Good email provider reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-11-23 11:34 Sorry, this has been brought up a number of times obviously, but I figured I'd still give it a shot. I'm not self-hosting email, because it sounds like a huge PITA. I was looking for a decent email provider, but coming up short for now, wonder what people here are using. My requirements: * support for a custom domain, * support for hooking up my applications via SMTP (just to send, like, update notifications, nothing spammy), * (optional, but would be good to have) nice apps for Android/iOS. Things I've tried (all paid subscriptions): * Fastmail - felt excellent until I tried actually using it and found that 1) my SMTP messages are lost/delayed by a few hours. 2) SMTP-sent messages are not in the Sent folder, which makes things really hard to track. More details here: https://www.reddit.com/r/fastmail/comments/1 81tnuf/experience_with_fastmail_as_a_new_user/ * Proton Mail - doesn't have SMTP support, wat. * Purelymail - feels a bit hackish to me, and I don't want my wife to input weird IMAP settings on her phone. Any good recommendations? Thanks a lot! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Simplixt · 2023-11-23 11:44 About Proton Mail: Option 1: \- You can install the Proton Bridge in in a virtual machine and expose the SMTP port. Now you have an SMTP server in your home network and all mails will be E2EEE. Option 2: \- You can go with ProtonMail Business, here you can access a public SMTP server without bridge Personally: I just use the mail server that was included with the cheap webhoster I also got my domain from ;) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Legitimate_Farm_3095 · 2023-11-23 11:45 > Sorry, this has been brought up a number of times obviously, but I figured I'd still give it a shot. instead of searching and reading through one of them many other threads? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Arphenyte · 2023-11-23 11:49 MXroute ---------------------------------------------------------------------- drfusterenstein · 2023-11-23 11:52 r/Mailbox_org may be a good option. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-11-23 11:59 I did read them; things might change over time though, and a different selection of answers is always good. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-11-23 12:01 > - You can go with ProtonMail Business, here you can access a public SMTP server without bridge As far as I understand, it's available only to select Business subscribers. Plus, it's more pricey, so not really an option IMO. > You can install the Proton Bridge in in a virtual machine and expose the SMTP port. That's a lot of hussle to simply send occasional automated emails. I get the motivation behind it, but was looking for something simpler. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-11-23 12:02 Thank you, I haven't checked that out yet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- checkoperatorservice · 2023-11-23 12:03 MXroute has just released their Black Friday offer https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/190301/mxroute-black- friday-2023-email-hosting-that-spammers-crave-but-cant-have/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Legitimate_Farm_3095 · 2023-11-23 12:29 no offense but thats a low effort response. these topics come up multiple times a week, sometimes daily. also - if you are looking for a provider and not hosting it yourself, it's not really self hosting anyway ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-11-23 12:31 > no offense but thats a low effort response I kinda agree; as is saying "did you google it?", which is what you've done. > and not hosting it yourself, it's not really self hosting anyway Email is famously a giant PITA to self-host (if you actually want your messages to get delivered); r/selfhosted seemed like the right place to ask for an opinion of like-minded individuals. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SirLagz · 2023-11-23 12:32 Why not look into alternate methods of getting alerts? Like Gotify or ntfy? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Legitimate_Farm_3095 · 2023-11-23 12:34 nice attempts at deflection :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-11-23 12:34 A good question! The apps I'm using (I have so far onboarded Gitea & authentik) don't really seem to support these. Plus, I really wanted to get away from Gmail and host my personal email elsewhere. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-11-23 12:35 Deflection from what? I don't get it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Plastivore · 2023-11-23 12:42 After running my own server for a few years, I got tired of the maintenance. I used ProtonMail for a while, and I didn't mind using their app on my phone and the Bridge on my computer, but my parents kept forgetting to check and update it so Thunderbird would lose connectivity once in a while. I have since migrated to Infomaniak. It's based in Switzerland as well, you can use your own domain and it's cheap (€1.50 per month for 5 addresses with unlimited storage). I haven't tried their smartphone app (I use the one from Apple on my iPhone), but I've heard good things about it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SirLagz · 2023-11-23 12:46 Ntfy.sh has a smtp relay from memory ---------------------------------------------------------------------- michael_sage · 2023-11-23 13:28 Little spoken about, but the one I use is [postale.io](https://postale.io). Found it to be reliable and cheap! