I’d like to suggest support for pattern-based aliases, where only part of the local part is fixed.

For example:

• *.bastian@domain.tld
• *.sales@domain.tld

The * would match any prefix (e.g. amazon.bastian@domain.tld, github.bastian@domain.tld), while the fixed suffix determines where the message is delivered. The destination should be either an internal mailbox or an external email address.

I know that plus addressing (user+tag@domain.tld) exists, but for users who have been using this naming scheme for many years, switching several existing registrations simply isn’t practical.

At the moment, the only way to achieve something similar in SmarterMail is by enabling a catch-all and processing the messages with rules. However, this means the server has to accept every recipient address for the domain before it can decide what to do with it.

What I’d really like is server-side recipient validation based on defined patterns. For example, if *.bastian@domain.tld and *.peter@domain.tld exist, then amazon.bastian@domain.tld and shop.peter@domain.tld would be accepted, while anything.joe@domain.tld would be rejected immediately during the SMTP transaction as an unknown recipient.

Kerio Connect support this behavior for many years, and it has proven to be an elegant and efficient solution. It provides the flexibility of service-specific email addresses without requiring a catch-all mailbox, while still maintaining proper recipient validation.

I think this would be a valuable addition to SmarterMail.