10 votes

A month-and-a-half of self-hosted email

6 comments

  1. [6]
    acdw
    Link
    I keep vacillating on whether I want to self-host my email or not. This post makes me think it might be okay, though others have made me think it'll be hard. I'd love to see a play-by-play of what...

    I keep vacillating on whether I want to self-host my email or not. This post makes me think it might be okay, though others have made me think it'll be hard. I'd love to see a play-by-play of what this author did to set it up.

    It's tempting b/c I could fold the $50 I pay Fastmail a year into a generic hoster and run a VPS with my site and email all together on it.

    3 votes
    1. [3]
      DataWraith
      Link Parent
      I used to self-host my mail on a VPS, but decided to move to Fastmail after a while. There were no real problems; mailinabox made everything painless, but I still had to invest a bit of time into...

      I used to self-host my mail on a VPS, but decided to move to Fastmail after a while. There were no real problems; mailinabox made everything painless, but I still had to invest a bit of time into software updates and such. Since mailinabox needed to be in control of the entire VPS, renting one just for mail was no cheaper than paying for a traditional provider, so I figured I may as well switch. I'd say if you don't strongly prefer self-hosting on ideological grounds you should take a good look at how much you value your time vs. the peace of mind that having a professional host that takes care of everything provides.

      As for the play-by-play for setting up a server, the previous post on the blog links this article, which has a detailed tutorial.

      6 votes
      1. [2]
        acdw
        Link Parent
        I did not know this, and it's kind of a deal-breaker. If I'm paying for a whole VPS I might as well pay Fastmail. Thanks!

        Since mailinabox needed to be in control of the entire VPS, renting one just for mail was no cheaper than paying for a traditional provider

        I did not know this, and it's kind of a deal-breaker. If I'm paying for a whole VPS I might as well pay Fastmail. Thanks!

        1 vote
        1. DataWraith
          Link Parent
          You're welcome. :) The Mail-in-a-box pre-flight checklist gives a good overview of the pitfalls. Apparently you actually can host static content on the mail-in-a-box instance (I forgot about...

          You're welcome. :)

          The Mail-in-a-box pre-flight checklist gives a good overview of the pitfalls. Apparently you actually can host static content on the mail-in-a-box instance (I forgot about that), but they estimate a cost of about 12$ per month for the whole thing, which is certainly more than a hosted solution costs -- and then you wouldn't have redundant storage or backups handled yet. They suggest some other solutions if you can't dedicate a box to email alone, but since I haven't used any of those, I can't comment further.

          2 votes
    2. [2]
      Turtle
      Link Parent
      I found this script a while ago that sets up a server for you automatically. idk how well it works but I've used two other "auto-setup" scripts of his (LARBS and mutt-wizard) and they worked...

      I found this script a while ago that sets up a server for you automatically. idk how well it works but I've used two other "auto-setup" scripts of his (LARBS and mutt-wizard) and they worked perfectly. Might want to look in to it if you want to self host.

      2 votes
      1. acdw
        Link Parent
        Oh, this is great! Also nice to see the Vultr affiliate link on there. I've been thinking about trying them :)

        Oh, this is great! Also nice to see the Vultr affiliate link on there. I've been thinking about trying them :)

        1 vote