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- linkthepirate · 2023-11-23 13:29 M365 business. You get all that and much more. Like $5 per month per actual mailbox. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-11-23 13:33 Looks intresting; thank you! I'll check that out. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-11-23 13:37 Does that stand for Microsoft 365? From far away, I do like their service, but I don't want to switch from Google to Microsoft; that seems like a fruitless effort. I do support small-ish companies providing services on the net as opposed to a handful of companies controlling the entire market; I was looking for something along that line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-11-23 13:40 Oh wow it does? That's nice; however, I would like to host my personal email elsewhere (from Gmail), and it's really hard for me to deduce whether Nfty.sh supports that form their website. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-11-23 13:42 > Infomaniak Wow, I've never heard about this one before. Thanks, I'll check it out! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- linkthepirate · 2023-11-23 13:46 Yes Microsoft. I personally don't like Google as a company, but aside from that I don't like the way their relative services function. I don't like the way you manage email with Gmail vs Outlook but that is a preference. Keep however, in no way holds a candle to Onenote though. Aside from that, in addition to onedrive you get SharePoint/Teams sites. So for my family, I have a site for family photos, and a Parents site, which has budget stuff, medical records, etc. I have shared mailboxes for my sons which we use for school stuff and will be upgraded when they are ready for it, and another real mailbox for my wife. We have 5 domains between us (personal/professional) and are able to manage wiki via devops and notebooks on the Teams sites. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-11-23 13:47 That makes sense, thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- linkthepirate · 2023-11-23 13:49 I mentioned in another comment but forgot to here, it's also encrypted in transit and at rest and is zone redundant. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sarkyscouser · 2023-11-23 14:08 Zoho ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bmaeser · 2023-11-23 14:25 i have been using fastmail for about a year now, never had any issues with smtp delays or mails not showing up in 'sent' i also use protonmail. for smtp (or any 3rd party client) you need to upgrade your account and install the bridge. this is because you need something to handle pgp. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kronepils · 2023-11-23 14:40 I’m using Zoho after years and years of self hosting. Never looked back :) I’m on the free account wish my custom domain btw. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Legitimate_Farm_3095 · 2023-11-23 14:54 i know you dont ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Lordingard · 2023-11-23 16:04 Infomaniak kMail 👍🏻. Based in Swiss, so very good data privacy protection. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- goizn_mi · 2023-11-23 16:05 They support inbound notifications of email. Outbound isn't as straightforward as it'll be considered a notifications and only set for a single address. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FuriousRageSE · 2023-11-23 16:52 Im going to use protonmail for my next domain im looking into getting (when i come up with a name for it :D) Custom domains sub-accounting or what its called, aliasing in email like gmail.. yourname+something@mail.tld so you can tag and see where spam and such comes from (who sold/leaked your email?) Proton mail have both imap and [smtp](https://proton.me/support/smtp- submission) available ---------------------------------------------------------------------- eXtc_be · 2023-11-23 17:25 +1 for MXRoute. I got their [Lifetime Plan](https://accounts.mxroute.com/index.php?/news/view/53/lifetime- plan/) and never looked back. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mafyuh · 2023-11-23 17:37 +1 Proton easily the best looking and privacy wise the best but also not the cheapest per month. I been paying for proton business to get SMTP tokens directly thru Proton but previous to that I was just using Hydroxide for SMTP but post is wrong Proton supports SMTP ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Marshmallow353 · 2023-11-23 17:52 I’ve not used it before, but does the Apple custom domain thing with ICloud+ not work for you? It looks decent and has very nice integration with Apple. As I say I’ve not tried it but it’s only 99p a month! