Figure I’d ask here, but I’m looking to set something up for email in the future, I’m looking into custom domains so that if something happens with one email account, then I have more security in mind to pick up from there as opposed to being screwed.
I know that fully self hosting email full stop is usually not recommended, so I’m up for any advice anyone has on that end.
I use Mailcow myself and as long as you follow all the necessary anti-spam steps (DKIM/DMARC/SPF/etc.), it seems to work just fine.
If you’re not into all that, I would definitely recommend Proton’s hosted option. Other hosted options are also just fine for most people (even Google and Microsoft will provide you with affordable and reliable email hosting) but those are generally run by Big Tech™. On the other hand, supporting the little guy is nice and all but it also leaves you open to hacks and business continuity risks if the hosting market ever takes a turn for the worse.
is mailcow the kind of thing where you can host your email server yourself without paying any reoccurring fees beyond your domain name? Im new to homelabs too and I’ve been wondering how to get started with that for a while. proton would be great for me if it was free but I’m really against reoccurring payments, I don’t even have Netflix lol
Keep in mind you’ll also need a static IP address somewhere (price varies). Whether that’s on your home connection or a vps, you’ll likely run into delivery problems periodically.
Mailcow is a system to set up a fully-featured mail server through Docker. It takes care of configuring various mail servers, setting up a web interface, and comes with a web admin interface that lets you add domains/accounts/etc. and comes with tools that will generate DNS records for you. It also includes Exchange ActiveSync, which means that you can sync contacts/calendars through it as well if your mail client supports that protocol.
You’ll still need to pay for a server somewhere, and quite a chunky one at that; with clamav and full text search, you can easily run into trouble with 4-6GB of RAM. You can get that number down by disabling optional features, of course.
Hosting from your home IP is tricky (most residential IPs are on blacklists and have been for over two decades). If you can get a different IP routed to your server you can still make it work (i.e. grab a free VM from a VPS provider with an unlimited free tier like Oracle and set up a VPN to forward the necessary ports) but I don’t know how well Mailcow’s tooling deals with setups like that.
The biggest downside to self-hosting email is that you need to make sure you keep backups, and that you’re stuck with the TLD. If you were one of those people who used .af for funny domain names (risky.af and such, or English people using .eu domains), you’ll have noticed how relying on a domain can be a problem. Make sure to use a domain within your local jurisdiction so you won’t lose access!