Your own domain
Whether addresses on your domain are included, and on which plans. Free personal accounts usually do not offer it.
Email from first principles
Dear business owner, here is how business email works
An address on your own domain comes down to a few parts: a name, a provider that holds the mailbox, and some DNS records telling other mail servers that a message really came from you. Once those parts make sense, the setup is short.
you@yourbusiness
- Name
- The mailbox, or the person it reaches.
- At sign
- Splits the name from the place it lives.
- Domain
- The part you control, and where other servers look to find your mail.
The basics
Three things make business email work
Each one can change hands without disturbing the other two, which is why it pays to keep them apart in your head.
-
The domain
The name after the at sign. You register it, you renew it, and it stays yours whichever company handles your mail.
-
The mailbox
Storage and mail servers run by a provider, plus the app or webmail you read it in.
-
The records
Lines in your domain's DNS that say where mail should arrive and who is allowed to send it.
The journey
What happens when you press send
A message passes between servers much as a letter passes between post offices, with the address read at each stop.
- First
Your provider takes it
Your mail app hands the message to your provider's outgoing server.
- Next
The address is looked up
That server reads the recipient's domain and asks DNS which server accepts its mail.
- Then
The receiver checks it
The receiving server tests whether your domain really sent the message and weighs how it looks.
- Last
It gets filed
The message lands in the inbox or in spam, and the recipient's app collects it from there.
Setting up
Setting up an address on your own domain
The work is a short run of errands, each addressed to a different party, and done in this order.
-
To A domain registrar
Register a domain
Choose a name you are happy to put on invoices, and make sure you can reach its DNS settings. Without those you cannot point mail anywhere.
-
To A mailbox provider
Open a mailbox on that domain
Sign up, add the domain and create the addresses you need. The provider then gives you the exact records to publish.
-
To Your DNS host
Point the MX records at the provider
This is the step that moves incoming mail. Your DNS host is often the registrar, but it does not have to be.
-
To Your DNS host, again
Publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC
These prove your outgoing mail is genuine. Many providers walk you through them, and they are easy to skip by accident because mail seems to work without them.
-
To An address somewhere else
Send a test each way
Write to an address at a different provider and reply to yourself. Then open the message headers and confirm the checks passed.
Choosing a provider
What to compare when choosing a provider
Every mailbox provider sends and receives mail. They differ in what surrounds it, and in how easily you can leave.
Addresses and aliases
How many names can reach one mailbox, and whether a shared address such as a support inbox costs a separate seat.
Storage and attachments
How much mail each mailbox can hold, and what happens when it fills up.
What comes bundled
Calendars, documents and video calls are often sold with the mailbox. Useful if you want them, padding if you do not.
Security and admin
Two-step sign-in, control over who has access, and what you can do when someone leaves the business.
Getting your mail out
Whether old messages can be exported in a standard format. The domain moves easily; years of mail may not.
The records
The records that keep messages out of spam
Four DNS records do most of the work. One says where your mail arrives, and three help a receiver trust what you send.
- MX
- Where mail for your domain arrives. It names the servers that accept it. Get it wrong and incoming mail goes astray.
- SPF
- Which servers may send as your domain. A domain publishes one SPF record, so a new sending service gets added to the existing record rather than given a second one.
- DKIM
- A signature on each message. Your provider signs outgoing mail and the public key sits in your DNS, so a receiver can tell the message was not altered on the way.
- DMARC
- What to do when the checks fail. It tells receivers how to treat mail that fails SPF and DKIM for your domain, and where to send reports about it.
These records establish who you are. They cannot promise the inbox, because receivers also weigh the content of a message, your sending history and whether people mark your mail as spam.
Common questions
Questions that come up once mail is running
Do I keep my address if I change provider?
Yes, as long as you keep the domain. You open mailboxes at the new provider, copy your old mail across, then change the MX and authentication records to match. The records move future mail only, so the copying is a separate job.
Does every address need its own mailbox?
No. An alias delivers mail for a second address into a mailbox you already have, and a shared mailbox or group lets several people read the same address. What is allowed depends on the provider and plan.
Why does my mail land in spam after setup?
Start with the headers of a test message: a failed or missing SPF, DKIM or DMARC result is the most common thing to fix. A new domain with no sending history can also take time to earn trust, and sudden bulk sending works against it.
Can newsletters go out from the same domain?
They can, once the sending service is included in your SPF record and has DKIM set up for your domain. Many businesses use a subdomain for bulk mail, so that complaints about a campaign are kept apart from everyday correspondence.