Im curious if my digitalocean account comes with a preset email server to send and receive emails to/from xxx@mydomain.com. If not, would I need to setup my own server? any tutorials for doing so and securing an email server? any downsides to this?
Currently running ubuntu 14.04 with python3/django/postgres setup
No. But you can setup your own mail server or subscribe to Google Apps if you have the budget, if you are on the low side, you may try Zoho Apps Email. It's free for 1 domain per account, and up to 25 users/emails.
Outsourcing your email to Google or Zoho will minimize the load on your server, except that if you are actually planning on setting up another droplet just for the mail server.
I personally use Zoho on my website.
You don't have to setup an email server in order to have an email @yourdomain.com. You can create a relay via mailgun.com.
Mailgun allows you to create infinite addresses under your own domain, and it provide SMTP server + credential where you can use to establish a secure connection between mailgun and gmail/hotmail inbox. All for free, until you have sent over 10,000 emails a month then you will have to pay $5 for additional 10,000 emails. This does not apply to most of us however.
So once done correctly, you can send and receive under example@mysite.com directly from Gmail inbox as if you run your own email server for example@mysite.com. Here's full guide.
You need to either roll your own email server or use an external SMTP server. If you want an all-in-one package, use the DO tutorial for mail-in-a-box or go to the mail-in-a-box website for a video tutorial. If you want to delve into postfix, use the search box on this page to see links to a few variations. Using Google SMTP? Click here
@speelman90 - Let me amend my previous comment. Your distribution may already have sendmail available, though you may need to customize the configuration. Good luck.
@gndo thanks for the reply, this is helpful info.