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Your own mailserver running on your own hardware on your own premises routing to your own domain with an MX backup routed to someone you trust who is on another

Your own mailserver running on your own hardware on your own premises routing to your own domain with an MX backup routed to someone you trust who is on another provider - you can do the same for them. Add a web mail client if you want to have web access (Roundcube has served me well for many years now, the Nextcloud/Owncloud mail client also works but lacks some features). Do this and you never have to worry about being left out to hang because of some company dropping a product or going bankrupt. Maintaining a mail server takes about 8 hrs/year which - if translated into billable hours - might be more expensive than using a commercial alternative but it also gives you far more flexibility and freedom in how to handle your mail. Make sure to route outgoing mail through a reliable smart host to avoid it being blackholed by the likes of Google and Microsoft. Source: personal experience, I've done this for about 23 years now. There are many others who have detailed their experience running their own mail servers on this site... https://hn.algolia.com/?query=run%20own%20mail%20server&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=run%20own%20mail%20server&sort... ...and elsewhere.

ssijak 8y ago
Sure, let us just replicate yours 23 years of experience and knowledge in a few days..
- Yetanfou 8y ago
  What a silly remark, with that attitude you'd never start anything 'new'. Of course you do not need to 'replicate 23 years of experience ... in a few days' to run a mail server. There is plenty of information on the 'net on the subject of running one of these, it is far from rocket science and something which I assume the average HN reader can handle with ease. Don't take my word on it, just read around a bit and ignore those who decry the foolishness of doing something yourself when you can pay people to do it for you.
  - roguewit 8y ago
    That's a lot of assumption, there. You assume we all have an extra box lying around to serve. You assume we all have the DIY attitude--or the time--to set one up. You assume that all E-mail users are smart enough to do this. And you assume (for my case, at least) that setting up AND maintaining a premise e-mail server is something we all WANT to do (after, you know, a long day of tending to company servers and equipment). And, finally, there's the assumption that the irrelevance of this avenue (as it IS outside the scope of the OP's question) is warranted or welcomed feedback.

ssijak 8y ago

Sure, let us just replicate yours 23 years of experience and knowledge in a few days..

Yetanfou 8y ago
What a silly remark, with that attitude you'd never start anything 'new'. Of course you do not need to 'replicate 23 years of experience ... in a few days' to run a mail server. There is plenty of information on the 'net on the subject of running one of these, it is far from rocket science and something which I assume the average HN reader can handle with ease. Don't take my word on it, just read around a bit and ignore those who decry the foolishness of doing something yourself when you can pay people to do it for you.
- roguewit 8y ago
  That's a lot of assumption, there. You assume we all have an extra box lying around to serve. You assume we all have the DIY attitude--or the time--to set one up. You assume that all E-mail users are smart enough to do this. And you assume (for my case, at least) that setting up AND maintaining a premise e-mail server is something we all WANT to do (after, you know, a long day of tending to company servers and equipment). And, finally, there's the assumption that the irrelevance of this avenue (as it IS outside the scope of the OP's question) is warranted or welcomed feedback.