How To Setup A Gmail Custom Domain For Free
So you want to make your email address look professional right?
But you also want to use your Gmail account because boy those people at Google make things stupidly simple to use
If that’s the case you’re in the right spot!
I’m going to show you exactly how to get a professional email address for your website and set up a Gmail custom domain for free!
As always, we have a video guide for this making a professional email address available on our YouTube Channel and below:
Custom email addresses help you build and promote your brand .
And with this here how to create custom email address free guide, you can still use your free Gmail account.
And while a lot of posts and videos out there will tell you to pay for Google G Suite or use other tools like Mailgun were going to show you a super simple way to use a free custom email address with Gmail!
Contents
Recommended: Use G Suite For Your Business Email
G Suite not only enables you to set up a professional domain email address, but also includes other Google apps, such as Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, Hangouts, and more.
There is a cost, but I think the benefits are worth it. Its easy to keep your work and personal email accounts separate. You can keep personal and business accounts open at the same time in different tabs or windows. Plus you get 30 GB of cloud file storage with the Basic account.
Coupon Code
Get 20% off G Suite with this coupon code:
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Importing Your Domain Email Account Into Gmail
If you are using the Secure SSL/TLS settings, make sure you select Port 995 from the Port drop-down menu.
If you are using the Non-SSL settings, select Port 110 from the Port drop-down menu.
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How To Use Gmail With Your Own Domain Name
So can you use Gmail with your own domain name? And if so, can you do it for free? The answers to those questions are yes and yes. And in this post, youll learn how to do it.
Specifically, Im going to show you two ways to use Gmail with your own custom domain name:
How To Use Gmail With Your Own Domain For Via Google Workspace
Google Workspace is an entire business suite. Every plan includes access to Gmail, Google Drive, Google Meet, Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Docs, and much more. When you sign up to Google Workspace youll get a custom and secure business email, cloud storage, and other features depending on the plan you choose.
Google Workspace is ideal for businesses who want to share files easily with one another. Its a great service, but the one downside is that you have to pay for it. The Business Starter plan costs $6 per month, per user, so if you want it just for yourself, youll only be paying $6.
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Create A G Suite Account And Follow The Wizard
To get started, website and follow the account setup wizard to configure the basic details, like which custom domain you want to use with G Suite. This will be the domain name at the end of your email address e.g. @yoursite.com:
If youre the only person who will be using Google Workspace , youre finished once you complete the wizard. If you want to give other people custom email addresses, you can also do that after completing the initial setup wizard:
Set Up Your Email Mx Record
This is the last step in setting up your custom email address. Its what makes the emails actually flow into Gmail. This will require changing some settings at your web host. Google has specific instructions for many web hosts here. If your host is not the list, then follow the generic instructions here.
This step sounds scary because the instructions have a lot of technical language. If you follow the instructions step-by-step, you should have no problems. However, if you do, contact customer support at your web hosting provider. They will be able to help you.
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How To Use Gmail With Your Domain Name Address Without Using Google Apps
How to use Gmail with your domain name Loving Gmail? Ever wonder how to use Gmail to send emails with your domain name address? Or perhaps wondering whether you can use Gmail to read the emails from your domain name? You may have heard that Google Apps can do this comfortably BUT going for Google Apps is tricky and require some MX records change. Not to mention that things may go wrong and your past emails might be lost for good.
There is actually an easy way to use Gmail with your domain name to send and receive emails, simply by going through the Gmail settings. I am happily reading and sending all my blogging related emails on Gmail using my email address at the domain cravingtech.com. Here is how to set-up your Gmail to send and receive emails from your domain name.
How To Use Gmail With Your Own Branded Domain
Securing a website with a domain branded to your business name helps you appear more professional and trustworthy, which can translate into more customers and improved sales figures. If you prefer the ease of use of your Gmail account and your domain provides POP3 access, you can use the Gmail Mail Fetcher to download all of your current messages into your Gmail account and continue to check for new mail messages. In addition, you can add your branded domain email as a sender for your account, which allows you to send emails from Gmail as well.
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Configuring Gmail To Send Emails As A Custom Domain
Setting Up A Google Apps Account
Step 1
“Get Started”
Step 2
Step 7:
The final step of this process is adding the Gmail MX Records to your domain. Google provides their own mail servers, which you can read about here. Switching your MX Records to the ones provided on their page differs depending on whether you use S-Drive or another hosting service.
- If youre using S-Drive, sign in to your S-Drive account here, then go to the domain management page and click Manage DNS Settings under the domain name you are using. Youll need to get and enter them into this page so that your DNS setup looks similar to this:
- If youre not using S-Drive, youll either need to sign into your hosting providers control panel and change the records yourself, or contact a server administrator to take care of this for you.
Congratulations! You are Done!
Remember, DNS changes may take a few hours for them to filter through the ‘net so if you do not start getting e-mail right away, give it time for these settings to propagate.
Read Also: Who Owns Domain Name Checker
Verify Your Gmail Address And Create Smtp User
In order for Amazon SES to accept outgoing mail from your GMail account it is necessary to verify it and create an SMTP user:
Own domain email address verification
Outgoing email SMTP configuration data
SMTP user credentials created successfully
Initially your newly configured Amazon SES service will be quarantined by Amazon as a measure of protection against possible abuse and spam. To remove it from quarantine and allow normal mailing you need to open a support ticket to Amazon and fullfill a request. Otherwise you will see how the emails you send bounce with the following error message:
554 Message rejected: Email address is not verified. The following identities failed the check in region EU-WEST-1:
Below is the page from which you can request to be moved out of the sandbox and a request message example. In our example we asked for higher limits because we also want to use the Amazon SES service to send a weekly newsletter to our subscribers:
Sandbox warning and button to request sending limit increase
Example of Amazon support ticket to request moving out of sandbox and sending limit increase
Create New Dns Zone For Your Domain On Amazon Route 53
The first step is to create a Public Hosted Zone for your domain on Amazon Route 53 if you dont have it yet. To do this, access to AWS console and go to Route 53 -> Hosted zones -> Create Hosted Zone. You can harness this step to add some DNS entries if you need them, such as A records that point to your website or SPF record as a security measure to prevent the email addresses within your domain from being spoofed or your messages from being considered as spam.
Basic public DNS zone newly created in Amazon Route 53
Example SPF record in DNS zone
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Reasons Why You Might Want To Use Gmail With Your Custom Domain
Add Mx Records For Email
Once youve verified your domain name, you also need to add another type of record called MX records so that Google Workspace can manage the email for your domain name.
You can do this via the same interface where you added the TXT record. Or, many web hosts include a built-in tool to help you add the Google Workspace MX records.
For example, with the cPanel dashboard at SiteGround, you get a dedicated Set Google MX tool in the MX Entry interface:
And thats it! You should be ready to use Gmail with your custom domain name.
Remember if you want a more detailed look, .
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Configure Gmail To Send Email From Your Domains Addresses
We reached the final stretch. The only thing left is to configure GMail to send mail by putting your domains address as sender . In order to receive mail, nothing is to be done, as this is the responsibility of SES service and does not require any additional configuration. Between the two screenshots below there is an intermediate step that consists of entering the SMTP configuration data that was obtained in step #5:
How to add multiple email addresses to GMail
GMail new address verification code
Using Gmail With Your Domain
While the above steps may seem like a lot of information, they should be very simple to follow, taking just a few minutes to set up. Here are my recommendations for using Gmail with your domain:
- Gmail If you already have a website and email hosting, you can use a Gmail account for free
- Google Workspace If you dont already have email hosting, or you want to separate your custom email address from your Gmail account, Google Workspace is an extensive and affordable option
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