First, being a smart programmer doesn't mean you're a smart/experienced sysadmin. Also, depending on the mailserver selected, installation difficulty varies. A

First, being a smart programmer doesn't mean you're a smart/experienced sysadmin. Also, depending on the mailserver selected, installation difficulty varies. And it can be harder your first time if you're setting up SSL. Took me several weeks to understand Apache HTTP server's reverse proxy set up and figure out how to modify it to support forward secrecy. I've found Zimbra to be easy to install and a delight to use. There's lot of great features such as spam filter and calendar. It's open source. Don't forget to set up your PTR (reverse DNS) which often involves specifically asking cloud providers to set this for you. Otherwise your emails will almost always be tagged as spam.