I have been self-hosting for a number of years and recently decided to also host a mail server (Stalwart + webmail). Getting it all right and reliable is not for everyone but, from a privacy point of view, it is second to none. That got me thinking, as I believe there might be a need from non-technical users who would like to have their own mail server, but don’t have the technical know-how.
I have been developing a managed installation solution for months: customers bring their own cloud keys, we set up everything. encrypted, backed up, etc.
I’d love some feedback on the overall idea, business model, pricing, etc. You can find more at https://cripta.to .
That is pretty odd for the fact that the user owns the server?
What happens if I cancel my cripta.to subscription?
The server gets destroyed. We perform a full backup and export of your mail data before cancellation, and share it with you so you can migrate to another provider or self-host if you wish.
What guarantees does a user have that with your access you won’t run anything malicious on their server, where the user is billed and legally accountable? This sounds very problematic. I don’t think you should ever let some unknown party manage infrastructure you are yourself accountable for. If you want to provide a service I think you should also provide the infra yourself.
I don’t think using VPS of a cloud provider like Hetzner is what we should call self hosting. It is still someone’s machine.
What is the advantage of this versus just using a reliable company like Proton Mail if you don’t want to manage it yourself anyway?
Thanks for the feedback. We have added a new option so that customer can add their own SSH keys and disable ours.
The idea was to provide a solution to those that would like to self host, but don’t have the necessary technical skills.
We started off with cloud VPS as more manageable than end user machines. If we ever go that route, it should be packaged as a one-click installation, but it’s a lot more risky than a cloud VPS.
We are also not in competition with Proton: this is just your own mail server. In some cases it may also be cheaper.
With regards to what happens at the end of the subscription we acknowledge we are not yet sure about it. It does not feel right, but at the same time, we wanted to provide a service, not just a one time installation.