TL;DR
- Google is shutting down POP3 support and Gmailify
- Email forwarding as a workaround lasted less than two weeks before my mail started bouncing
- Wanted to use JMAP, but affordable hosting for it basically doesn’t exist yet
- Migadu looked promising but the daily send limits are too restrictive
- Moved to Purelymail on a pay-as-you-go model — outsourcing the SPF/DKIM/DMARC headache while keeping full control of my domains
The Breaking Point
My email lived on a Mikrus free add-on service — POP3 in, SMTP out, everything seamlessly aggregated into Gmail. It worked perfectly for a few years. Why change it?
Then Google announced it was dropping POP3 import support and killing Gmailify. At least they gave a few months’ notice. I skimmed the announcement and thought: fine, forwarding still works, SMTP stays — I’ll just set up email forwarding and move on.
Not even close.
Less than two weeks in, my mail started bouncing — rejected for “sending spam”. My own inbox was blocking me. I couldn’t even spam myself, and the funniest thing is, those emails weren’t even spam. Since this was my primary contact address, I had to act fast!
The Search & The JMAP Dream
When looking for a new home for my domains, my initial goal was to find a provider that supports JMAP (JSON Meta Application Protocol). It’s faster, mobile-friendly, and just feels like the modern, sane way to handle email synchronisation compared to ancient IMAP.
The problem? Finding a reasonably priced, reliable JMAP host right now is next to impossible. Fastmail has it, but it’s pricey for low-volume users.
So I compromised on good old IMAP. One quick search later, I found Purelymail: $10/year flat, or a pay-as-you-go model. Since my volume is tiny, PAYG was the obvious choice. A few minutes of configuration and it just worked.
The only real adjustment was habit — I had to install Thunderbird everywhere. No regrets: it does what it’s supposed to, and it even auto-detected my Purelymail setup on the first try!
Why Not Migadu?
Migadu was on my list too. But their cheap tier caps you at 200 inbound and 20 outbound emails per day — and that limit is shared across all your domains and mailboxes. I could already picture the client calls: messages not arriving, bounces piling up because someone accidentally sent too many emails. For a low-volume personal setup it might be fine on paper, but the moment you add a client or two it gets uncomfortable fast.
Purelymail’s PAYG model means I pay for what I actually use. And at $10/year flat if volume grows, it’s hard to argue with. Migadu’s equivalent plan sits at $19/year plus VAT — roughly 2× the price for stricter limits. Easy call.
Self-Hosting vs. Sanity
I run my own bare-metal server. I could have easily spun up a mail server directly on my own infrastructure — technically it’s easy. I consciously chose not to.
Maintaining a mail server today isn’t just about installing Postfix or Dovecot. It means fighting a never-ending battle to keep your IP reputation clean, constantly wrestling with DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records, monitoring blacklists, and dodging script kiddies. None of that is something I want to own for a service I use personally.
On top of that, my bare-metal sits in an OVH datacenter. OVH’s IP ranges are shared with thousands of other tenants — some of whom absolutely do send spam. The moment I start hosting mail on that IP, I’m inheriting their reputation. Even with a perfectly clean setup on my end, I’d be fighting an uphill battle against filters that already distrust the whole subnet. The risk-to-value ratio is just bad.
Extending It to Clients
Since I was already running the Purelymail setup for myself, the next step was obvious — I extended it to a few clients. Small businesses that want email on their own domain but can’t justify paying for a full Google Workspace plan now get it included.
The only rule: no bulk campaigns through these mailboxes. Transactional emails and newsletters go through services like Mailjet or Brevo — even their free plans give you a few hundred sends a day. That strict separation keeps the shared mailboxes clean, avoids spam filters, and keeps the domain reputation intact.
Lessons Learned
- Avoid vendor lock-in — always leave an escape hatch. If a platform kills a feature you depend on, you want options ready. Google has a long history of acquiring things and slowly fading them out.1
- Match the solution to the actual need. Low volume means low cost. Don’t over-architect by self-hosting things that are cheap to outsource — especially when the outsourced option actively removes a whole class of problems (IP reputation, deliverability, DNS records) from your plate.
- Shared infrastructure has shared consequences. Even if your setup is clean, you’re only as trusted as your neighbours. For email especially, where reputation is everything, that matters more than people realise.
AI Impact Disclaimer
- DEVELOPMENT: N/A
- WRITING: My own words, just grammar and structure.