I had a free google workspace for over a decade with a domain I own before it became a paid service, I’m looking at putting it all in my hands ideally using services that cost less than the $15/Month in paying for a handful of accounts.
I’m looking at running a Nextcloud to replace most of the Google services but I still haven’t found an email server replacement. Any ideas/suggestions/links to guides?
Edit: I’m not necessarily looking to host my own email, as I understand it to be a pain, but looking to migrate my current one to somewhere else.
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I switched from google to Proton and it’s been solid.
Don’t be your own email admin. Get a $1 CPanel host from anywhere and you’re good to go.
There’s always protonmail hosted, secure, cheapish
Hosting is not that difficult as some comment describe it. But in the same time, check your domain provider services. Mine, for domain + mailboxes cost splaying like 3€/month
I use cloudflare, the free tier, that includes email associated to your domain. In essence it will route email messages to any domain/address you own to a destination. Say outlook.com or gmail.com free email tier.
If you want unlimited accounts I’d recommend mail cheap
I can really recommend Mailcow, and if you have a Synology NAS, Synology Mail Server. Receiving emails is the easy part. Sending them is the tricky one. If you wish to self host at home, you will need an external provider anyway, like a cheap VPS for its dedicated IP. If you already rely on something external, you may just use an SMTP service, like AWS SES, what is dirt cheap on a home lab level. (I have not paid anything since I started to use them with my weekly 5 email sent.) I can also recommend forwardemail.net for catching emails for a domain or a specific email address and just forward them to any email address. For $3 a month, they offer an SMTP service, too, so you can use them to send emails from your domain.
for email, there’s gmx
Proton mail
I can recommend iCloud email, it starts at $1/month and also includes cloud storage if you want to use that for some reason. It does have a website so you can technically use it without any Apple devices as long as you make an account, and it also allows catch-all emails. I use Cloudflare for Nameservers and it automatically connected and added email records
I use namecheap stupid cheap web hosting that comes with 10gb pop/imap email $4.33/mo I just let the cache fill up on my client while the mailbox empties and I do backups of the PST. I use the webclient for operation.
Not as featured but beats the bells and whistles for personal use.
fastmail.com if you want unlimited dynamically created aliases. It’s a very flexible solution in general. I have setup where emails to [email protected] automatically create a folder “whatever” and route email in it. Also works with multiple users.
Well the obligatory mention that selfhosting email is more headache than what its worth. You don’t wan’t to be told from expecting recipient that email from you never arrive since their provider blackholed your mail into oblivion.
Try mxroute for email. Currently theres ongoing black friday promo for $15 triennially. https://mxroute.blackfriday/
For nextcloud I would recommend using the all-in-one setup, but as far as email you might want to use an already existing solution rather than trying to host it yourself. I would recommend protonmail for your email since all the other common options like Microsoft and Google are not privacy respecting.
I use and recommend Mailu to self host email as it’s a complete solution but is easier to set up and back up than others. I also use and recommend an smtp server to use as relay host so you can avoid deliverability issues that you might likely have by sending emails directly from your server as your ip might be blacklisted, you need to work hard for reputation etc. I avoid all of this by using Zepto Mail to send emails. It ridiculously cheap but deliverability is awesome and emails reach the recipient quickly. It costs only 2.50 bucks per credit and a credit is for a whopping 10k emails and expires in 6 months. So it’s extremely cheap but at the same time reliable.