Connecting Django with a mail backend is easy. Installing and configuring a vanilla mail server (postfix + dovecot) is easy as well, problem is ongoing maintena

Connecting Django with a mail backend is easy. Installing and configuring a vanilla mail server (postfix + dovecot) is easy as well, problem is ongoing maintenance/monitoring and most importantly, deliverability (many mail servers will drop your mail without notice, esp. coming from a cloud ISP like Linode), that's why you are better off outsourcing mail, which is not expensive. Regarding receiving email and Django, not sure if you intent to process messages automatically or what, that's not trivial.