Actually, I'd love a good SMTP service that had a good reputation, but most of what's out there is more bulk-mail oriented. I just want to own my own domain and send email but not be beholden to gmail nor deal with deliverability headaches.
Personally I find that services like Mailgun, Mandrill or SES work well enough for this purpose and are not particularly expensive if your volume per month isn't huge. On Mailgun for example you can send up to 10k emails per month for $0. And that's 10k emails that you can send on your own terms, not just in bulk.
Actually, I'd love a good SMTP service that had a good reputation, but most of what's out there is more bulk-mail oriented. I just want to own my own domain and send email but not be beholden to gmail nor deal with deliverability headaches.