this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
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I had a free google workspace for over a decade with a domain I own before it became a paid service, I’m looking at putting it all in my hands ideally using services that cost less than the $15/Month in paying for a handful of accounts.

I’m looking at running a Nextcloud to replace most of the Google services but I still haven’t found an email server replacement. Any ideas/suggestions/links to guides?

Edit: I’m not necessarily looking to host my own email, as I understand it to be a pain, but looking to migrate my current one to somewhere else.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

I switched from google to Proton and it's been solid.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Well the obligatory mention that selfhosting email is more headache than what its worth. You don't wan't to be told from expecting recipient that email from you never arrive since their provider blackholed your mail into oblivion.

Try mxroute for email. Currently theres ongoing black friday promo for $15 triennially. https://mxroute.blackfriday/

[–] jws_shadotak 1 points 9 months ago

Protonmail is good. I did the same thing you're doing and proton seems to be a reputable brand at the moment.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

If you want unlimited accounts I'd recommend mail cheap

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Proton mail

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

fastmail.com if you want unlimited dynamically created aliases. It's a very flexible solution in general. I have setup where emails to [email protected] automatically create a folder "whatever" and route email in it. Also works with multiple users.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I wouldn't host my own email server.

If I was to migrate my legacy Workspace, I'd move it to M365...

Yeah, it's not self hosted, but sometimes, not being at fault for something that's broken... Would be nice!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I moved to Zillium (Zoho Family plan) but not 100% happy with them. Heaps of threads on migration and options on the Google Workspace Reddit starting around the time they tried to remove the free legacy plans.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I can highly recommend Zoho. Zoho mail

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Got Apple devices? iCloud+ for .99/month gives you the ability to use a custom domain for your mail. Not sure it can get much cheaper.

Proton mail is a great private hosted for a bit more $

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I use namecheap stupid cheap web hosting that comes with 10gb pop/imap email $4.33/mo I just let the cache fill up on my client while the mailbox empties and I do backups of the PST. I use the webclient for operation.

Not as featured but beats the bells and whistles for personal use.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

There's always protonmail hosted, secure, cheapish

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I use and recommend Mailu to self host email as it’s a complete solution but is easier to set up and back up than others. I also use and recommend an smtp server to use as relay host so you can avoid deliverability issues that you might likely have by sending emails directly from your server as your ip might be blacklisted, you need to work hard for reputation etc. I avoid all of this by using Zepto Mail to send emails. It ridiculously cheap but deliverability is awesome and emails reach the recipient quickly. It costs only 2.50 bucks per credit and a credit is for a whopping 10k emails and expires in 6 months. So it’s extremely cheap but at the same time reliable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Just use mailbox.org or posteo. They’re cheap and reliable

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

For nextcloud I would recommend using the all-in-one setup, but as far as email you might want to use an already existing solution rather than trying to host it yourself. I would recommend protonmail for your email since all the other common options like Microsoft and Google are not privacy respecting.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I can really recommend Mailcow, and if you have a Synology NAS, Synology Mail Server. Receiving emails is the easy part. Sending them is the tricky one. If you wish to self host at home, you will need an external provider anyway, like a cheap VPS for its dedicated IP. If you already rely on something external, you may just use an SMTP service, like AWS SES, what is dirt cheap on a home lab level. (I have not paid anything since I started to use them with my weekly 5 email sent.) I can also recommend forwardemail.net for catching emails for a domain or a specific email address and just forward them to any email address. For $3 a month, they offer an SMTP service, too, so you can use them to send emails from your domain.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Hosting is not that difficult as some comment describe it. But in the same time, check your domain provider services. Mine, for domain + mailboxes cost splaying like 3€/month

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I use cloudflare, the free tier, that includes email associated to your domain. In essence it will route email messages to any domain/address you own to a destination. Say outlook.com or gmail.com free email tier.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

See this howto: https://poolp.org/posts/2019-09-14/setting-up-a-mail-server-with-opensmtpd-dovecot-and-rspamd/

I have delivery to the inbox of all major providers using this. Email is not that hard..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

for email, there's gmx

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

If you are really looking to be hosted for nothing at all, check out disroot.org. I use them for my primary email account. They also host Nextcloud.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Maybe consider mailbox.org. It is cheap, supports custom domains and is hosted in Germany.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I can recommend iCloud email, it starts at $1/month and also includes cloud storage if you want to use that for some reason. It does have a website so you can technically use it without any Apple devices as long as you make an account, and it also allows catch-all emails. I use Cloudflare for Nameservers and it automatically connected and added email records

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I'm so tired of people saying self-hosting email is hard or unreliable. I've been using Mailcow for probably 5 years now and I've had very little issues ever with it once I fully set it up. I've been blacklisted a total of twice and both times were because I hadn't set up reverse DNS properly.

Sure, if you just set up your email on a new domain with a $5 VPS it's going to take a little bit to build up your sender reputation with major email providers, but that's no reason to just give up completely.

Email is not new technology, it is not hard to set up and maintain. Mailcow even has a built in tool that checks your DNS records out and tells you what to set everything to and if it's currently correct or not. It also has Nextcloud helper functionality that lets you authenticate Nextcloud users against Mailcow users with OAuth.

I host email for all of my family and some automated mailer accounts for my website and I've had no issues, it's probably been the most problem-free service I host.

+1 for Mailcow, it's easy to maintain and painless to set up :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Idk I really like cock.li

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

For email I think the best choice is still M365. It's not free and not self hosted but IMHO it's by far the best e-mail/collaboration suit that exists

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I use Migadu

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

You can check Purelymail if it can suit your req for mail.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I recently dumped google, and I'm using Nextcloud for almost everything. It's great.

Zoho for email. I'm paying $12/year per address.
I know you can get it for free but I'd rather pay for my services to work than pay nothing and wonder why they go out of business or have intrusive privacy policies (lest we end up with another google).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Don't be your own email admin. Get a $1 CPanel host from anywhere and you're good to go.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I used to host my email server with https://mailinabox.email/. It was okay. However, it required some care in delivering and receiving emails after I just configured it: in the sense of removing it from blacklists and talking with some ISPs so they accept emails from my server.