Yes, we do support having your own custom (or vanity) domain-based address(es) in paid plans.
- Entry plan offers 1 domain to be added/managed, whereas Pro plan offers 5 and Ultra plan offers 7 domains to be added/managed using domain adding wizard.
- Please be notified, that the domain foo.example.com and example.com will be counted as two separate domains, each with its own DNS records.
- Before adding a custom domain, please make sure that you have already chosen a primary address (in Messages) for your Mailfence account.
- Please make sure that your account’s reset/notification address is not based on the domain that you are about to add. If yes, then change your reset/notification address with a different service (e.g., notmydomain.com) – as mydomain.com DNS MX records will point to our servers and you will no longer be able to change password of your account in case of compromises.
1. Go to account Settings.
2. Navigate to Messages -> Email domains.
3. Click on Add an e-mail domain.
4. Write down your domain name and click on Add.
5. Perform the domain ownership verification check, and click on Verify to proceed.
If you close the domain adding wizard screen, before clicking on Verify, the verification file or DNS TXT record will change when you start again from step 4.
You can access your website hosting site using the standard control panel (e.g., Cpanel, Plesk, Atomia) or via FTP/SSH. Please refer to your domain name service provider documentation to get exact steps.
The verification file should be uploaded to the website’s root directory e.g., a directory named mydomain.com or a directory named www inside mydomain.com:
A TXT record is a type of resource record in the Domain name system (DNS). Read more here. Please refer to your domain name service provider documentation to get exact steps on how to add a TXT record.
DNS records can take some time to propagate. You can use this tool to check.
6. You can now create your domain based email address(es) as an alias to your Mailfence account, by going into your account Settings -> Messages -> Aliases -> New: Select your domain from the drop-down.
- This is a compulsory step if you already use your domain for e-mails, otherwise incoming e-mails to your domain based e-mail address(es) will be lost.
- Emails sent to postmaster@mydomain.com will arrive in the mailbox of mydomain.com domain owner.
- Emails sent to abuse@mydomain.com will not arrive in the mailbox of mydomain.com domain owner. This address is reserved for anti-abuse reasons.
- In case you need to set up a catch-all address for your domain, then send an email to support@mailfence.com with your login name and the desired catch-all address (e.g., catchall@mydomain.com). Please create the catch-all address either as a primary email address or as an alias before sending us the email.
- In case if you would like to replace your Mailfence account primary email address to your domain based address, then send an email to support@mailfence.com.
7. Configure the respective MX entries in your domain DNS records:
- Make sure you enter the same preference value (e.g. 10) in both of the MX records to guarantee load balancing and fail over.
- In some cases (depending on your domain DNS record manager), you will have to add the ‘.’ (dot) at the end of the MX records. Without them, the MX records will be faulty e.g., (smtp1.mailfence.com.mydomain.com).
After following above steps, you will be able to receive emails sent to your domain based address(es).
Before sending emails, we strongly recommend you to set anti-spoofing measures (SPF, DKIM and DMARC entries) for your domain.
You can also create/manage other user accounts, and assign the email address(es) based on your custom domain.