(just) POP3 Hosting?

Hosting
1

We run our own web server on a VPS.

Our current mail setup is:

  1. A Courier/Postfix setup on the web VPS that
    A. Receives mail and makes it available via POP3s
    B. Uses virtual MySQL mailboxes
    C. Acts as an authenticated (password required) SMPT relay.
    D. Rejects mail based on spam blacklists

  2. A Fetchmail -> Postfix -> Cyrus IMAP stack running on a server in our own offices that:
    A. Pulls and deletes mail from POP3
    B. then passes it off to Cyrus for permanent storage/IMAP hosting.

We are looking for alternatives to #1. We have less than 20 email addresses, all on the same domain. The mail domain is the same name as our site, with no subdomain, so I think it’s possible with MX records, but haven’t done it before so not 100% sure.

My thoughts:
I was thinking of finding a cheap VPS provider ( I can get a 512MB VPS for $5/mo) and setting up all our mail server stuff on that, separate from the web server. But then I was wondering if there’s already a provider that does just mail at “its-just-mail” prices. Say, $5 or less. I was thinking of getting a < $5 shared hosting account and not building a site on it, just using it for mail. I’m not sure if that would be frowned on, but logically, I can’t see them being angry about us using less resources than we’re paying for.

What are your thoughts? Any cheap dedicated POP3/SMTP providers that work with a domain hosted elsewhere?

2

If you want to use a separate vpn for email. For incoming email, you just need to change the MX record, but for outgoing, you need to set up reverse DNS for the email host and also SPF record and DKIM record.

3

A shared hosting account isn’t suited for mail hosting where you need to configure and install software - you’d be using a mail server supplied by the host.

4

As long as we can create users that get Pop3 boxes and SMTP relay (and its reliable) that should work. Sometimes its better when server architecture is someone else’s problem.

I was wondering though if there were hosting companies that just did mail? I found a couple but its hosted IMAP, not POP3.