What are some tips and best practices for setting up a cost-effective mail server using PHP?

Setting up a cost-effective mail server using PHP involves utilizing SMTP to send emails from your server. By using a reliable SMTP service provider like SendGrid or Amazon SES, you can ensure deliverability and avoid your emails being marked as spam.

// Example PHP code using PHPMailer library to send emails via SMTP
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;

require 'vendor/autoload.php';

$mail = new PHPMailer(true);

try {
    $mail->isSMTP();
    $mail->Host = 'smtp.yoursmtpserver.com';
    $mail->SMTPAuth = true;
    $mail->Username = 'your_smtp_username';
    $mail->Password = 'your_smtp_password';
    $mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls';
    $mail->Port = 587;

    $mail->setFrom('your_email@example.com', 'Your Name');
    $mail->addAddress('recipient@example.com', 'Recipient Name');

    $mail->isHTML(true);
    $mail->Subject = 'Subject';
    $mail->Body = 'Email body';

    $mail->send();
    echo 'Email sent successfully';
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo 'Message could not be sent. Mailer Error: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;
}