I’m going to start off but saying I know that self-hosting email can be a bad idea. That being said, I’m trying to de-googlfy my life and would like to experiment.
I have a VPS and a domain that doesn’t get used for much at the moment. I’d like to try configuring a full mail suite on that domain and see if I can make it work. I’ve been looking into the various options on this list and was hoping for some feed back on options that people have used. If this works out it would be fairly low volume.
Ideally I’d like a full solution that includes web administration if at all possible. I think I’m leaning towards mailcow but it might be overkill.
I’d appreciate any input on what has or hasn’t worked for people. Thanks.
As everyone has mentioned SPF/DKIM/DMARC is the absolute minimum. If you’re going to be sending your own mail then a PTR record is absolutely required. Also get registered dnswl.org and other whitelist sites. Be prepared to spend some time tracking down why the occasional email goes to spam. Then there’s the onslaught of bots and hackers constantly trying to break in.
I’ve used Mailu to host my own mail server, and at my work we have a standard Postfix/Dovecot setup.
My recommendation is to use Fastmail, Proton, or some other service to save you the headache.
I understand all the pitfalls and caveats, I’ve maintained corporate mail services (i.e. exchange/o365) but I’ve not self-hosted before. I know the safe and sane solution would be a paid service, but like I said I’d like to experiment. I’ll look at Mailu. Thanks.