🔒Self-Hosted Email Servers Halve in a Decade
Email Hosting Is Getting Centralized
TL;DR
Self-hosted email servers are on the decline, with large users cutting in half over the last decade. Google and Microsoft now handle 38.6% of email, raising concerns about centralized control and potential outages.
Self-hosted email servers are dwindling fast, with large users cutting in half over the last decade. In 2016, 44.6% of the top million domains ran their own mail server; now that number is down to 22.4%. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 now handle 38.6% of email, centralizing control and raising concerns about potential outages. This shift impacts deliverability and security, as fewer independent operators mean more centralized filtering and less fallback in case of issues.
Key Points
In 2016, 44.6% of the top million domains ran their own mail server; now it's 22.4%.
Google Workspace handles 21.8% of detectable MX records, Microsoft 365 handles 16.8%.
Centralization means fewer independent operators, increasing the impact of outages.
Over half of DMARC records have no valid policy, despite new bulk sender requirements.
Email has no graceful fallback; a rejected message is simply gone.
Why It Matters
If you're running a self-hosted email server, you're in the minority. Google and Microsoft now handle 38.6% of email, centralizing control and raising concerns about deliverability and security. This shift impacts anyone relying on independent email servers for deliverability and security.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does this matter?
If you're running a self-hosted email server, you're in the minority. Google and Microsoft now handle 38.6% of email, centralizing control and raising concerns about deliverability and security. This shift impacts anyone relying on independent email servers for deliverability and security.
What happened?
Self-hosted email servers are on the decline, with large users cutting in half over the last decade. Google and Microsoft now handle 38.6% of email, raising concerns about centralized control and potential outages.
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