How to Host Your Own Email Server (for free)

Learn how to make your own self-hosted email server for free with CyberPanel, an open-source hosting control panel that takes the pain out of setting up a mail server. CyberPanel will automatically generate all necessary mail DNS records like DKIM, MX, and PTR which prevents your outgoing emails from going to spam.
Self-hosted email on Linode from $5/mo 👉 ttt.do/LinodeE... (my affiliate link gives your $100 free Linode credits)
Get a domain name from NameCheap 👉 ttt.do/Nameche... (affiliate link)
NOTE: If you choose to use Linode, please also enable email on your server by following the instructions under "Sending Email on Linode" www.linode.com...
Code snippets and more at tonyteaches.te...
Check out my vlog channel ‪@TonyFlorida‬
#cyberpanel #email

[@Pyker51]

Tip for those who can't send Emails: Linode blocks the Email ports by default. You have to create a ticket to unblock them.

[@bytecorner123]

Also their network is now blacklisted so you should use an smtp relay.

[@iamericlentz]

​@@bytecorner123, their entire network, as in, all IP address ranges? Isn't blacklisting by single IP addresses at a time? I have a Linode server, and I don't run an email server. Blacklist checking sites indicate the IP address is fine, save 1 server out of at least a couple dozen.

[@adamzan7]

@@iamericlentz They are definitely blacklisted by microsoft, luckily it sends a bounce back telling you this so it was easy to just use a relay/smarthost.

[@smartajer]

@@bytecorner123 any alternative ?

[@zachthemaniac]

This literally has saved me so much time and money. Thank you for the great and easy to follow tutorial! It's rare to find something so useful for my type of work that is so easy to setup and use. Plus you delivered in a way that any person wanting to accomplish this could do with ease! You earned a thumbs up and subscribe.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks Zach :)

[@nickvledder]

Couldn’t agree more!

[@cullinanthethird]

Cap 🧢

[@navzme]

In year 2020 around July, I struggled in setting up email server. I wish this tutorial was available then. This was awesome. Hope to see more nerdy videos from you. Cheers man!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Glad it helped, and definitely more to come!

[@potzblitz49583]

Great video and tutorial. One thing though that's a bit mind blowing to me: 1 out of 100 people posting Linux tutorials seem to know that the capital letters when asking (Y/n) mean it's the DEFAULT answer. So you don't have to type in "capital Y" if it says (Y/n) but just hit enter and that's the same as entering "y" and hit enter. "Do you want to continue (Y/n)" Just hit enter. No need to say "so we type in 'y' to confirm" and hit enter

[@bas133]

Damn, makes sense actually

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks for pointing this out!

[@ohokcool]

When people don’t know things like that, I trust them less 😂 IT prejudices

[@ohokcool]

No offense Tony lol

[@jakobgarde6769]

I absolutely loved this tutorial! Thank you so much! And Merry Christmas, bro

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Merry Christmas to you too!

[@bornfree465]

its crazy that we dont have to even touch the dns records creation part. awesome video!!!

[@kokapeli]

Amazing tutorial, thanks Tony! Your the man!!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

My pleasure!

[@SwissTraveling]

Thanks, Great information. Just FYI if one of the options are capital it means that just pressing enter would select that one. You don't have to put the letter in capital.

[@Aryan21able]

many a time I think I will earn good and contribute to people like you for sharing good stuff for free to needy. I read lot of comments but less contribution. Thanks for everything.

[@acepvp271]

THANK YOU SO MUCH MAN! you are a fucking legend man, thank you for sharing the knowledge brother.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

You're welcome!

[@legitjimmyjaylight8409]

I remember trying to host an email server and it worked, getting it hosted and sending was easy but making it not send to spam was crazy hard. I did so much digging into how to fix it and I kept going deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole setting so many settings and it still kept going to junk. Good to see a video like this, hopefully it works out.

[@CCoburn3]

This is a great video. I've been looking for a video on how to set up a self-hosted email account. Most videos just tell how to set up a gmail account to use another email address.

[@richsimmons3800]

As a complete novice at anything IT or tech related, I found your tutorial highly informative. Thank you. I no longer feel jittery, or uncomfortable about trying to do this myself. I do plan to watch this video a few more times before my attempt, but I do have a couple of initial quick questions. 1. Does Linode (or any other software element involved) provide any kind of support once I set up the server? 2. Can port over bulk emails from the current email ISP I am using (probably thousands) 3. Am I able t o have multiple (3 or 4 ) email accounts? Apologizing in advance if these questions are ultra basic.

