I’m contemplating taking control of my email by moving away from mainstream providers like Gmail or Outlook. What self-hosted email services have you tried, and which ones do you find most reliable and user-friendly? Are there any challenges or advantages you’ve encountered in making the switch?

  • scalyblue@alien.topBEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    Trust me you do not want to point an MX record at your houses IP. It’s a terrible idea, dont do it, I don’t have the energy to qualify that statement but just trust me, don’t.

    • Joyfulsinner@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      I’m sorry but a statement like this make me not trust you at all. Take an strangers word for something with no evidence…. This is how a mob of ignorant people do stupid things.

  • Ok_Construction4430@alien.topBEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    I wouldnt selfhost my e-mail. You will quickly be blacklisted since your server wont have a good reputation and will have issues sending out emails to peers.

    • bermudi86@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      I love these pessimistic, ignorant takes because at the end of the day I get more money running (setting and basically forgetting) email servers for paranoid people.

      Send your marketing emails from somewhere else and you’ll never have issues

    • smileymattj@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Rackspace gets blacklisted exactly twice a year, like clockwork. So how’s it any worse?

  • factulas@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Being this is self hosted, I have heard great things about redmail once you get it configured. Soon, to give it a shot. Made it past my 15GB on Google and would rather pay for a droplet.

  • wyrmroot@programming.devEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Rather than self host, I switched to Protonmail. I use a custom domain with catchall addresses enabled, so I can have an arbitrary number of email addresses grouped by what service it relates to, along with plenty of filtering and organization rules. So far it’s been nothing but upside, honestly.

  • firebird789@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Mailcow is pretty straightforward to setup and has good documentation. No matter what you choose though be prepared to put a decent amount of work into it. I also recommend using an SMTP relay like SendGrid or Mailgun. That way you don’t have to worry about deliverability as much. If you’re not planning on sending a lot of email (<100 emails a day for SendGrid) you can use their free tiers.

    • Dr_Fu_Man_Chu@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Selfhosting is always best. I just cannot trust remote providers with my mails. Only caviat is you usually need a small server with static IP, most providers block emails delivered from ISPs.

  • Adures_@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    To “take control of your email” I recommend buying your own domain, but not self-hosting.

    Having your own domain will allow you to migrate from one email provider to the other, as you stop being locked in to them with their domain.

    If you do not want to use Google or Microsoft, I recommend mailbox.org (used this one for a long time, but had to change, because I wanted to send emails from my aliases). Tutanota is also good choice.

    Protonmail is also there as one of the more popular alternatives to Microsoft and Google, but I find them too expensive.

    Why am I not recommending self-hosting email on self-hosting reddit? Unlike other services, which you can host at your home (which simplifies a lot of stuff and allow you to avoid subscription), you pretty much need VPS for selfhosting email. If your needs are simple, both mailbox.org and tutanota will cover your email needs for 3 euro per month. You don’t have to think about security, spam, email delivery, building trust with other email providers. It’s their responsibility, not yours. Good luck doing it cheaper on VPS.

    ​

    I personally use M365 business basic, it’s very reliable but exchange online might not be user friendly. However price to value ratio is just unbeatable.

  • EnricoSuavePallazzo@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Purelymail.com -- based on a similar thread here 6 months ago. They are very affordable, and I have 5 different domains hosted with them. They only bill based on traffic and storage. I liked being able to have multiple domains without any additional charges.

  • su1ka@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    My setup is: Namesilo for domains, Hetzner VPS with autobackup, Mailcow selfhosted. (Few manual updates with backups per year). Just copy paste steps from Obsidian notes. Cloudflare DNS just in case of ddos etc.

    I have 3 domains with maybe 6 emails and catch em all. I do not send/receive a lot. Maybe 5-10 emails per day. Most of them are notifications from systems.

    All good. I’m happy.