Listmonk Plus Postfix

Consider this experimental. Managing mail servers can be complicated and if you decide to implement your own then take care to check that you have it configured properly. This is informational only and not meant to have all the answers, just a proof of concept as of this writing.

What is a mailing List? What is a mailing list service? Why do I want one?

Mailing lists are basically email subscription lists. they can be hosted independently or by purchasing a Saas service like mailchimp or Aweber. Mailing lists are a powerful way to engage with an audience. Many swear by it as a way to generate revenue online by using email an established online protocol everyone uses and depends on. I personally subscribe to many mailing lists and love the simplicity of just checking my email to keep up with substack and any other platforms I subscribe to. Also direct subscriptions on websites especially indepependent bloggers.

Why Listmonk and Postfix? And What is it?

Listmonk is an open source software you install on your own server(Or hire someone to install it for you). Postfix is a mail server software that you would additionally install and is more complicated to administer. If you read my other article The Mailing list dilemmma then you know I have been looking for a mailing list solution and that I did not want to use a Saas service like Mailchimp or any of the others. Listmonk is fairly simple to install and postfix is the simplest well established smtp mail server to configure(mail servers can be daunting). I looked at several other host your own open source mailing lists other than listmonk and I may try them in the future. All require an additional smtp/mailserver(Postfix in this case) solution and many recommend(including listmonk) using Mailgun(a 3rd party mail server service) or another third party solution for the smtp/mailserver aspect. In this case I am hosting my own smtp/mailserver using Postfix.

How It Works

First of all, all of this is installed on a linux server hosted in a data center. You can test some of it on a local home computer if you wanted to. In the end you would need to host it on a public IP address with a proper hostname.

Listmonk considerations

Listmonk runs at localhost:9000(127.0.0.1:9000) by default. It can be configured to run on all interfaces using 0.0.0.0:9000 but this is not a good idea as it will not be secure. If you are hosting on the web you need to use a reverse proxy using a web server like nginx or apache set up securely using TLS/https. This is not spelled out on the listmonk site so keep that in mind.

Postfix

Postfix requires more time to understand and make sure it is configured correctly. Based on past experience with running a mail server I wanted to make sure my server was not relaying or allowing any other unwanted behavior. Checking mail logs and configuring ssl are requirements to make sure everything is working as expected and to keep connections encrypted. In the main config file you configure postfix to only relay mail from the local server and the server that listmonk is installed on.

Listmonk And Postfix Final Notes

As of lately running your own smtp server has generally been discouraged. The main reason being that if you want your mail to arrive and arrive without ending up in a spam folder you may need to build trust in the www mail server universe. Many use Saas services like mailchimp or aweber instead for this reason. When using software like listmonk it is often remcommended to use a service like Mailgun for the smtp server. Installing Listmonk and or Postfix are DIY solutions for tech savy people or an IT dept. Having said that it is doable. With AI built into search engines finding the details has become easier. If you are using claude or some other more complete AI solution it can probably be automated.