Self-hosted MTA
Owned MTA (mta2) operating model.
mta2 (Haraka on OVH, reached over WireGuard) is built and live for the operator-gated briefing-lane warmup allowlist. Postmark is the launch transport for every lane and mta2's fallback; SES lanes stay configured but disabled unless an operator turns them on. This model tracks when expanding the mta2 allowlist pays for itself.
Inputs
Decision model
- monthly transactional email volume
- average provider cost per 1k emails
- owned MTA (mta2) fixed monthly operations cost
- dedicated IP and monitoring cost
- deliverability risk and operator staffing
Trigger rules
Expand the mta2 allowlist only after these gates.
EconomicsAllowlist expansion is reviewed when a tenant lane's Postmark spend stays above mta2's fixed operating cost for 3 consecutive months.Attach evidence before advancing the MTA spike.
Reputationmta2 carries briefing-lane warmup traffic only until seed tests and postmaster scores prove stable reputation; Postmark stays the fallback route on every send.Attach evidence before advancing the MTA spike.
OperationsAllowlist growth requires 24x7 incident response, bounce parser, abuse desk, and a verified SMTP kill switch before the next tenant is onboarded.Attach evidence before advancing the MTA spike.