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Which user demographic is running one's own email server ideal for? My consultancy handles "all things technology" for multiple small businesses (sized 1-50 pe

Which user demographic is running one's own email server ideal for? My consultancy handles "all things technology" for multiple small businesses (sized 1-50 people, located mostly in South Asia). Anecdotally: A lot of these folks are happily using mybusinesname.accounts@gmail.com and so-on, but decide to get their own domain for the added veneer of "professionalism". Many are happy to use Yandex (1000 users with your own domain for free @10GB/inbox. Probably not appealing for some Americans given US-Russia political issues). Startups/sole entrepreneurs typically come to us after they've purchased a GoDaddy domain and selected the "Business Email" option upon checkout, so they just continue using it. There's a small sample of companies who are willing to pay for Google Apps because they like Gmail's web UI, and they want the rest of the Apps Suite too. We also deal with a lot of local big corporations for project work. They're almost always using some kind of in-house corporate email system running Microsoft Exchange Server with a number of different rules like no attachments over 5 MB and other such silliness. For us to invest time in setting up a mail server for a customer there would have to be a very rare confluence of: a) I don't want Yandex b) I don't want to pay for Google Apps / Zoho / other c) (Optionally) I want to send 500000 marketing/transactional emails per day but I don't want to pay Sendgrid/Mailgun/Mailchimp/SES To set it up we'd have to establish pricing and SLA. Would I agree that we do it for less than $5/user/month? Nope! I can't really see a compelling case to do it unless you're a hobbyist with strong philosophical perspectives on this topic. Maybe my point of view is different because of Geography but I doubt things are very different elsewhere in the world as far as cost/effort is concerned.

bluedino 7y ago
Lots of businesses run their own email server. It's not that complicated. The easiest way to do it is to buy an email server, you can use Exchange or you can use something like iMail or Kerio. Install that on a server, get a static IP from your ISP, put the server behind a firewall, and point your DNS servers for your domain to it. Then generate an SPF record, and you should be good. That's how many people do it. As a bonus, you don't need to pay $10/user per month for hosted mail, or deal with Exchange licenses, but you will probably want to back the server up from time to time. You even get webmail with it! The advantage/disadvantage of this setup is that it's now up to you get to get yourself off spam blacklists and such. When BIG_EMAIL_HOST is having problems, there's nothing you can do but wait. But with your own servers, you are the one who gets to email the spam department of BIG_ISP to request removal, and then there's nothing you can do but wait. If you know Linux, you can setup Postfix, but I did say 'the easy way'.
- efdee 7y ago
  Setting these things up is not the hard thing. Building reputation, not getting refused because your subnet neighbour decided to start spamming, having to deal with BIG_EMAIL_HOST not accepting your emails, bla bla bla. Setting things up is actually the fun, easy part.
- slenk 7y ago
  Most removal from spam lists that I have had to deal with so far has been entirely automated. (Microsoft, some of the big lists). I haven't actually had an ISP block me yet, but I also run my mail server from a VPS, so I don't have to send it from a residential line.

bluedino 7y ago

Lots of businesses run their own email server. It's not that complicated. The easiest way to do it is to buy an email server, you can use Exchange or you can use something like iMail or Kerio. Install that on a server, get a static IP from your ISP, put the server behind a firewall, and point your DNS servers for your domain to it. Then generate an SPF record, and you should be good. That's how many people do it. As a bonus, you don't need to pay $10/user per month for hosted mail, or deal with Exchange licenses, but you will probably want to back the server up from time to time. You even get webmail with it! The advantage/disadvantage of this setup is that it's now up to you get to get yourself off spam blacklists and such. When BIG_EMAIL_HOST is having problems, there's nothing you can do but wait. But with your own servers, you are the one who gets to email the spam department of BIG_ISP to request removal, and then there's nothing you can do but wait. If you know Linux, you can setup Postfix, but I did say 'the easy way'.

efdee 7y ago
Setting these things up is not the hard thing. Building reputation, not getting refused because your subnet neighbour decided to start spamming, having to deal with BIG_EMAIL_HOST not accepting your emails, bla bla bla. Setting things up is actually the fun, easy part.
slenk 7y ago
Most removal from spam lists that I have had to deal with so far has been entirely automated. (Microsoft, some of the big lists). I haven't actually had an ISP block me yet, but I also run my mail server from a VPS, so I don't have to send it from a residential line.