📧 How to Get a Free Custom Email for Your Domain

🚀 The Goal

We want to set up a fully functional email system where:

• Users receive transactional emails from notifications@example.com (via Resend)
• Users can reply to emails and receive them at support@example.com (via ImprovMX)
• Replies can be sent from yourname@example.com directly in Gmail

All without paying for Google Workspace. Let's get started!

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🛠 Step 1: Set Up Your Domain

First, purchase a domain from a registrar like Namecheap, Google Domains, or Cloudflare.

For this guide, we'll use example.com as our domain.

Once purchased, ensure your domain has DNS management enabled.

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📨 Step 2: Configure Resend for Sending Emails

Resend is an email-sending service designed for developers. We'll use it to send transactional emails.

1. Sign up for Resend
2. Add Your Domain
   • Navigate to "Domains"
   • Click "Add Domain"
   • Enter example.com
   • Follow the verification process (Resend provides DNS records to add)
3. Update DNS Records
   • Add the TXT and MX records from Resend to your domain's DNS settings
   • Wait for DNS propagation (can take a few minutes to an hour)
4. Test Sending Emails
   • Once verified, you can send test emails using Resend’s API or dashboard

Example API call:

import { Resend } from 'resend';
 
const resend = new Resend('your-resend-api-key');
 
await resend.emails.send({
  from: 'notifications@example.com',
  to: 'user@example.com',
  subject: 'Test Email',
  text: 'Hello, this is a test email from Resend!'
});

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📬 Step 3: Set Up ImprovMX for Forwarding

ImprovMX allows you to receive emails for free by forwarding them to another address (e.g., Gmail).

1. Sign up on ImprovMX
2. Add Your Domain (example.com)
3. Update DNS Records
   • ImprovMX will provide MX and TXT records
   • Add these to your domain’s DNS settings
4. Set Up Email Forwarding
   • Forward support@example.com to yourpersonal@gmail.com
   • Forward notifications@example.com to yourpersonal@gmail.com (optional for monitoring replies)
5. Test by Sending an Email to support@example.com
   • If everything is set up correctly, it should land in your Gmail inbox

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📤 Step 4: Replying as yourname@example.com from Gmail

1. Go to Gmail Settings → "Accounts and Import".
2. Under "Send mail as", click "Add another email address".
3. Enter yourname@example.com as the email address.
4. Use Resend SMTP settings:
   • SMTP Server: smtp.resend.com
   • Username: resend
   • Port: 587 (TLS) or 465 (SSL)
   • Password: Your Resend API Key
5. Verify the setup by clicking the confirmation link sent to yourname@example.com.
6. Now, you can choose to send emails as yourname@example.com directly from Gmail.

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✅ Final Setup Recap

-Resend → Sends transactional emails from notifications@example.com - ImprovMX → Forwards support@example.com to your Gmail - Gmail → Can send emails as yourname@example.com

You now have a fully functional email setup for your domain, all for free! 🎉

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🔗 Useful Links

• Resend
• ImprovMX
• Gmail SMTP Setup

Thanks for reading!