Is DigitalOcean necessary?

It is almost the case that if you are asking the question, the answer is “yes”, but there are dozens of providers that will work. This list of easy-to-use providers was written with people like you in mind.

DO and Mailgun are what I use for my $99 install (but the $150 Lite Install includes https, which I recommend if you don’t want to get your hands dirty at the command line).

Again, there are other email services, but I have found Mailgun to be easy to sign up and get started with.

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