Steps to Create and Use a Free Custom Email Domain
Already have a domain for your website and don’t want to pay for an custom email address? Then this guide is for you!
First purchase your domain. I would recommend NameCheap, they’re prices are quite reasonable when it comes to domains.
Head over to Forwardemail and enter the domain name you purchased, and the gmail address that you normally use.
After you get your domain with namecheap
Click on Account ⇒ Dashboard ⇒ Domain List ⇒ Manage ⇒ Advanced DNS
Then you create a TXT record
| Type | Host | Value | TTL |
| TXT Record | @ | forward-email={your-username}@gmail.com | Automatic |
After that under Mail Settings, you will need to create 2 custom MX Records
| Type | Host | Value | Priority | TTL |
| MX Record | @ | mx1.forwardemail.net. | 10 | Automatic |
| MX Record | @ | mx2.forwardemail.net. | 10 | Automatic |
After you’ve set this up on your namecheap DNS settings, go back to forward mail and verify that the MX records and TXT records are being detected.
After that’s done, you just need to configure your gmail settings.
💡 Important: Remember that you will need to have 2-factor-authentication setup on your gmail account to proceed with this setup.
If you have your 2FA setup on google, navigate to your app passwords by click on your profile picture circle ⇒ Manage your Google Account ⇒ Security ⇒ App Passwords
Select your App as “Mail” and your device as “Other (Custom name)”
When you are prompted to input text, type in the custom email address that you want for your domain “example@yourdomain.com”.
💡 Important: Copy the auto generated password that has been generated here. It will be needed in the up coming steps.
Now go back to your gmail account and click on the Setting “Cog” and click on “See all settings”.
Account and Imports ⇒ Send mail as: ⇒ Add another email address
Enter the Name that you want to be seen as and the email address of the custom domain that you used when preparing your App. Make sure you uncheck “treat as an alias”.
Click next and configure your email to be sent through your SMTP server.
| SMTP Server | Username | Password |
| smtp.gmail.com | YOUR login gmail address without the @gmail.com | Paste the password that you copied earlier during App creation. |
Leave the radio button checked to “Secured connection using TLS” and click on “Add Account”.
Next check your gmail, for a verification email that has been emailed to your inbox. Copy the confirmation code and paste into the verification prompt, then click the “Verify” button. Once that’s done, go back to your verification email and click on the confirmation link that they sent and finally confirm the request.
That’s it. You’re done!
Now when you compose an email you can select your custom domain from the “From” drop down and send emails using your very own domain.
