Email Hosting: Why You Should Never Use Your Web Server for Email

The Problem: Shared IP Reputation

Your VPS has one IP address. When someone on the same server sends spam, the entire IP gets blacklisted.

The Technical Issues

Reverse DNS mismatch, SPF/DKIM/DMARC setup, IP warmup requirements.

The Better Alternatives

Mailgun, SendGrid, Amazon SES for transactional. Google Workspace, Zoho, Fastmail for business email.

What About Self-Hosted Email?

Minimum requirements: dedicated IP, rDNS, authentication records, monitoring. Time cost: 2-4 hours per week.

The Verdict

Unless you are running a mail service as your primary product, do not host email on your web server. For 5-30/month, you get 99.9% deliverability without effort.

Bottom line: Your web server should serve websites. Let email specialists handle email.