Exim4 as an MTA, and Dovecot as an IMAP Server.

I particularly like Exim4's configuration on Debian. It provides IMHO very reasonable defaults, but allows overriding of most of these defaults using a mechanism similar to hooks. In that sense, the configuration is more like a framework.

This allows me to easily add my own configuration, while also not touching the default configuration as shipped by the Maintainer (and thereby avoiding nagging about a changed conffile [1]).

If using the split config format (ie, /etc/exim4/conf.d), it's not that complicated figuring out how to to a particular thing.

For example, [2] is the folder that contains Exim's ACL configuration. [3] is the file pertaining to SMTP's RCPT TO command. The individual features, and how to enable/disable/modify them, are well documented and the steps are usually trivial.

I don't use it anymore, but I remember that in order to set up a mail system with purely virtual users backed by a PostgresSQL database, I only needed to add a half-dozen or so of files, each containing small configuration snippets.

(Exim configuration is still complicated of course, to say the least. Debian just makes it a lot simpler.)

[1] https://raphaelhertzog.com/2010/09/21/debian-conffile-config...

[2] https://sources.debian.net/src/exim4/4.87-3/debian/debconf/c...

[3] https://sources.debian.net/src/exim4/4.87-3/debian/debconf/c...

If you're looking to quickly get up and running, there's pawnmail.com lets you host your emails for free and the guy who runs the server promises not to read your email ;)

I actually run gilani.me through ZohoMail's free options, I dropped pawnmail because it didn't offer DKIM, and mail-tester.com was giving my outbound emails a score of 2, which means it was very surprising that they ever got delivered, at all!

Postfix and Dovecot work well together (and that's my setup). Though it requires quite a reading to get Postfix configured in such a way that your server will stand attacks from the internet.

Good share! Thanks