IMHO with netcup you get a lot for your bucks. I'm running a RS2000 and I'm running a mail server on it. However, this was quite some work as some IP ranges may be burnt by spammers and you might need to deal with some DNS blocking lists to get yours removed. In the end it works fine if you do all the stuff with DKIM,DMARC, SPF etc. and have IPv6 configured for your MTA.
Self-Hosted Main
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What do you guys think, is it worth it? Any better alternatives for similar performance for the price? I am from Slovenia, and I am looking at a max budget of around 16€ after tax per month...
You are going to have a hard time finding a dedicated server for under €16/month. You might be able to get some cheap Intel ATOM boxes from OVH or Online.net. I believe OVH's N2800s are slow AF, while Online.net C270 Avatons "feel" anecdotally better.
But this price range is fairly low.
The good news is that you can get a lot of VPS servers for that budget. I would recommend using lowendbox/lowendtalk to look for deals in the field. Wait a few months for Black Friday and try to get on an annual deal.
Would I be still able to have the free SSL via Let's encrypt?
Yes. No matter what marketing gimmicks people use, Let's Encrypt certificates come from Let's Encrypt, not a special feature of the provider. So, if you can serve a file over HTTP or publish a TXT record to your DNS zone, you can have free SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt or any other ACME-compliant provider.
Could I set up the right things to have a mail server set up, so it doesn't go to spam?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: it takes effort. Some things to look out for:
- Some VPS providers block SMTP port;
- Some VPS providers have "dirty" IP addresses — not much you can do about that, the owner of the IP needs to get it removed from spamhaus et al
- It helps (for spam reasons) if you can set a reverse DNS / PTR record to match your MX hostname. Not all providers allow that, but many do.
- You can always use an external SMTP gateway like AWS SES, and, for personal use, this should be well within your budget.