[@igorsaranov132]

Очень хороший хостинг для аренды VPS/VDS под сайты и почту WELLWEBNET! Поддержка на высоте, скорость работы VPS сервера максимальна, маленький пинг, возможность выбора одного из 5-ти ДЦ мира. Панельку ISP ставят сами и делают перенос. SSL сертификаты бесплатные настраивают и при продлении потом не отваливается как у других; Почту настраивает так что она наконец то попадает во входящие!!! Я в восторге!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

What?

[@mlar248]

Man, I love Old Bay. And your tutorial.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Cheers! 🍻🦀

[@Baba-cr3ei]

Hi, wow what a fantastic video and easy to follow but I have an issue as I send email and never arrive at send destination but do receive email inbox

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Please submit a ticket to Linode support asking to unblock email ports (see Note #2 tonyteaches.tech/self-hosted-email-with-cyberpanel/)

[@johnhills9617]

Tony I want to set up a email server but you say I will need a static IP. I am behind a centurylink router and I have a dynamic IP. Can I still set up the server and not distrb my present account?

[@youruleyourlife]

can you make a comparison of VPS companies and a comparison in 2nd video of Gloud Free Tier solutions ?

[@TonyTeachesTech]

I plan to do an overarching comparison one day

[@Blahblah47724]

Helm services ceased operation on December 30, 2022. Providing a tutorial for Helm servers to be converted to Linux servers running Armbian would be great.

[@laci272]

Congrats on the channel growth. Great tutorial. I'm personally interested in your point of view on spam protection... Maybe a compare? :)

[@TonyTeachesTech]

I will need to research that topic a bit more!

[@hiro01231x]

Really great. I'm very impressed. You are a genius. I've subscribed to your channel and liked👍! Keep up the good work!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

I really appreciate that!

[@BJ-cb3ck]

I agree, @Tony is a genius! I just saw this video clip and although am a noob at this, I will try! You are awesome @Tony!

[@Belovoj]

nice tutorial, but if you are following it now, you need to also set the rDNS also for IPv6, add AAAA with IPv6 and edit SPF records to include IPv6. Gmail is trying to authenticate your domain name according to IPv6 not IPv4 now and will refuse your emails if you don't do this

[@khalidelgazzar]

Very neat and clear explanation. Thank you Tony 😊

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Very welcome

[@KillTasTiK1]

Great Video! Worked like a charm. Only thing I had to adjust where the Ports on my Server.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Happy to hear that

[@GiovanniClarosTapia]

Tony, disculpa por no escribirte en ingles, pero me encanta tus videos, son tan claros y concisos que se entiende muy bien a pesar de que no está en español... Sigue adelante 👏🥳🥳

[@TonyTeachesTech]

🙏🙏🙏

[@mriservice1671]

Tony, you rock. I am going to have to try CyberPanel Email is hard. Even GCP will not talk to Gsuite. My vhost gets blocked by ATT BellSouth and others. Will have to check this out. Keep up the good work

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Yeah, check it out. Thank you for your kind words :)

[@rodrigopontes7332]

I have follow every step ... I can receive email but I can not send .. I get "Can't send message" :/ I have request ports to be opened and which they did but port 25 is filtered … still not able to send emails

[@skovacic]

Thanks for this video. I noticed you used the same IP address for both name servers. For .CA domains, CIRA won't allow that. The name servers need to be pointing at unique IP address! Any thoughts on a work around?

[@jdme847]

How to set up reverse dns on home server? I understand everything but the reverse is stopping me from doing this project

[@ExzibitGamingHD]

Does anyone know why when I click onto "Access Webmail" it says the resource can't be found. I've got everything done too.

[@villastube]

So ... everything is fine but the email goes to spam. What can I do about it?

[@abhinavhudda841]

as i install cyberpanel it creates some issue, whenever i run ping, it shows host unknown...

[@danldg9052]

Good explanation, and very interesting to watch til end. Keep up the good work.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thank you very much!

[@jasonwillow2000]

hello the commands won't work for e and im using putty. Please help

[@TonyTeachesTech]

What is the error message?

[@pedroporrasmedina]

Very good video and best explanation of how configure that, thanks!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Glad it was helpful!

