8 ms·

I've been using Maddy now for about a month for my email, and it's incredible. The dev says it's not caddy for email – but in my experience, it's certainly been

I've been using Maddy now for about a month for my email, and it's incredible. The dev says it's not caddy for email – but in my experience, it's certainly been that easy. I've got to write a longer article about this, but self-hosting email is incredibly liberating. I now own my entire digital identity. I can work on open source projects with developers around the world completely while relying only on my own capabilities.

ta1234567890 5y ago
What hosting service do you recommend to run it on?
- 3np 5y ago
  Vultr, Linode, Njalla, Hetzner, Scaleway
  - spuz 5y ago
    Have you actually hosted an email server on all five of those? As you mentioned in your other comment, it can be very helpful if your VPS provider is able to respond to support requests asking Microsoft for IP addresses to be whitelisted. I can't imagine all VPS providers would be so helpful but you didn't mention which one you were using in that comment.
    - lifty 5y ago
      I’m hosting my email on Scaleway for 4-5 years and have no issues with deliverability. Last time I checked my email server was correctly configured.
    - xarope 5y ago
      I'm hosting on linode, and once I had my SPF & DKIM records setup, things went a lot smoother.
    - unethical_ban 5y ago
      Late to the game. Vultr does block port 25 by default, but if you request it to be unblocked for your account and agree not to be abusive with the protocol, they'll open it up for you.
  - eps 5y ago
    Don't know about others, but Linode and Hetzner have parts of their IP space on spamming blacklists. As does Digital Ocean. So it's a lottery, basically.
- figbert 5y ago
  I use Hetzner, personally. Did a bit of a cost analysis here: https://figbert.com/posts/moving-to-hetzner-from-digitalocean/ https://figbert.com/posts/moving-to-hetzner-from-digitalocea...
  - foxcpp 5y ago
    Some parts of Hetzner IP space are in blacklists. It is a bit of a lottery here. Be sure to check IP you got.
- cfn 5y ago
  Maybe it helps to host the email server in a less known and maybe a bit more expensive ISP. I have been self hosting my company's emails for 10+ years and even changed IPs halfway (VPS migration). I vaguely remember having to setup DKIM and such when that became a things and never got any deliverability problems since (fingers crossed).
aetherspawn 5y ago
How did you get around deliverability issues?
- 3np 5y ago
  From someone else with similar experience: I've been following all best practices to the best of my abilities (rDNS/DMARC/DKIM/SPF/etc). After all that was properly in place, the only problematic receiver was Microsoft (outlook.com/hotmail.com/live.com), which bounced and provided an appeal process. I filled the form, was requested documentation from my ISP on the IP address. I asked my VPS hosting company (since they provide the public IP and therefore act as ISP) and they proactively reached out to Microsoft, who lifted the restriction after that. So since then no delivery issues. YMMV. If you intend to host this from your residential address, it can be a good idea to tunnel external traffic over VPN through a VPS or similar. Not only for privacy reasons, but also to get around ISP blocks and IP banlists. I don't know how flexible maddy is, but in postfix in case the above scenario wouldn't be resolved, I could have set to use mailgun/mailroute for MS domains only and relay like normally for others.
  - aetherspawn 5y ago
    What do you use as a mail client (on desktop and on phones), and do you have a solution for server side signatures? If so, how well have you found that it supports Reply and Forwarding insertion? Does it support embedding signature logos as hidden attachments to workaround blocked images?
  - kureikain 5y ago
    Do you also have any issue with icloud? I somehow get bad IP range and never been able to have them whitelist me, re-attempting seems just put put me into a blackhole queue support on their team :(
  - 2Gkashmiri 5y ago
    i have been using mailinabox on a vps server and all the major email tests say the mailbox is fine. only gmail treats my emails as spam. others just work fine. i don't know what to do other than having to call receipients and ask them to unspam the mail. That doesnt seem to "train" their spam filters so don't know
dheera 5y ago
Is there some sort of web interface for self-hosted e-mail that is reasonably good and sleek/modern-looking like Gmail, and also works well on mobile with swipe gestures and everything?
- lightspot21 5y ago
  The new Roundcube is pretty good these days
  - atatatat 5y ago
    Quite good.
- 3np 5y ago
  I imagine this comes down to personal preference a lot, but I strongly prefer Roundcube over Gmail. They have improved a lot over the past years, if you have some preconceptions. After 10y+ on Gmail I finally feel like I am getting a grasp over my own email. But then I also very much prefer a hierarchical/directory tree approach to organizing e-mail than labels&search as Gmail does it. More similar UX-philosophy can be found in Mailpile[1] and Cypht[2]. Both still have decent amount of moving parts but are continuously progressing. [0]: https://github.com/roundcube/roundcubemail/ https://github.com/roundcube/roundcubemail/ [1]: https://github.com/mailpile/Mailpile https://github.com/mailpile/Mailpile [2]: https://cypht.org/ https://cypht.org/
  - 3np 5y ago
    Oh, I forgot to mention Rainloop, which is quite similar to Roundcube.
- figbert 5y ago
  I try and use native clients or TUIs rather than webmail. I'm current using Mail.app and aerc and having a blast.
  - samtuke 5y ago

ta1234567890 5y ago

What hosting service do you recommend to run it on?