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2023-11-23 17:57 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Possible-Summer-8508 · 2023-11-23 18:04 Tangential but I’ve been wondering this for a while — is anyone just offering “smtp relay” services? They deal with all the insanity that is required to get outgoing mail delivered but I custody my own data? Am I missing something as to why this doesn’t make sense? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HotSwap_ · 2023-11-23 18:11 Another one for Mxroute ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Altair12311 · 2023-11-23 18:27 https://purelymail.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- desnudopenguino · 2023-11-23 19:07 I use a combination on ProtonMail and Mailgun. I only have a few automated messages going out with mailgun a month so it's essentially free. I also started using mattermost as a notification channel for different things as well. It has the same API as slack, so you can hook it up to pretty much anything you can hook slack up to. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Simon-RedditAccount · 2023-11-23 19:17 * Google Workspace. Not the cheapest, and also by Google (although they claim they don't mine as much data from business accounts) * Zoho, $1.25/mo * iCloud+, $0.99/mo, but a bit limited (don't remember whether they have catch-all etc). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HoustonBOFH · 2023-11-23 19:35 Zoho has been solid for me as well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- saxxappeal · 2023-11-23 19:59 +1 Also bought into the lifetime plan and it's awesome! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AdmiralPoopyDiaper · 2023-11-23 20:12 Proton and Hey are of this new standards-hostile generation of services that really make my blood boil. You’re not pushing boundaries. You’re not cute. You could 100% do all the other things you want *and* still allow SMTP & IMAP. Being locked into crappy custom apps for problems that were solved four decades ago is aggravating af. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- graemep · 2023-11-23 20:43 I self host for one domain. The only issue is sending to Hotmail/Outlook addresses. Fixable by using a relay or getting a clean IP. Not hard to set up with tools like Mailinabox (the simplest I know of). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rollinghunger · 2023-11-23 22:02 How much do they charge for extra domains? I was trying to figure it out but their pricing didn’t make it clear. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- linkthepirate · 2023-11-23 22:04 They don't you pay per user license, you can add on like Azure P2 on top of Exchange Online but the base functionality is not to price. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rollinghunger · 2023-11-23 22:19 Thanks. They really should advertise that. It also looks like it’s possible to do catchall email addresses, but it appears like it’s a multi-step process: https://www.tecdisol.com/Blog/en/how-to-create-a- catch-all-account-on-microsoft-office-365/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- linkthepirate · 2023-11-23 22:23 Yeah I don't really feel the need to do it but I think the way I set it up for a client was like that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mehkanizm · 2023-11-23 22:49 https://www.mymangomail.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bobbarker4444 · 2023-11-23 23:45 I liked [mailbox.org](https://mailbox.org) until they kicked me off the plan I had been on for a year and wanted me to pay 3x the price I had been paying to keep using it. Even scummier is that I pre-paid for a year of my current plan a few days before they notified everyone of the price hikes and they wouldn't refund me. The mail service itself was totally fine; no complaints about the service itself, just the business practices. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- pbrom · 2023-11-24 00:03 Migadu, dirt cheap and reliable (using it since 2018) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ewixy750 · 2023-11-24 00:04 Exchange Online ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ayoungblood84 · 2023-11-24 01:03 I self host Mailu and don't have issues with it being blocked... If it's configured correctly you won't have issues. I've thought about creating a blog on how to build it but haven't. Any interest in this? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- a53mp · 2023-11-24 02:38 Just curious why not go with gmail business? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Fancy-You3022 · 2023-11-24 05:06 Use them as well. Free plan doesn’t support smtp/imap. You have to use their apps for mobile or desktop. