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Stalwart mail server (self-hosted all-in-one mail server) now as an admin webui

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Re: Stalwart mail server (self-hosted all-in-one mail server) now as an admin webui

#11

Post by blackeyeblitzar »

tetrisgm wrote: post #7

Is there a reliable solution we could use for our small startup? We want to shoot out daily emails to our users, like Bandcamp or Substack do. We could ofc use Mailchimp but always happy to explore self hosting. Would this or another solution work?

I wouldn’t want to deal with deliverability issues, which are very much a matter of quality of service and industry relationships rather than a matter of having the right software. Just use Mailchimp or Sendgrid or Amazon’s email service, pay the small service fee, send high quality email, and don’t get distracted by trying to figure out why your emails are going to spam.

Re: Stalwart mail server (self-hosted all-in-one mail server) now as an admin webui

#12

Post by blackeyeblitzar »

kldx wrote: post #3
cvalka wrote: post #2

The best smtp server out there!

How reliable is mail delivery ootb with dmarc, spf and dkm in your experience? (I guess it really depends on the reputation of the IP and not the mail server)

It’s frustrating if you’re unlucky and have an IP with bad reputation, or accidentally send emails with low performance. Getting unblocked is sometimes not possible if you’re on your own. Authentication helps but it’s not enough in practice still.

Re: Stalwart mail server (self-hosted all-in-one mail server) now as an admin webui

#14

Post by julienmarie »

tetrisgm wrote: post #7

Is there a reliable solution we could use for our small startup? We want to shoot out daily emails to our users, like Bandcamp or Substack do. We could ofc use Mailchimp but always happy to explore self hosting. Would this or another solution work?

I've been using Postal Server for 2 years ( https://docs.postalserver.io/ ) sending around 50k emails / day without any issue.

Just make sure you set up everything (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) correctly, including the PTR reverse lookup of your server ( really important ).

Key tip: warm up your ip(s). I use mailreach.co ( it has a USD 25/m cost ), reached near 100% deliverability in a month.

I now have barely have any maintenance to do. It just works.

Re: Stalwart mail server (self-hosted all-in-one mail server) now as an admin webui

#15

Post by snapplebobapple »

jen729w wrote: post #10
tetrisgm wrote: post #7

Is there a reliable solution we could use for our small startup? We want to shoot out daily emails to our users, like Bandcamp or Substack do. We could ofc use Mailchimp but always happy to explore self hosting. Would this or another solution work?

Roll your own with Amazon SES. Bang up a little script and call the CLI. for recipient in "${recipients[@]}"; do aws sesv2 send-email \ --from-email-address "$sender" \ --destination "ToAddresses=$recipient" \ --content "Simple={Subject={Data='$subject',Charset='UTF-8'},Body={Text={Data='$body',Charset='UTF-8'}}}" \ --region "$region" done I got that script from their website. Should be easy enough to knock something…

At my corp we are almost to tge point of sending amazon ses straight to spam by default. Those guys will send email for anyone with predictable quality problems.

Re: Stalwart mail server (self-hosted all-in-one mail server) now as an admin webui

#16

Post by scrose »

jen729w wrote: post #10
tetrisgm wrote: post #7

Is there a reliable solution we could use for our small startup? We want to shoot out daily emails to our users, like Bandcamp or Substack do. We could ofc use Mailchimp but always happy to explore self hosting. Would this or another solution work?

Roll your own with Amazon SES. Bang up a little script and call the CLI. for recipient in "${recipients[@]}"; do aws sesv2 send-email \ --from-email-address "$sender" \ --destination "ToAddresses=$recipient" \ --content "Simple={Subject={Data='$subject',Charset='UTF-8'},Body={Text={Data='$body',Charset='UTF-8'}}}" \ --region "$region" done I got that script from their website. Should be easy enough to knock something…

In my experience, it’s extremely difficult to get out of the SES sandbox, for what I presume is if your account/org is under a certain amount of spend with them. While basically free under a certain amount of usage, the gatekeeping there does make the idea of self-hosting your email free/cheaply sort of a nonstarter for indie devs.

