mail server vps
Self-hosted mail
A clean address, a working PTR, and port 25 open.
What we would deploy
€16.73/mo
€23.90−30% annual
Running your own mail server is not hard. Getting your mail delivered is, and it depends almost entirely on the reputation of the address you send from and whether the reverse DNS matches. We audit every IPv4 range before allocation, we set PTR records for you from the dashboard, and we keep a set of warmed-up ranges for people sending legitimate transactional mail.
Why this configuration
PULSE handles a mail server for a small organisation comfortably. Ask for port 25 in a ticket during setup, set the PTR to match your HELO name, and publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC before you send the first message.
What we would deploy
Sizing
Mail is small. A PULSE node with 2 cores and 4 GB runs Postfix, Dovecot and Rspamd for a few hundred mailboxes and tens of thousands of messages a day. Rspamd with full Bayes and fuzzy storage wants 2 GB on its own, so move to 8 GB past roughly 500 mailboxes. Disk is the number that matters: mailbox storage plus 20 GB for queue, indexes and logs. Scale by adding addresses and hosts, not cores.
Reputation is per IP and per domain, separately
Large receivers score both. The IP carries the connection-level history: complaint rate, spam-trap hits, volume pattern. The domain carries the content and authentication history, and it follows you if you ever change hosts. That split has practical consequences. Separate transactional mail from marketing onto different subdomains and different addresses, so a campaign that draws complaints does not take password resets down with it. Keep the sending domain's DKIM key stable, because rotating it resets part of the signal. Feedback loops from the major providers are worth registering for on day one, not after the first block.
Port 25 and the alignment trap
Outbound port 25 is what makes self-hosted mail viable at all — plenty of hosts close it and force you through a relay, which puts your deliverability in somebody else's hands. Keep it, then earn it. Publish SPF with a hard fail once you know every legitimate source. Sign with DKIM at 2048 bits and align the d= domain with the visible From. Set the envelope sender on the same organisational domain so SPF aligns too. Then read the aggregate DMARC reports for a fortnight before moving to quarantine, and only to reject when the reports are clean.
What goes wrong
- PTR that does not match HELO. The reverse record, the HELO name and the A record must all agree and resolve forward and back. Mismatch alone is enough for large receivers to reject on connect.
- Publishing DMARC p=reject before checking alignment. SPF aligns on the envelope sender, not the From header, so a bounce address on an unrelated domain passes SPF and still fails DMARC. Relaxed alignment forgives subdomains; a separate organisational domain it does not. Monitor with p=none first.
- Sending bulk from a cold address. A new IP that emits 50,000 messages on day one is throttled or blocked outright. Ramp over two to three weeks and keep volume steady rather than spiky.
Tune the machine
- Addressing and transit — Outbound port 25 unlocked · €4
- Addressing and transit — Custom rDNS / PTR with SPF alignment · Included
- Backups — Daily backup, 7 restore points · €4
- Storage and encryption — LUKS2 full-disk encryption · €5
More
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