One of the things I don’t really want to self host is a mail server, especially for outbound mail. Currently I’m using a Gmail account, but I want to change that.

What do you all use for things like notifications sent through smtp?

I’m leaning towards AWS SES since it’s cheap, but I know there are some other options like mailgun and sendgrid.

  • Matt@netmonkey.techEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    Sendgrid has a free plan, I know, but I believe you’re limited on the number of emails you can send per day.

    • GreyBeard@lemmy.oneEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      I use SMTP2Go for a verity of things. It’s simple and pretty configurable. If you are using it, I recommend setting up a subdomain specifically for sending mail, that way you can isolate SPF/DKIM records from your primary domain.

  • eddie@fig.systemsEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    I’m using mailgun and have had zero issues with it. Hard to beat since it’s free.

    • johntash@eviltoast.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I might be missing something, but isn’t mailgun only free for the first month? It looked like their cheapest plan is $35/mo after the 30day trial.

      • eddie@fig.systemsEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        You know I think you’re right. I might be grandfathered into an old plan. I’ve been using mailgun for over 3 years

    • johntash@eviltoast.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      This is the first I’ve heard of purelymail. It looks really cheap. How do you like it so far? I’m using fastmail currently for most of my domains, but have been considering moving my incoming e-mail too.

      • mikehunt@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Love it. Heard about it from HN some years ago and been using it since. The guy who runs it is super friendly and aswers mails quickly too. And yes, it’s super cheap, I’m using the “usage based” pricing or whatever it’s called.

  • TheOneCurly@lemmy.theonecurly.page
    4·
    1 year ago

    SendGrid hasn’t failed me yet. I can’t speak on pricing though, I basically only use it for password resets on some self hosted services so the free tier is all I need.

  • Philip@endlesstalk.orgEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    I also thought about using AWE SES, but I decided not to use it, since I was “sandboxed”(See more here).

    I decided to use MXRoute, which have worked great for me so far. It is more expensive(50$ per year), than purelymail and Migadu, but for me reliabillity is very important, so I don’t mind paying a bit extra for it.

    • johntash@eviltoast.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      $50/yr isn’t too terrible if it’s good. Do you use it only for outgoing notification type e-mails or do you use it as your main email too?

    • johntash@eviltoast.orgOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Thanks for mentioning SMTP2Go. It’s another I haven’t looked at yet, but looks like 1,000 e-mails/mo in the free plan isn’t bad.

      • Nick@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Of course. The only thing I don’t like about it is the free plan only allows 5 domains.

  • Illiterate Domine@infosec.pubEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    There’s a proton bridge docker container out there that I’m planning to standup this weekend for SMTP use inside my home lab.

    • johntash@eviltoast.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’d be interested in hearing how that goes. I don’t currently use protonmail, but need to look at it again sometime.

      • Illiterate Domine@infosec.pubEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Well, got it done. I was going to write something up about this process, but it ended up being really straightforward. I’m running it in k3s and the worst part was waiting for the initial sync.

        Now, something about the SMTP traffic my router sends (trying to send notifications from a Mikrotik) makes the smtp implementation mad, but all my other clients were fine.

  • blah@lemmy.1204.orgEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    MXroute. First, because Jar is stupid (hope someone will get the reference). Second, because they are awesome and cheap at the same time. You can go from full-fledged hosting with them to using them as relay, and for pizza money for a year.

    • johntash@eviltoast.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Are you using mxroute only for outbound (notifications/etc) mail, or are you using it for all of your incoming e-mail too?

      • blah@lemmy.1204.orgEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        In some cases outbound only, in other cases inbound, too, with redirect somewhere else. I’m not using them to store emails right now.

  • bl00dmeat@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    If you want free options, I often use MailEnable and hMailServer in lab environments. Also a free Azure developer trial includes some M365 licenses, and it pretty much always auto-renews every 90 days (I’ve had a few tenants going for YEARS now)

    • johntash@eviltoast.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Oh man, I have enough bad memories from MailEnable :D

      That’s a good tip about the 365 license though, I didn’t know it could renew for free. I might try it just to learn more about azure.

  • dap@lemmy.onlylans.ioEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I actually setup SES for my Lemmy instance. I was evaluating SendGrid but less than 24 hours after signing up they closed my account with zero explanation so…yeah lol.

    I was sandboxed in SES initially but I created a support ticket asking for production access and I was good to go. No issues with SES thus far.