How to set up email with your own domain

01Your options

02The free route: forwarding

If you just want [email protected] to land in your existing Gmail, forwarding is enough. Cloudflare's Email Routing forwards incoming mail to verified destination addresses on the free plan. It handles incoming mail only; to reply as [email protected] you need an outgoing service, which some people set up through Gmail's "send mail as" option with an SMTP provider.

Zoho's Forever Free plan is a step up: real mailboxes for up to five users on one domain with 5 GB each, though without IMAP, POP or ActiveSync, so you use Zoho's web and mobile apps rather than other mail clients.

03Setting it up, step by step

The process is the same for every provider; only the record values differ.

1. 1Sign up and add your domainIn the provider's admin console, add yourdomain.com.
2. 2Verify you own itAdd the TXT record the provider shows at your DNS host.
3. 3Add MX recordsThese tell the internet where to deliver mail for your domain. Remove old MX records from previous providers.
4. 4Add SPFA TXT record listing which servers may send mail as your domain.
5. 5Turn on DKIMThe provider generates a key; add it as a TXT or CNAME record so receivers can verify your signatures.
6. 6Add DMARCA TXT record at _dmarc telling receivers what to do with mail that fails checks; start with a monitoring policy.
7. 7Send a testEmail a Gmail and an Outlook address and check the message is not in spam.

04Why SPF, DKIM and DMARC matter now

Large mailbox providers have tightened their rules for senders, and mail from domains without authentication is increasingly filtered or rejected. Even a one-person business should set all three. Without them, your quotes and invoices may land in spam, and anyone can more easily spoof your domain.

If you also send newsletters or transactional mail from your website, through a form service or a tool like Mailchimp, add that service to your SPF record and set up its DKIM too. A single domain can only have one SPF record, so combine entries in it rather than adding a second.

05Do not break email when you change your website

Email and the website are separate records on the same domain. When you connect a new host, change only the A and CNAME records for the website. Switching nameservers to a new DNS provider moves every record, so copy the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records across first. Vercel's domain guide warns about exactly this.

Do I need hosting if I have a domain? explains how the pieces fit, where to buy a domain covers registrars, and what is DNS? explains the record types.

06Which should you choose?

• Just you, receiving mostly: Cloudflare forwarding into your current inbox.
• A small team on a budget: Zoho Mail's free plan.
• A business that lives in Gmail and Docs: Google Workspace.
• A business on Outlook, Word and Teams: Microsoft 365.
• Avoid the cheapest host-bundled mailboxes for anything critical; deliverability and support vary.