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Comment by ryandrake | Hacker News Reader

Mail is not hard to self-host. There is a one-time setup toil you need to just sit down and get past, but then… it just sits there working. I’ve self-hosted Email for over a decade, on a $5/mo Linux VPS running Debian, exim, and dovecot. Multiple domains, multiple users, SSL, SPF, DKIM, the works. Since Email doesn’t cost anything in terms of computing load, I do light duty web hosting from the same box. $5 a month to not have to rely on the graces of megacorps to function on the internet.

Even if you’re scared of Linux and writing exim.conf, there are more or less turnkey docker containers out there and whatnot too. I can’t recommend one because I think docker is pointless for a single host running a few applications.

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it's pointless to self-host mail (except for backups maybe) because 99% of your normal-life recipients are likely to be on Google and the content of your emails will be ingested by the big brother anyway.

My reason for self hosting is not to keep my data away from BigTech. That’s a fight nobody can win anymore.

The reason I do it is that E-mail is often the only identity on other services I use (it’s often the only way to reset your passwords), and I feel it is too risky to be dependent on a megacorp for my identity, a megacorp who may decide out of the blue to suspend my account for no reason.

I’m dependent on my VPS provider, but I have backups and can take my Debian config with me to a different one. Or bare metal if I have to.

I’m dependent on my DNS registrar and haven’t figured out a good way to mitigate that risk.

Besides that, that’s it.

I agree about identity, but this can also be accomplished by "owning" your domain and using a mail provider that allow you to use it. Even Apple does nowadays.

Has domain management gotten easier over the years? I had always hard how much of a game it w trying to keep up with making sure a self-hosted email server isn't blocked or flagged as spam.

That plus the fact that the receiver on almost all my emails would be storing them on one of the few big providers and it just never felt worth it.

I basically don’t even have to lift a finger. Once set up, everything just hums along. Security updates only.

I have very, very rare deliverability problems, maybe once every two years AT&T decides to block mails from my domain but I resolve it through their easy process.

I have the advantage of having done this for 15 or so years so my IP has some good reputation, but I don’t think IP reputation is really that huge or necessary. The first rule of self hosting Email is “never spam—not even once.” Follow that and you’re in good shape.

Great to hear, thanks for sharing! I self host a Nextcloud server for the basics, sounds like it's time for me to revisit email self hosting as well

Until Google and Microsoft decide they don't like your IP, or you missed a step in setting up the things you mentioned like SPF or DKIM. It is easy to stand up a mail server, but deliverability is still a challenge.

Neither Google or Microsoft use long term IP reputation. They may temporarily block an IP for various reasons (it will even reflect that in the SMTP error message), but never in the long term. All major email service providers work with domain reputation, not IP reputation.

However, you do need proof that you 'own' the IP address by means of a reverse IP address. ISPs generally don't allow their customers to set a reverse-DNS record for the IP address, because you do not own the IP. Since most spam originates from botnets from consumer IP addresses, adding the reverse-DNS requirement resulted in a huge reduction in spam.

The email service providers didn't ruin email, spammers did.

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