[@BlueSky_fur]

For anyone really considering on self-hosting a mail server, please get the required knowledge around mail servers, and DNS and most importantly security. This can end really badly for you if not properly secured and set up.

[@denismbabazi8094]

nice tutorial,i have setup a mail server is so is it possible to include linode to do the config you were training on

[@PaganAbroad]

first thing i would do is get a valid SSL cert for the cyberpanel UI asap before entering passwords

[@tonebaxter]

Nice! Definitely going to try this out. Already have 2 domains just sitting around name cheap… Ty

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Sure thing

[@themattaponte]

Life saver right here Tony!! Seriously!! Thank you!!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

You're very welcome Matt!! Enjoy :)

[@bullyellis1]

@Tony Teaches Tech - some questions: 1. If I have 2 or more websites hosted on the Linode, should I add a reverse DNS lookup for each site? 2. I already have an A record and an @ record already in DNS from one of your previous tutorial on hosting a website using cyberpanel. Should I remove them? I noticed you did not add them in this tutorial. Not sure if they will cause conflicts. 3. Any videos/recommendations on hardening the mail server once you get it going?

[@endyndubueze]

Hi Tony, I have a few questions: Could you tell me the type of application you used in creating your video and secondly what camera and lighting did you use for this presentation? Your content is wonderful. Thank you.

[@ansriaz1077]

hi @tony The mail is not sending to any of the mail address. Can you help me in this regards what should i've to check? I'm receiving the mail but not send it.

[@umairsaeed5925]

I am facing issue when I reply from gmail it's not coming up and gmail showing error Message not delivered

[@weesaalcummar684]

Brother for me it says authentication failed. Could you please help me in this.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

At what point do you get the authentication failed error?

[@gabriel99999-r]

@@TonyTeachesTech I have the same problem ...... it's so fragile .. they changed 1 small thing and it dose not work after 6 moths .... May 13 22:56:53 vmi372141 dovecot: auth-worker(6347): Error: sql([e-mail],127.0.0.1,): Invalid password in passdb: crypt() failed: Invalid argument May 13 22:56:55 vmi372141 dovecot: imap-login: Disconnected (auth failed, 1 attempts in 2 secs): user=, method=PLAIN, rip=127.0.0.1, lip=127.0.0.1, TLS, session=

[@michalroesler]

I'm already subscribed to this amazing tech chanel.

[@sbmasonator]

Tony, you've just saved me a TONNE of time; thank you so much! Quick question: do you have to use the webmail client, or can you connect to Postfix using SMTP (ie: use it as a mail relay)?

[@TonyTeachesTech]

This video will show you how to connect to an external client kzbin.info/www/bejne/h36lhZqtac12ia8

[@TomoTechno]

Super cool step by step clip, like to see more enhancements of the server.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks!

[@TomoTechno]

@@TonyTeachesTech I am unable to install CyberPanel on 32bit Ubuntu server on IBM Cloud? Can you suggest a way to do it or any other product?

[@TonyTeachesTech]

@@TomoTechno Here are the system requirements for CyberPanel cyberpanel.net/docs/installing-cyberpanel/

[@wiltonsmith6248]

It will not let me send emails to gmail accounts due to no PTR record. Help!

[@BookNerdCarp]

I am trying to work through Tony's Tutorial on Hosting Own Email Server. I am hosting on a Raspberry Pi 4. I have the domani from NameCheap. The issue is I only have my private home IP. Do I need to use DDNS? If so, how would I set this up?

[@donaldclouse4216]

Thanks for the great lesson. If I understand this correctly, if you want to run a server on premise, and your ISP blocks port 25, then through the VPS there is a way to open Port 25? How does that work?

[@tariq4846]

How to configure this email in email client like Outlook or other POP/SMTP client?

[@petertremblay3725]

I am so frustrated tonight, spent 2 days reading and cannot figure yet how to create my free domain based email account without a panel since i took a basic plan and i want minimal resource taken on the disk and memory. Can i use thunderbird to set this up or any other solutions?

[@T777Mi6]

Wow, I subbed this is great stuff!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks for the sub!

[@juxhin]

Thanks for your amazing tutorials.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

You're welcome!!

[@deja_blue]

Hey, great video but I was wondering if you could make the tutorial again but this time on a personal linux server since i dont have a linode and neither can I get one

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Most of the steps on a personal server would be the same. You'll probably run into an issue with setting up reverse DNS though since most residential internet service providers don't support that capability

[@freedomflights2479]

I am having a problem where I can send email from Gmail to my custom email account but I cannot reply or send out emails to potential clients

[@TonyTeachesTech]

If using Linode, please submit a support ticket to have email address ports unblocked

[@marketiestllc4077]

very useful. thank you for sharing valuable tech content like this one.

