Are you in the US? If so, what state? This might be one of the few things I would never consider self hosting. There are so many legal issues you could run into, and if your self hosted solution fails, you’ll be fucked (to put it lightly). I’m an HR/payroll professional by trade, in case that helps.

Buster is actually calculating the surface area of your server, and has already determined that he will fit perfectly on it.

So your privacy-focused email provider recommendation is Gmail?

If that were to happen, nothing is stopping users from exporting their emails elsewhere.

You can use Proton Mail Bridge to set up SMTP/IMAP with your email app of choice. Obviously, you’re still stuck with using the bridge app on your device in order to get it working.

I have been for about a year with one 8gb Pi 4 with a 500gb ssd. I bought it as a way to dip my toes into self hosting. Started with Home Assistant OS, but now I have a bunch of containers set up, such as Home Assistant, Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, qbittorrent, and a few others. I will eventually get something a little beefier to host my media, but will absolutely keep the Pi running.

I figured email would be a common theme. I’m just starting to dip my toes into all of this, so an email server is not on my to-do list (and may never be).

Email was one I figured I would get an answer for. I know plenty of people do it, but I’m not sure if I’d trust myself to do it right.

The paid offsite backups just seem like a good idea. Some might have the ability to also self-host that, whether it be in a friend/family members home, but if that isn’t an option, paying for a service could save your ass some day.