Setup & operation
Can I run my own mail server on a VPS?
Yes. Port 25 is open, reverse DNS is self-service, and our address space has no spam history. Mailcow or Stalwart give you a complete stack in an evening. The difficulty is not installation — it is deliverability, which depends on SPF, DKIM, DMARC, a matching PTR and a patient warm-up.
Budget 4 GB of RAM for Mailcow and 8 GB if you enable full-text search. Stalwart is a single Rust binary and runs comfortably in far less if you prefer fewer moving parts.
Start DMARC at p=none and read the aggregate reports for a fortnight before tightening. Going straight to p=reject on a new domain is how people discover which of their systems were sending mail they had forgotten about.
See also: Reverse DNS · Port 25 · DMARC · DKIM
7 answers in Setup & operation
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