suggest a possible improvement for the Mailcow project.
Is there currently a way to implement a Shared Mailbox in Mailcow that provides functionality similar to the Shared Mailboxes available in Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online?
For example, an organization could have shared addresses such as:
The idea would be to allow multiple users to access the same mailbox using their own individual accounts and credentials, without having to share the password of the shared mailbox.
Ideally, authorized users would be able to:
- Access and manage the shared inbox;
- Read and respond to messages;
- Send messages using the shared mailbox address;
- Access the shared Sent folder;
- Keep sent messages available to the entire team;
- Have different permission levels, such as read-only, read/write, or full access;
- Easily manage which users have access to the shared mailbox;
- Use the shared mailbox through SOGo and, where supported, compatible mail clients.
I understand that Mailcow/SOGo already provides mailbox sharing, folder sharing, ACLs and delegation, which can cover part of this use case.
However, what I am referring to is a more centralized and user-friendly concept similar to the Shared Mailbox model in Microsoft 365, where the administrator creates a shared mailbox and assigns users or groups to it.
Suggested Feature
It would be very useful if Mailcow could eventually provide a native Shared Mailbox feature.
For example, an administrator could create:
[support@example.com](mailto:support@example.com)
and then assign:
The users would continue using their own accounts and passwords, while being authorized to access the shared mailbox.
Possible features could include:
- Create a shared mailbox that does not require a normal user account/password;
- Assign individual users or groups to the shared mailbox;
- Configure permissions per user;
- Support Send As permissions;
- Optionally support Send on Behalf Of;
- Automatically make the shared mailbox available in SOGo;
- Share Inbox, Sent, Drafts and other required folders;
- Prevent the need to share mailbox passwords;
- Provide centralized management of shared mailbox permissions through the Mailcow administration interface.
I believe this feature would be especially useful for organizations where email accounts are managed collaboratively, such as:
- IT support teams;
- Help desks;
- Human Resources;
- Finance departments;
- Purchasing departments;
- Customer service;
- Administrative teams;
- General departmental mailboxes.
For example, instead of having several employees share the password of:
[support@example.com](mailto:support@example.com)
the administrator could simply grant access to the appropriate users.
This would improve security, collaboration, auditing and account management, while also providing an experience closer to what many organizations are already familiar with from Microsoft 365.
Questions for the community
Is there currently a recommended way to achieve this functionality using Mailcow + SOGo + Dovecot ACLs?
Can the existing sharing/delegation functionality provide a complete Shared Mailbox experience, including Send As and a shared Sent folder?
Is there already an open issue or feature request specifically related to implementing a native Shared Mailbox feature?
If not, would this be something the Mailcow developers would consider as a future feature?
I think a native Shared Mailbox implementation could make Mailcow even more attractive to organizations looking for an open-source alternative to Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online.
Thank you to the Mailcow developers and community for the excellent work on the project.