Can anyone recommend a Backup MX solution [preferably not in North America]? That is, a simple store and forward secondary mail server for a contingency in case the primary server goes down.

Presently I run an instance of Postfix on a cheap VPS in the UK (cheap being ~$6 month). However this seems unnecessary (and also just adds to administration time) and a simple service seems more adequate. I have used Zoneedit in the past, but they worked out to be more expensive because they charge per domain (looking to use this on about 10 domains). This is a very simple contingency for a rock solid primary server. I ask outside of North America because the primary server is in the US. Therefore I want some geographic redundancy.

Any recommendations?

i've never seen pricing that cheap for multi-domain backup mx. i don't know how hard set you are on your budget ($6/mo is pretty low..) but if you can bump it up a tiny bit, could you perhaps provision another VPS in the states and configure it to serve as a backup mail spooler?

For multiple domains, and that price, just stick with the VPS. Administration shouldn't take more than ten minutes a week, if you set it up right, and you can probably find other things to use the VPS for (backup space, DNS slave, "offsite" status page...) at the same time.

For what it's worth, though - speaking as an e-mail service provider, here, BTW - probably 80% of the time, secondary MXes in this day and age are pretty much useless for anything other than (possibly misplaced) peace of mind, or marketing purposes; the tiny handful of things which originate email and don't queue outgoing mail for later delivery don't understand multiple MX records...

For multiple domains, and that price, just stick with the VPS. Administration shouldn't take more than ten minutes a week, if you set it up right, and you can probably find other things to use the VPS for (backup space, DNS slave, "offsite" status page...) at the same time.

For what it's worth, though - speaking as an e-mail service provider, here, BTW - probably 80% of the time, secondary MXes in this day and age are pretty much useless for anything other than (possibly misplaced) peace of mind, or marketing purposes; the tiny handful of things which originate email and don't queue outgoing mail for later delivery don't understand multiple MX records...

I figured as much. It isn't really a major hassle by any means; I was just curious if there were any alternatives out there.

I agree that a backup MX is for that 20%. But we've had issues with our main server provider in the past, and the backup MX was there to spool some of the incoming mail (especially in the case where we had a three day nightmare outage). It's an insurance policy for the small window of possible risk. But for just $6 a month it is well worth it for the business clients we host.

DNSMadeEasy provides a working MX backup. I've used in for a corporate networks email backup for quite a few years. In the few instances we had a downed email server, it worked as advertised. The price is very affordable, too.