An self-hosted, secure, and cost-effective platform for archiving, indexing, and searching emails without relying on third parties
In today’s landscape of increasing regulation and concerns about digital sovereignty, many companies are reconsidering where and how they store their corporate email. Are the default solutions offered by providers like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 sufficient? What if an independent, immutable, tamper-proof archive is needed?
A powerful open-source alternative has just arrived to meet these needs: Open Archiver. It is a self-hosted solution that allows any organization to archive and manage their emails with advanced search, retention, and audit features, all without depending on external providers.
What does Open Archiver offer?
Developed by LogicLabs OU, Open Archiver is designed to provide complete control over communication data, emphasizing security, efficiency, and regulatory compliance. Key features include:
- 🔌 Universal email ingestion: connects to Google Workspace (Gmail), Microsoft 365, and any IMAP server to bulk import messages and synchronize them in real time.
- 🔐 Encrypted and efficient storage: stores emails in the standard
.emlformat, with compression and deduplication to optimize space. All data are encrypted at rest. - 📦 Compatibility with local and S3 storage: configurable to save on local disk or in S3-compatible storage like AWS or MinIO.
- 🔍 Advanced search engine: uses Meilisearch to provide super-fast, comprehensive searches across messages and attachments (PDF, DOCX, etc.).
- ⚖️ Retention policies and compliance: allows defining detailed rules for email lifecycle and legal holds during litigation (coming soon).
- 🕵️ Immutability audit: in development, will enable logging every system action for full traceability.
Why consider an alternative email copy?
Relying solely on the native tools of large cloud providers can pose risks regarding legal compliance, incident availability, or provider changes. Open Archiver enables companies to:
- Perform independent backups of their emails.
- Comply with regulations like GDPR, ISO 27001, or ENS.
- Ensure message immutability.
- Maintain a fast search repository for internal audits, litigation, or data recovery processes.
All of this without proprietary licenses and with full control over the infrastructure.
Simple and scalable deployment
Open Archiver deploys via Docker Compose and requires just 4 GB of RAM (or 2 GB when using external services). It uses a modern architecture based on:
- SvelteKit for the frontend.
- Node.js + TypeScript for the backend.
- PostgreSQL, Redis (Valkey), and Meilisearch as core services.
Within minutes, you can have a functional environment to start archiving emails.
🔗 Public demo: https://demo.openarchiver.com
User: [email protected] – Password: openarchiver_demo
🔧 Repository: https://github.com/LogicLabs-OU/OpenArchiver
An opportunity for companies seeking digital sovereignty
Open Archiver is especially recommended for SMBs, law firms, public entities, professional associations, or any organization wanting an autonomous, secure, and auditable email archive.
In an environment where cloud costs are rising and regulatory requirements are increasing, adopting solutions like Open Archiver can be a decisive step to ensure that the most critical data of a company—its communications—are always accessible and under its control.