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- brsh2 · 2023-11-24 05:35 surprised no one has mentioned [migadu.com](https://migadu.com) yet ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TokyoExplorer · 2023-11-24 06:15 I use a provider called Imageway ([](https://www.imageway.com/)), and they seem to offer really good email hosting. They are non-Microsoft based, and offer just about every major open email based protocol (IMAP, POP, SMTP, CalDAV, CardDAV) available. They also have features you won't find anywhere else like support for 2FA that works with IMAP/POP. Lastly they don't charge per email account like most of the other providers listed, instead they use a shared storage concept. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zfa · 2023-11-24 07:29 It would be remiss of me to not point out that up until somewhat recently they had a gaping wide security hole (for presumably years) that allowed any customer to send email as any other and fully pass their spf, dkim checks (due to shared signing). When this was disclosed they abused the reporter, kicked him off their service withou giving him time to back up his mail, tried to discredit him, lied that their bad practices were commonplace throughout the industry (narrator: they weren't) before finally going around removing all traces of the discussion. I was lucky(?) enough to see the reddit side of it as it unfolded and I've never seen such pseduo-tech bullshit being thrown around and well as nasty attacks on the reporter. So yeah, they're cheap but they also seem pretty poor technically (or at least were) and seem like horrible people. YMMV of course. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RyuuPendragon · 2023-11-24 08:35 Brevo formerly sendinblue, free plan will be enough for sending transactional emails using smtp or api. 300 emails per day on free plan. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lookq76 · 2023-11-24 08:46 I self host too, using modoboa The issue with many VPS is they block outgoing port 25 Cant selfhost at home because ISP didnt give public ip For now im just relay outgoing via sendgrid ---------------------------------------------------------------------- palukku · 2023-11-24 09:57 Beware that they allow a maximum outbound of 300 mails/hour. In case your "update notifications" etc. are exceeding this limit. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tledakis · 2023-11-24 10:46 I am using smtp2go to send out emails from my own services. The free plan allows 1k emails per month. You can set up your domain and it sends fine. For my own mail I use Fastmail and it is great. If the smtp is the only issue then smtp2go might be solution? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- xnoiak · 2023-11-24 11:59 Last week i've configured zoho to send emails from my apps using smtp. For IMAP and POP3 you need to use their apps (with free plan), but for sending mails, you can configure your app using zoho smtp server without problems. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cardyet · 2023-11-24 12:34 How about lark suite, I haven't tried, but have been meaning to, I'd you're happy with Gmail, Zoho, I'd say it's equivalent. I like infomaniak with their UI, although if you are not in Europe it's hard to sign up and I'd love to finally sign up to purely mail, but Cloudflare email forwarding covers what I need. Here's an outdated list. https://www.reddit.com/r/gsuitelegacymigration/s/xsimVL9oJA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-11-24 12:35 Thanks for the notice. My output is more like 2/messages per week, so should be good. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Fancy-You3022 · 2023-11-24 16:01 I wonder when that got changed? The reason I do this the way I do is because imap/pop/smtp was disabled for the free account. I just looked and it seems that only imap/pop are disabled now… Thanks for correcting me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Panja0 · 2023-11-24 17:56 Smtp2Go ---------------------------------------------------------------------- taco24501 · 2023-11-24 18:24 Rackspace ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ricklous · 2023-11-24 20:44 I signed up to zoho 7 years ago as their free tier allowed the use of a custom domain and multiple users, and ive always had full access via imap/pop/smtp. Around four years ago they binned off a bunch of the features for new signups, i think, but ive never had any taken away. I can disable any of the three for any of my users though, if i wanted to. Im wary of changing much in case i accidentally hit a tripwire and they decide i need to start paying 🤭 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- svjx · 2023-12-11 01:49 [Mango Mail](https://mymangomail.com/) may be a good option for you. It has unlimited addresses, and it comes with IMAP + POP3 + SMTP. As long as your scripts aren't spammy as you mentioned, you should be fine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- qwa5d · 2023-12-17 02:30 what did you decide? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-12-17 07:52 Settled with Fastmail, they fixed the SMTP delays for me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- qwa5d · 2023-12-17 15:33 thanks for your reply. why did you pick it over proton? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nisnete · 2023-12-17 15:37 Because I need smtp access for a couple of apps to send notifications.