You absolutely can host your own email server. I did for over a decade. Spam ranking is tied to IP addresses so you just need to get an IP address that doesn't already have a bad reputation, and build it a positive reputation over time. Then, as long as you don't send spam from that IP you should be good as long as you keep the same IP for your server.
That said, I abandoned running my own email server years ago. It only went down a couple times on me, but when it did it was always when I really didn't have time to fix it (which is basically always). It's not really difficult at all, but it's MUCH HARDER than just using gmail or whatever.
That said, I abandoned running my own email server years ago. It only went down a couple times on me, but when it did it was always when I really didn't have time to fix it (which is basically always). It's not really difficult at all, but it's MUCH HARDER than just using gmail or whatever.