Self-hosting Your Own Email fo' Free

Ever since Google started charging for emails for custom domains, I've heard a lot of belly-aching. Sure, for small businesses, the subscription for the Google Suite is a lot. But I can't say I blame Google. They've built some great services that help productivity.

Still, I sought out alternatives. The email service provided by run-of-the-mill website hosting providers usually, well, sucks. You forget that spam filtering is a huge deal when you have to do it yourself. The ease of use doesn't compare anything to the GSuite.

And then I stumbled upon Zohomail. It was a free email provider much like Google used to be. They also had some pretty comparable apps that looked good. Though I read complaints about their spam filter, I gave it a shot.

I set up the MX, SPF, and DKIM records very easily. Zoho has an admin dashboard that is fairly intuitive if you are used to setting up mail accounts and records. My SPF and DKIM took well and I've never had a problem with other email providers rejecting my emails as spam (even the notorious gmail). And it's still free to this day. I have two mail boxes set up, but one only forwards to another one (forwarding was also easy to set up in the admin dashboard).

Spam filtering hasn't really been much of an issue either. Though my spam box gets constant messages, I haven't been distracted with many slipping into my inbox. For a free provider, the spam filtering is impressive. They also have a slick email client app for phones that I use.

So if you're stumped with emails for your small biz or personal site, check out Zoho:
https://www.zoho.com/mail/