Best external SMTPs for use with local Nextloud?

ℹ️ Support
1

I have installed Nextcloud on a local Ubuntu computer/server, but I don’t wish to install an inhouse SMTP server as well. I have also been advised not to, by friends.

So I need an external SMTP for use with e-mail from the Nextcloud server, like forgotten passwords, invites, status updates etc.

I can’t be alone about this, so I would be interested to hear what external SMTPs other people use and recommend in conjunction with Nextcloud? Also don’t hesitate to elaborate shortly on why you use/recommend what you do.

Thank you in advance

2

Is your server for personal use or for a business? How many users do you host on your Nextcloud server and how many mails do you expect to be sent approximately?

Most home users are probably using the same email provider which they are also using for their regular email. If I had to guess, I’d say most of them are even using the same account / address, which I guess is perfectly fine.

Personally, I have my own email server running on a VPS, so I use that obviously…

3

My server is to be for pro use, but on a ‘personal’ scale (as opposed to company scale). Will be max 20 users and very infrequent utilization by users. Not frequent. Sort of a file exchange system between me and customers.
I expect maybe 1-2 emails a day will be sent on average, peaking with … probably 10-12 per day on a high load.

Hm, I didn’t think of using my email-provider’s SMTP. :slight_smile: But I’m assuming that their SMTP uses some kind of an ID system, to it prevent becoming a ‘free for all’ SMTP which an be abused.

4

Really. I would probably give very different advice than your friends.

There’s a service called smtp2go. I can’t personally vouch, but I know some people who use it.

You can probably also use any email service you already have and let it send email as you.

5

That’s why you have to authenticate yourself like you would with any regular email client: https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/configuration_server/email_configuration.html

However, many providers have limits on how many emails you can send in a given period of time. (Fair Use Policy). That’s why I asked how many users you have and how many notification emails are sent per day. If you exceed this limit your emails may get delayd. But it depends on the provider, how they handle it, and how these limits are set. If your server generates a lot of notifications, I would recommend using a service like Sendgrid.

You can of course set up your own SMTP server, but there are a lot of prerequisites that have to met, like a fixed IP address, that isn’t on any blacklist. Residential Address Spaces are often on these lists by default. You also have to deal with things like SPF Records, DKIM etc… It’s not a trivial thing to host your own mail server that delivers email reliably.