My mail server running on DigitalOcean has been relatively trouble free over the last 9 years. It runs docker-mailserver and is used by me and a dozen employees of my various small businesses.
It requires some effort to maintain and understand, and I’ve had a few deliverability issues over the years but they are generally with niche providers. I’ve never had trouble sending mail to the big providers.
Every time I read comments about the impracticality of self-hosted email, I scratch my head. Maybe I’ve just been lucky.
I think DO is really good about policing their IP space. When I signed up for the Microsoft JMRP [0], DO was already a contact of record for the IP I was using. I just appended myself to the list to get any abuse reports as well.
>Every time I read comments about the impracticality of self-hosted email, I scratch my head. Maybe I’ve just been lucky.
I feel the same. I've had one or two hiccups but smooth sailing for the most part. I'm also happy to provide receipts that show how the recipient's mail server is responding when I send the emails. It's a powerful tool to say, "your mail provider is misbehaving, look!" They will wonder how many people tried to send them email that didn't get to them.
That's what I've been using for some years and it's never been a problem for me. You are right that you have to have at least a basic understanding of how a mail server works, and there is some configuration to know about. But I think of all the things I host myself, docker-mailserver is the least cumbersome and among the most reliable.
It requires some effort to maintain and understand, and I’ve had a few deliverability issues over the years but they are generally with niche providers. I’ve never had trouble sending mail to the big providers.
Every time I read comments about the impracticality of self-hosted email, I scratch my head. Maybe I’ve just been lucky.