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Hosted vs. Self-Hosted Email
I've self-hosted my email server for many years, but recently had to switch to a different SMTP service since port 25 is blocked on my new server. So I'm thinking about this again.
I also have gmail. But my main email address is with a mail forwarding service I've had since the 90's.
So aside from using a different service for outgoing mail, is there any benefit to having the incoming mail hosted elsewhere? I can't think of any. Even with port 25 outgoing blocked, my server can still receive mail fine. I use thunderbird (betterbird) and store my email on my own system, and back it up. I actively don't want to store email somewhere else and don't want to use webmail. I use pop3s to collect the mail and delete it off my server.
Comments
For non critical and private E-Mail I would recommend self-hosting as it is
1. free (doesn’t use a lot of resources, the remaining server can be used for other services)
2. full control over own data
3. feelsgood, open-source
For critical emails who also need 24/7 uptime and consistency independent from the geographical location, use Microsoft 365 Exchange or Google Workspace. For non-commercial use u get 10x MS 365 licences for free through their engineering feedback program.
EAS works really well with mobile clients (iOS/Android) due to push notifications instead of manual imap/pop requests.
Self-hosting never fully worked for me as there were always certain emails that didn’t arrive correctly. All important ones did go through however, but I don’t like the feeling that I could potentially miss on one really important email, even if it’s only one out of several thousands.
Hosted. Less headache.
That's the thing. Why wouldn't an email arrive, or why would there be any headache? I can understand outgoing mail and ip reputation, but incoming mail is simple, right?
You don't have to manage it and you won't be stuck with the few options like roundcube which are far from perfect.
IMO, leave email hosting to the pros. Tried self-hosting many times, not worth it to me, minor issues here and there, maintenance, security, availability (potential network issues), server issues, occasional headaches, yes, even with incoming mail, dealing with spam, hacking attempts, just look at your log files, etc. I get the attraction of it, I previously thought it's not a big deal. But the pros just do it better. In some cases, WAY better. Pick a great provider and save yourself any potential headaches. My opinion only. Have fun!
Anyone else using pop3 nowadays? Why use it?
I use it because I just want to retrieve the email and delete it from the server.
But imap also can do that.
More info in PM please?
professional!
No. Post here to benefit whole community.
Fine, fine!
I self host with https://mailu.io/2.0/. It's ridiculously easy to set up and maintain, and I have a proper backup strategy in place (up and running in a very short time). I use a GreenCloud budget VPS for this whose uptime has been stellar. It just works.
For outgoing email though I don't send them directly from my server but through Zoho Zepto. It's only 2.50 euros per credit and each credit lasts 6 months for up to 10K emails lol. And deliverability has been great for me so far.
Yup. Anyone can run inbound. It's not until you reach a certain scale of inbound that it becomes more tricky. That would usually involve a multi user environment though.
Would there be any benefit to use imap instead of pop3, if all you want to do is retrieve the email and delete it? Whenever I've tried to use imap, it's complicated to do that simple thing (though I imagine it's possible).
IMAP syncs emails u are accessing with the client
POP retrieves emails from the server and deletes them afterwards
First one used for multiple devices (phone, tablet, workstation,… can all read emails)
Second one can be only used with one client
Both need manual client pull from server. If you don’t pull, you will never get any email on your client. Similar to paper mail where you need to go outside to retrieve the mail every morning.
EAS servers push emails to the client as soon as they arrive, similar to whatsapp, discord.
@Levi
http://blog.51sec.org/2022/05/0-to-subscribe-microsoft-365-business.html
I am using this service for over 3+ years now. I wouldn’t recommend this service for super critical emails though since it’s a engineering license. Microsoft can revoke your access at any time. You can experiment with it and link a few non-important domains to it try it for as long as you want.
If you truly decide you want to use it for business, I would strongly recommend paying for the actual subscription. It’s not expensive for the reliability it provides to your business.
Nope no benefit.
Incoming email is really easy. Install Mailcow, configure DNS, done.
Use Mail.baby for outgoing. Easy
I don't understand the naysayers and never will.
Right, I've been running my own postfix server for years. No problem for incoming, that I can see. I'm just wondering if I've been missing something.
Sometimes outgoing has gotten blocked. That's not so much a technical thing as an IP reputation thing, though.
no benefit with imap! professionals use smtp/pop.
nope! i use a client on my mobile for checking mails but without downloading. the mails remain on the server until i finally download the mails with the client at home.
I mean I guess if pressed I could come up with a few things but nothing a postfix admin like you can't handle for sure. As long as you don't have users beating down your door every day because they received this thing they didn't want, didn't receive this thing they did want, etc.
I think E-mail is one of those thing that are not worth self-hosting if you value your time and (possibly) money
It's just my own email, no users.
POP3 downloads all the emails simultaneously, while IMAP shows you the message header before downloading the email.
POP3 downloads an email from the server and then deletes it. IMAP stores the email on the server and syncs it across several devices to access over multiple channels.
POP3 does not allow you to organize emails in the mail server mailbox, while IMAP allows you to organize the server mailbox.
IMAP keeps several copies of an email to make retrieval easier.
I use thunderbird (betterbird actually) to retrieve & delete from the server. I can access the same thunderbird files on windows & linux (dual boot), and they get backed up reguarly. It's on an encrypted volume and I have control over the files.
On my phone I use K-9 Mail and just browse/check the email and read them if I want to, but I don't delete them if it's something I want to archive. When I get home they get retrieved & deleted.
The encrypted volume the email files sit on isn't huge. If I needed to access it from a laptop or multiple places, I could keep it on a usb drive and take it with me.
I do it the same way, except that I use a better email client
What do you use?
Which forwarding service are you using?