HN Explorer

Ask HN: Where to host my personal email

6 points by louwrentius ↗ HN
I have a personal email address dating back 20+ years. It’s tied to my parents internet provider and when they are gone, my email address will disappear with them. I got this mail address when their internet provider was called “Multikabel” (now Ziggo), some older Dutch people will remember.

I’m going to buy my own domain for my new email address, but I wonder where I should host my email.

As email is so important and tied to many things, it must be robust. So gmail seems obvious. But I feel exposed by that, I don’t like it. Ideally I don’t put my email straight in the hands of the USA, although I admit I don’t know how Ziggo is handling Email, who knows what they do.

I feel it should be a Dutch or European company, but I’m open to any ideas. I’m also open to how people look at this “challenge”

Any suggestions are welcome!

14 comments

[ 0.20 ms ] story [ 43.6 ms ] thread
lm411
I've been running my own email server for the last 10 years or so using iRedMail / CentOS on a cheap VM. It requires very little maintenance and I never have problems with delivery (just make sure you have DMARC, DKIM, SPF, all setup).

Occasionally I consider moving to service provider but I don't really trust any of them with something so important. Especially Google, as there are so many cases of people getting locked out of their account with virtually no support available to them.

If I were going to switch to a provider, it would likely be Proton. They are based out of Switzerland and as far as I know have an outstanding reputation.

https://proton.me

louwrentius
Thank you for sharing - I've considered self-hosting but I'm always afraid that just when you need it to work properly the most, it fails somehow.

I'll look into proton, thank you.

scarlehoff
I'm currently using fastmail. I wanted something robust and wanted to avoid google. I'm happy with them.

The other option I considered was mailbox.org, but testing the interfaces of both I decided fastmail was a bit nicer to use.

jarreed0
I would recommend setting up a vps with tornadovps.com and hosting it there. Fairly cheap and fast.
zzo38computer
What I do is I run my own email server for receiving, and use the ISP's email server for sending. (I seem to remember that this is an option when installing Exim.)
louwrentius
That's a very interesting option, I'm not fond of running my own mail server in the sense of the actual work, but being in control feels right. Seems like a nice compromise.
lm411
Note that this requires the outbound mail server to support relaying, and again make sure your sending domain's SPF is correct. Your sending domain must list [email provider smtp outbound] in its SPF record.

I would only choose this option if I were having delivery issues. Which I never have with this setup.

Also, if you route your emails through your ISP, well, don't expect privacy.

comprev
Fastmail or Proton Mail.

I use the former for personal and latter for business.

mkbkn
Check out PurelyMail
atgc
I'm using Fastmail and satisfied with the service, but considering moving to Freedom Internet (NL) when my subscription is up for renewal since they're a local privacy-focused party: https://freedom.nl/diensten/mail
decide1000
I use Fastmail and only found 1 downside; if you take a personal plan for 3 years and you want to add business paid accounts (employees), those are 3 year plans as well instead of monthly.