Email Hosting w/SMTP, what do you use?

I’ve recently been trying to degoogle myself, and in doing so I’m going to need another email. I tried ProtonMail, but apparently only business accounts can use SMTP, even though their features claim SMTP access. I’m plenty fine paying for the service, but going from the $6/month to $12/month just to get notification emails from my server doesn’t seem worth it to me. I’ve not looked into what all else comes with Proton’s Business features, but i’m not really running a business or trying to start one up.

What do you use? do you like it? How’s the cost/features?

shadowbert,
@shadowbert@kbin.social avatar

Mailcow dockerised is a solid option. It also has a really nice built in DNS checker which was very useful for getting that set up right.

jprjr,

I used to run my own email for years. Started on qmail, postfix+dovecot. Anti-spam (spamassassin for a while, rspamd), spf+dkim+dmarc, srs, arc-signing for forwards. All kinds of other tools, even wrote some of my own. I've learned a lot and pretty much ran the gamut to be honest.

So all that said, nowadays I just host with mxroute. Bought a lifetime plan. There's features it doesn't have but it's good enough to get emails and a lot easier than self hosting.

I generally recommend finding a host that has the features you want at a price that seems fair. Email is the kind of thing that needs to just always work.

Once you set it up sure, it's rock solid. Until one day you realize your emails are getting dropped and there's some new thing you've gotta look into. Let somebody else handle it.

pdavis,
@pdavis@lemmy.world avatar

I currently use Protonmail but for some time I used hMailServer on Windows (www.hmailserver.com).

TORFdot0,

I use my domain name with iCloud+ mail. I self hosted the domain for almost a decade and it’s just easier paying for hosting. I have done it on both O365 and Gmail but they have both nerfed the ability to use custom domains so iCloud it is.

cnx,
@cnx@slrpnk.net avatar

We use Maddy, which is pretty easy to set up.

RegalPotoo,
@RegalPotoo@lemmy.world avatar

Recently signed up with www.migadu.com, been great so far

kevin,
@kevin@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I was under the impression Proton Bridge was available for any paid subscription. I’ve had a Visionary plan for years, so I can’t say for certain since I get a lot of perks as a result.

The bridge is a bit tetchy, sometimes it works, sometimes it don’t, and can never really say why. You also need to have the bridge app installed on the machine you’re using it on (eg won’t work on mobile or any unsupported platform). The tl;dr for this is if you need to rely on SMTP / IMAP ProtonMail isn’t ideal.

I do actually have Proton Bridge running on my Yunohost machine, the CLI version was annoying to set up but that is the only install I haven’t had too much issue with (yet). The thing to be aware with that Proton is super anal about the email address you’re sending from, if it isn’t an alias (or a hosted domain) on the account it isn’t going to have any of that.

In terms of self-hosting though, I have a Wildduck install running. The software isn’t really production ready, but for a personal home server does the job super well. You can also get it to auto-encrypt incoming emails with PGP (similar to Proton) and it saves emails you send via SMTP to your Sent item folder automatically.

My advice for self-hosting though, is use a SMTP Smarthost from a professional provider (I’ve always used Duocircle and Spamhero), Google and Microsoft make self-hosting a nightmare even if you are fully compliant, but these operators give you a better chance of getting through.

Because I’m lazy, I also use MXGuardDog to filter incoming email, I rack up free credits by placing a link on my website so I’ve never once paid for the service in cold hard cash. But realistically you could skip this part.

ironhydroxide,

Proton has stopped the “visionary” that allows SMTP, now it’s only available in business accounts. :( I tried setting up the bridge CLI, but so far haven’t been able to get it to send anything after logging in and syncing the account, Maybe I’ll try again once I’ve got some things off my plate.

kevin,
@kevin@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

That’s really weird “Proton Mail Bridge is currently available for paid subscribers. Upgrade your account” and on the pricing page it has “Email client support (via IMAP/SMTP)” starting on the Mail Plus plan.

Although I’ve got the same problem with Bridge on MacOS it just stopped doing anything for no particular reason, it’ll be worth contacting support to find out why (they’re still working on mine)

kevin,
@kevin@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I just got their email, I get it now. SMTP is different to Bridge, but in my case I use Bridge to send SMTP from my apps (and also collect via IMAP) on the servers. It took a bit of creativity to get it to work like that

kevin,
@kevin@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I just got their email, I get it now. SMTP is different to Bridge, but in my case I use Bridge to send SMTP from my apps (and also collect via IMAP) on the servers. It took a bit of creativity to get it to work like that

takeda,

I self host through my ISP connection.

  • sendmail
  • bogofilter
  • bogofilter-milter
  • opendkim
  • Cyrus for POP3/IMAP
  • roundcube

I have static IP and needed to get a business plan to obtain it. I am actually wondering if there's place where I can set up a tunnel (that would work with freebsd) and then I could use cheaper, customer based plan.

My problem is to get something that wasn't abused by spammers. I don't plan to send any advertising, it would be low volume, since it is just for my and my family.

KairuByte,
@KairuByte@lemmy.world avatar

Is a Dynamic DNS not an option for you? Most residential plans keep their IP for months if not years, only really changing if the model drops for long periods of time.

takeda,

Well there's small chance someone else could get your mail, also there's a reputation of given IP + there are blacklists that list dynamic IP ranges and some servers outright block them. And last one, you can't set your own reverse DNS, which could increase like hood ending up in spam folder.

ChojinDSL,
@ChojinDSL@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

I self host using mailcow. Easy setup. Prevents most of the beginner pitfalls via exemplary documentation.

wreck,
@wreck@iusearchlinux.fyi avatar

Upvote for mailcow. It’s a classic postfix+dovecot email stack with lots of stuff figured out for you already. I host on a cheap vps that supports SRV records so rDNS passes, and then I still route my outgoing mail through Mailgun for better IP reputation. At my low (normal) mailing levels Mailgun is free.

trifictional,

Email is the one thing I don’t bother self hosting.

You need to use an existing host with reputation or most of your emails will end up in junk or be outright blocked.

DaGeek247,
@DaGeek247@kbin.social avatar

I ended up using an old hotmail account I had laying around after protonmail and gmail failed me for SMTP access to notify myself of server issues.

ghostface,

I have modoboaRunning on a 8gb droplet for 20 a month. Hosting over 10 domains. No issues, smooth transition on upgrades.

MrPhibb,
@MrPhibb@reddthat.com avatar

I have mine running through Polaris Mail. The domain cost me around $5 for the year (renewal is $10 IIRC), and I’m running the Y25 plan for $25/yr which has been big enough for me. SMTP is included, and there is a web interface, but I haven’t really used that, T-bird and K9 take care of my needs.

wgs,
@wgs@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I’m hosting mine on two VPS running OpenBSD :

  • opensmtpd
  • opendkim
  • dovecot
  • spamd
  • spamassassin
  • roundcube (webmail)
  • mlmmj (for newsletters)

Setup is rock solid and hasn’t failed me in the last couple years, since I added the secondary server to temporarily queue mails in case the primary goes down. spamd can be a bit inconvenient sometimes (but that’s on purpose) and I have a script to disable it temporarily when I need a quick email.

I have SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup on my DNS too, as well as requires records like A and PTR for my hosts.

As for the cost, I pay 30$/year for the domain, and 10$/month for the 2 servers. Backup is on backblaze and ridiculously cheap for the amount of mails I backup.

tvcvt,

I go a couple different routes: I have a Mailcow instance on a VPS for my personal email. For my business I use Zoho, which has been wonderful. Their basic plan is $1 a month per user and it should have all the features you’re looking for.

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