3np 5y ago
Vultr, Linode, Njalla, Hetzner, Scaleway
- spuz 5y ago
  Have you actually hosted an email server on all five of those? As you mentioned in your other comment, it can be very helpful if your VPS provider is able to respond to support requests asking Microsoft for IP addresses to be whitelisted. I can't imagine all VPS providers would be so helpful but you didn't mention which one you were using in that comment.
  - lifty 5y ago
    I’m hosting my email on Scaleway for 4-5 years and have no issues with deliverability. Last time I checked my email server was correctly configured.
  - xarope 5y ago
    I'm hosting on linode, and once I had my SPF & DKIM records setup, things went a lot smoother.
  - unethical_ban 5y ago
    Late to the game. Vultr does block port 25 by default, but if you request it to be unblocked for your account and agree not to be abusive with the protocol, they'll open it up for you.
- eps 5y ago
  Don't know about others, but Linode and Hetzner have parts of their IP space on spamming blacklists. As does Digital Ocean. So it's a lottery, basically.
figbert 5y ago
I use Hetzner, personally. Did a bit of a cost analysis here: https://figbert.com/posts/moving-to-hetzner-from-digitalocean/ https://figbert.com/posts/moving-to-hetzner-from-digitalocea...
- foxcpp 5y ago
  Some parts of Hetzner IP space are in blacklists. It is a bit of a lottery here. Be sure to check IP you got.
cfn 5y ago
Maybe it helps to host the email server in a less known and maybe a bit more expensive ISP. I have been self hosting my company's emails for 10+ years and even changed IPs halfway (VPS migration). I vaguely remember having to setup DKIM and such when that became a things and never got any deliverability problems since (fingers crossed).

aetherspawn 5y ago

How did you get around deliverability issues?

3np 5y ago
From someone else with similar experience: I've been following all best practices to the best of my abilities (rDNS/DMARC/DKIM/SPF/etc). After all that was properly in place, the only problematic receiver was Microsoft (outlook.com/hotmail.com/live.com), which bounced and provided an appeal process. I filled the form, was requested documentation from my ISP on the IP address. I asked my VPS hosting company (since they provide the public IP and therefore act as ISP) and they proactively reached out to Microsoft, who lifted the restriction after that. So since then no delivery issues. YMMV. If you intend to host this from your residential address, it can be a good idea to tunnel external traffic over VPN through a VPS or similar. Not only for privacy reasons, but also to get around ISP blocks and IP banlists. I don't know how flexible maddy is, but in postfix in case the above scenario wouldn't be resolved, I could have set to use mailgun/mailroute for MS domains only and relay like normally for others.
- aetherspawn 5y ago
  What do you use as a mail client (on desktop and on phones), and do you have a solution for server side signatures? If so, how well have you found that it supports Reply and Forwarding insertion? Does it support embedding signature logos as hidden attachments to workaround blocked images?
- kureikain 5y ago
  Do you also have any issue with icloud? I somehow get bad IP range and never been able to have them whitelist me, re-attempting seems just put put me into a blackhole queue support on their team :(
- 2Gkashmiri 5y ago
  i have been using mailinabox on a vps server and all the major email tests say the mailbox is fine. only gmail treats my emails as spam. others just work fine. i don't know what to do other than having to call receipients and ask them to unspam the mail. That doesnt seem to "train" their spam filters so don't know

dheera 5y ago

Is there some sort of web interface for self-hosted e-mail that is reasonably good and sleek/modern-looking like Gmail, and also works well on mobile with swipe gestures and everything?

lightspot21 5y ago
The new Roundcube is pretty good these days
- atatatat 5y ago
  Quite good.
3np 5y ago
I imagine this comes down to personal preference a lot, but I strongly prefer Roundcube over Gmail. They have improved a lot over the past years, if you have some preconceptions. After 10y+ on Gmail I finally feel like I am getting a grasp over my own email. But then I also very much prefer a hierarchical/directory tree approach to organizing e-mail than labels&search as Gmail does it. More similar UX-philosophy can be found in Mailpile[1] and Cypht[2]. Both still have decent amount of moving parts but are continuously progressing. [0]: https://github.com/roundcube/roundcubemail/ https://github.com/roundcube/roundcubemail/ [1]: https://github.com/mailpile/Mailpile https://github.com/mailpile/Mailpile [2]: https://cypht.org/ https://cypht.org/
- 3np 5y ago
  Oh, I forgot to mention Rainloop, which is quite similar to Roundcube.
figbert 5y ago
I try and use native clients or TUIs rather than webmail. I'm current using Mail.app and aerc and having a blast.
- samtuke 5y ago