[@SpriteTheDude]

Hey, I am looking to integrate an email subscription service to a website. Is this possible with this email server? thanks

[@HafizBehroz]

but mate u didnt tell how can we send email from our custom domain email

[@mikecolton9176]

Is there a cap on how many emails you send out like Google? I think they are around 500 a day or you may get flagged. I'm looking to be able to send out around 50 to 200k a day.

[@LryuzakiLN]

Let's say I have my own server and how do I do the reverse DNS record setup?

[@MaseRezyi]

Its posible set catch all email without add domain to vps? Catch all address domain 2 to main domain . Without add domain 2 in vps?

[@cullinanthethird]

Was it longer than most videos on his channel??

[@musandlala7991]

Damn this video is a year old. Still a brilliant video

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Appreciate that

[@gulzaibkhan6913]

I cant click on create websites button it says 500 error.

[@JuanSanchez-ik7wx]

Cant you use a Pointr record if your host doesnt have rDNS

[@RiccardoGabbana]

This was golden! Thanks a lot

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Glad you liked it! You're welcome

[@helloash]

Should have shown SPF and DMARC as well. Also often Outlook servers cause a pain when it comes to email delivery and not get flagged as spam email

[@TonyTeachesTech]

These records should automatically be created for you. You can see them by going to Main -> DNS -> Add/Delete Records and select your domain from the drop down list. But you're right, it would have been helpful to show this in the video!

[@ghonztrail7382]

hi Tony. I followed your instructions but after logged into webmail but and click to send mail it's become red and a massage appear cannot send message

[@TonyTeachesTech]

What does the message say?

[@edthomas4029]

This is outstanding, thank you. Quick question: Can I retain my GoDaddy website hosting AND have my linode email server use the same DNS name, or does my linode email DNS name need to be different? My guess is the answer lies in me hosting my own name server on the linode website where it'll point to my GoDaddy site for the root website, but the MX records will point to the linode email server. Am I close? Please explain.

[@williamduncan7401]

You don't need to create 2 ns on the same IP. Adding multiple is for redundancy when you have multiple redundant DNS servers. So adding more than 1 for a single IP is pointless and a bad idea when in the future you actually have a 2nd redundant DNS server

[@Ameeroo]

hey tony would other devices have access to the email system Thanks!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Not that I know of

[@NimeshMadushanka]

Well, you made it look like super easy. That's how people should teach the others! Keep it up Tony. Nice work!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks 👍

[@mathiastschernitz8739]

Hey can somebody tell me how i can use the mailclient mail interface public. So i can use this from any device in browser to acces my mail inbox. or do i need a external mailbox client?

[@crockz0r]

very nice tutorial! one question: how can I have cyberpanel tls secured? As in this tutorial, we have a dns server itself, we have to configure our dns to map to the server itself right? i'm bit confused lol

[@PswACC]

For some reason I can't get the webmail page to have secure SSL even though I have assigned it the SSL 8090/rainloop/index.php I assigned the http to https rewrite rules. Email is working though. The biggest issues so for is that emails go out in lower case letters as the sender. Doesn't look good and installing an smtp plugin doesn't want to allow the connection to the email server.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Those are some weird issues. Happy that email is working. Sorry I don't have any suggestions

[@fleshboundtobone]

Awesome video, thanks Tony

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Sure thing :)

[@random_filter5_and_stuff]

Does this work with any Ubuntu computer instead of using linode

[@talleyrand9530]

yes

[@random_filter5_and_stuff]

@@talleyrand9530 thanks

[@freddysanchez3184]

Great video Tony.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks 👍

[@zensirdes5157]

Hi Tony, great tutorial but I'm getting this error: postfix check postfix: error: to submit mail, use the Postfix sendmail command postfix: fatal: the postfix command is reserved for the superuser

[@vu4157]

this is good if website is not setup and have online hosting option. however for localhost and already setup website, this options might not work.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

That's right

[@vashninjaka2587]

Thanks Tony I want able to set it up, but what is the difference between and email server and smpt? Can I connect this to mautic?