For context, getting out of the sandbox at every org I worked at was essentially a single ticket with the word please and had almost immediate approval.

For my own account for a low volume form notification tool I wrote AWS’s response was ‘We will not approve your request and we will not revisit this decision’.

Re: Stalwart mail server (self-hosted all-in-one mail server) now as an admin webui

#17

Post by zipping1549 »

julienmarie wrote: post #14
tetrisgm wrote: post #7

Is there a reliable solution we could use for our small startup? We want to shoot out daily emails to our users, like Bandcamp or Substack do. We could ofc use Mailchimp but always happy to explore self hosting. Would this or another solution work?

I've been using Postal Server for 2 years ( https://docs.postalserver.io/ ) sending around 50k emails / day without any issue. Just make sure you set up everything (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) correctly, including the PTR reverse lookup of your server ( really important ). Key tip: warm up your ip(s). I use mailreach.co ( it has a USD 25/m cost ), reached near 100% deliverability in a month. I now have barely have any maintena…

> Just make sure you set up everything (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) correctly, including the PTR reverse lookup of your server ( really important ).

I don't know much about mail server and this must be how people feel when they watch Hollywood movie hacker moment

Re: Stalwart mail server (self-hosted all-in-one mail server) now as an admin webui

#18

Post by tetrisgm »

julienmarie wrote: post #14
tetrisgm wrote: post #7

Is there a reliable solution we could use for our small startup? We want to shoot out daily emails to our users, like Bandcamp or Substack do. We could ofc use Mailchimp but always happy to explore self hosting. Would this or another solution work?

I've been using Postal Server for 2 years ( https://docs.postalserver.io/ ) sending around 50k emails / day without any issue. Just make sure you set up everything (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) correctly, including the PTR reverse lookup of your server ( really important ). Key tip: warm up your ip(s). I use mailreach.co ( it has a USD 25/m cost ), reached near 100% deliverability in a month. I now have barely have any maintena…

Thanks! Wdym by warm up your ips? How does mailreach relate to the setup?

Re: Stalwart mail server (self-hosted all-in-one mail server) now as an admin webui

#19

Post by tetrisgm »

jen729w wrote: post #10
tetrisgm wrote: post #7

Is there a reliable solution we could use for our small startup? We want to shoot out daily emails to our users, like Bandcamp or Substack do. We could ofc use Mailchimp but always happy to explore self hosting. Would this or another solution work?

Roll your own with Amazon SES. Bang up a little script and call the CLI. for recipient in "${recipients[@]}"; do aws sesv2 send-email \ --from-email-address "$sender" \ --destination "ToAddresses=$recipient" \ --content "Simple={Subject={Data='$subject',Charset='UTF-8'},Body={Text={Data='$body',Charset='UTF-8'}}}" \ --region "$region" done I got that script from their website. Should be easy enough to knock something…

Thanks! Any guide wrt using dkim / dmarc and such to ensure it's bulletproof? Any customizations you did beyond the CLI script above?

Re: Stalwart mail server (self-hosted all-in-one mail server) now as an admin webui

#20

Post by jen729w »

tetrisgm wrote: post #19
jen729w wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roll your own with Amazon SES. Bang up a little script and call the CLI. for recipient in "${recipients[@]}"; do aws sesv2 send-email \ --from-email-address "$sender" \ --destination "ToAddresses=$recipient" \ --content "Simple={Subject={Data='$subject',Charset='UTF-8'},Body={Text={Data='$body',Charset='UTF-8'}}}" \ --region "$region" done I got that script from their website. Should be easy enough to knock something…

Thanks! Any guide wrt using dkim / dmarc and such to ensure it's bulletproof? Any customizations you did beyond the CLI script above?

My entire script is here.

https://gist.github.com/johnnydecimal/e7b1a03e26b79239363b5d...

Though I've since updated that to include a .txt file as the body vs. typing it out in the email. But that's easy enough.

I might have added TXT records to satisfy DKIM etc., I don't remember. There are guides on the Amazon site; I'm a bit of a dummy when it comes to this so if I worked it out it must have been obvious enough.

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