Servers
Business email: Workspace, your own server, or your host?
Three ways to send mail from your own domain, and they are not the same thing. We explain the difference using something that happened on our own site this week.
7min read
If you want to send mail from your own domain there are three routes: subscribe to a provider, run your own mail server, or use whatever comes with your hosting package. All three work, and the outcomes are very different.
How the three compare
| Workspace / 365 | Your own server | Bundled with hosting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | Per user | Cost of the server | Usually included |
| Setup effort | Low | High | None |
| Maintenance | None | Ongoing | Provider handles it |
| Inbox placement | Strong | Depends on your effort | Often weak |
| Storage | Plan limit | Disk size | Tight |
Short answer: for most small teams Workspace or Microsoft 365 is the right call. Running your own mail server is not technically hard; keeping it clean for years is. Mail bundled with hosting is the cheapest and the weakest on delivery.
The problem is delivery, not sending
Sending mail is easy. Landing in someone’s inbox is a separate job, and three DNS records decide most of it:
- SPF states who is allowed to send on your behalf. Get it wrong and your mail goes to spam.
- DKIM signs the message so the receiver can prove it was not altered in transit.
- DMARC says what to do when the first two fail, and sends you reports.
Without these three your mail technically leaves, but Gmail and Outlook are significantly more likely to file it as spam. We set this up as part of our email work, and it is the step most often skipped.
What happened to us this week
A concrete example, and the reason this post exists. Requests from our own project form arrive as email. We had a Workspace account, generated an app password, entered the SMTP settings. Nothing sent.
The obvious suspects are a wrong password or account settings. Neither was the cause. We tested outbound connectivity from inside the container:
| Target | Result | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 443 (HTTPS) | Open | 29 ms |
| 465 (SMTP over SSL) | Timeout | 265 ms |
| 587 (SMTP, STARTTLS) | Timeout | 257 ms |
| 25 (SMTP) | Timeout | 257 ms |
The hosting provider blocks all three outbound SMTP ports. It is a widely applied anti-spam measure, and it is applied without notice. So the password was right, the settings were right, and the problem was the ports.
The fix was to drop SMTP and use Gmail’s HTTPS interface instead. Mail still leaves the same account with the same signature, but it travels over 443 and never meets the block.
What to take from this
- If mail is not sending, check the connection before you check the password. No password helps when the port is closed.
- When choosing a host, ask whether outbound SMTP is permitted. Most providers do not document this.
- Use delegated authorisation instead of an app password where you can. Nothing is stored on the server, and access can be revoked on its own.
- Check your DNS records the moment sending works, not later. If your first messages land in spam, your domain reputation starts out damaged.
For a new mail setup, or to find out why an existing one lands in spam, get in touch.
Frequently asked
Does it make sense to run my own mail server?
It is not technically hard, but it needs continuous care: blacklist monitoring, updates, backups, disk. For small teams Workspace or 365 usually costs less and carries less risk.
Why does my mail land in spam?
The most common cause is missing or incorrect SPF, DKIM and DMARC records. The second is the content itself: image-only messages, many links and unusual subject lines all raise the spam score.
Is the mail included with my hosting good enough?
For low volume it works. Problems usually show up as tight storage and poor delivery, because you share sending reputation with every other site on that server.
Can I change provider without changing my domain?
Yes. You point the MX records at the new provider and the addresses stay the same. Moving existing mail out of the old mailboxes is a separate step and needs planning in advance.