[@TonyTeachesTech]

I haven't look into this yet, but I plan on investigating in the future

[@TenebrisProxy]

update: followed every step I can recieve emails but can not send any

[@joshfrandsen9526]

Do you have to open ports with your router?

[@TwstedTV]

So basically you need to purchase a domain name, then get a Linode account and do the email process in Linode. And everything is hosted on Linode for $10+ a month. That means you have to pay every year for the domain name & the Linode hosting which is around $150 to $200 together a year to have an email thats not Google GMail ?? Am I missing something here ??

[@melooone]

Linodes prices start at 5$ thats 60$ a year plus ~10$ for the domain = 70$ a year. You can also host the server yourself which is free. I have no idea how you got to 150$ - 200$

[@TonyTeachesTech]

@Melooone is right

[@GpWUrbs]

Like I said in another comment, great tutorial. One question tho, what are the extra steps that you need to do in linode to set up the domain correctly, if these are even necessary (I'm refering to the steps mentioned in the link you provide: Running a Mail Server on linode)? Or is it just the issue of contacting linode to open the e-mail ports and nothing else needs to be done? I'm asking because I can receive emails but I can't send them and now I'm doing some additional troubleshooting.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

You’ll need to ask linode to open email ports AND setup the reverse DNS in your Linode dashboard on order to send and receive emails

[@gamesytyoan9593]

thanks tony so if i want to send unlimited emails and host 2 websites with like 30 to 50 pics how much i need to pay? is it 10 dollar a month

[@vashninjaka2587]

You did not say how to access ssh though, I used putty and it told me access denied, isn't there any other windows user having this issue? Could not even go forward after like 5 mins of the video because of this can't login to cyper panel

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Here's some videos to get you started with ssh... Mac/Linux: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZe3hHWYlquBbrs Windows: kzbin.info/www/bejne/poineYiiq8h0qck

[@vashninjaka2587]

Thanks Tony, tried putty and it says access denied. Apparently, the best way is to use weblish console with default username as root and your root password. 😊 You can use it for every command too

[@bencipherx]

Hello Tony, thanks for the video. However, am facing a complication which is the inability to install cyberrank. The error message is unable to detect OS

[@TonyTeachesTech]

I'm not sure. Not familiar with cyberrank

[@bencipherx]

@@TonyTeachesTech yeah, I have gotten the issue

[@bencipherx]

It does not support ubuntu 20.10.

[@sharifahmed4916]

Thanks Tony. Great tutorial. However, just a question: Don't Linode block port 10 by default like AWS or other clouds?

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Not sure about port 10, but they do indeed block ports 25, 465, and 587 www.linode.com/blog/linode/a-new-policy-to-help-fight-spam/

[@yiannisserpico2646]

Nice knowledge tutorial, Tony. How about port 25? Don't we have to communicate with someone to have it open? Aren't we work on an MTA that works on 25 port? Thanks!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Please see note 2 here tonyteaches.tech/self-hosted-email-with-cyberpanel/

[@serpantinthewild]

can we implement automation, A-B testing and sending thousands of emails a day etc etc on this server?

[@TonyTeachesTech]

I don't see why not

[@Andrew-by5yo]

To access the Cyberpanel Dashboard during Step 4: the Email Server Setup, you entered the admin username and password over an insecure http connection, isn't this a major security flaw? Is there a way to set up access via an https connection in the SSH session before accessing the Cyberpanel Dashboard? Or setup the https connection in the Dashboard and then reset the admin password? If so, you should update your tutorial. Thanks.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

CyberPanel uses a self-signed SSL certificate by default

[@ilyaaztiki]

Crazy good tutorial... you earned a sub

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Thanks for the sub!

[@JuanSanchez-ik7wx]

What about email client like thunderbird?

[@GiovanniClarosTapia]

Tony, a big hello to you. I really like your videos. but now I have a question, I can't resolve the link to cloudflare, I automatically stop receiving emails, could you help me with that please.

[@TonyTeachesTech]

I'm not sure about that

[@anandvarshney]

i am looking to a daily volume of 10,000 mails per day. will it work

[@davidromero7850]

great tutorial i'm going to follow your steps, but i have a question. where did you do the request to get the ports unlock? I'm asking this because i had no luck in AWS when i did my request Greetings!!

[@TonyTeachesTech]

You can open a ticket in your dashboard if you choose to use Linode

[@skolix1795]

So you can make this a public website where everyone can make an account and use it?

[@TonyTeachesTech]

Technically yes