I have been asked by various people over the years how they can set up a custom domain name for email purposes only, without also having to start a website. This article answers that question.
The first thing you will need to do is to get a domain name. Read How to Register Your Own Domain Name if you don't already have one. Don't worry that the article seems to assume you want to create a website; the steps for buying a domain are the same for everyone.
Next, you have to make a choice. There are at least two ways to get email addresses at your own domain.
Some email services allow you to create an email address at your own domain. This is usually only available on a paid service (that is, one where you have to pay a monthly or annual fee). For example, Fastmail is one such service.
Yes, even if you don't want a website, you can still sign up with a web host and use your account purely as an email service.
On most web hosts, you can create a large number of email accounts (mailboxes) and unlimited email aliases (which are basically email addresses that redirect to a normal email account). Since web hosts routinely deal with email sending and receiving as part of the business of web hosting, they usually also have a variety of spam filtering facilities, web mail, autoresponders, vacation messages, mailing list support, and all the usual things you associate with an email service. And you can even install your own web mail interfaces if you don't like the default one provided.
As for the website that comes with it, you can just ignore it, or use it as a storage space for things like email attachments that are too large to send by email, or images that you want to link to from your email or social media accounts, and so on. That said, if you don't want your attachments (or anything else, for that matter) to be accessed by people other than your email recipients, you probably shouldn't put it on the site, since anyone can then download it. (If you still want to do it, you should at least password-protect the folder containing the file).
As for which option is better, it's not as clear-cut as you may think. At first glance, you may suppose that going with an email service is cheaper, but a cursory comparison of some web hosts and email services suggests that the prices between the two are very competitive, with some web hosts even outpricing the email services. (There are zillions of web hosts around, competing for the same people. This tends to drive prices down.) And even when the prices are equal, you could argue that the web hosting option is still cheaper, since they provide you with a lot more things than a purely-email service.
In addition, in terms of the email features available, I'm not convinced that either of the options are demonstrably superior to the other. I regularly use email on both an email service and my web hosting accounts, and find that both options have all the features I need and use. The webmail interface on the email service is prettier and more polished though, but that's just a superficial thing. Theoretically, I can always install a different webmail software on my web hosting account to get a prettier appearance if it really bothers me.
That said, if you want to create different email addresses at your own domain for different people, each with their own individual logins, this is available as a standard feature on a web host (or at least on the web hosts that I have used). I have not investigated this on an email service, but I suspect that you will need to subscribe to a higher-priced plan to get it.
Anyway, whichever option you go with, read the relevant section below for the additional steps to take.
Since every email provider (and domain registrar, for that matter) does things differently, I won't be able to give you a detailed description of what to do. Instead, I'll tell you the general steps, so that you have an overview of the entire procedure. Armed with that information, you will have a better idea of what to look for on your email provider and registrar's websites.
There are essentially two things that you need to do. Set things up at your domain registrar's end so that mail sent to your domain is directed to your email provider. You will also need to set things up at your email provider's end so that they will actually accept the email sent to your domain.
Some email providers allow you to do this by pointing your domain to their service. If they say something like letting them host your domain, or host your DNS, or asking you to set your domain to use their nameservers (or "name servers"), this is what they want. Step-by-step instructions on how to do this, including an explanation of what this mysterious "nameserver" thing is, can be found in my article on How to Point a Domain Name to Your Website. Don't worry that the article seems to be talking about a website and you are only concerned about email. The steps are the same, since you are essentially letting your email provider take over your website's address, even if you don't have one.
More commonly, email services will tell you to point your domain's "MX record" to their email server.
Every domain name has a set of "records" associated with it. One of them, the mail exchanger record,
or "MX" for short, lists the name of the computer that is to receive any email sent to that domain.
So, for example, if someone were to write to someone@example.com, the sending system
will first look up the domain name to see where the MX record for example.com points to.
Let's say that it points to a computer called "mail.example.com". The email system will then contact this machine
(known as an email server, since it handles email) to see if it will accept mail for someone@example.com.
If it does, the message is delivered there.
As such, you will need to know the name of the server that your provider has set up to receive your email. Get this information from your email provider's documentation (or ask them). You cannot guess the name, since it could be anything. Note that this is not the company's name. It is the name of a specific computer.
When you have done that, log into your account at your domain name registrar.
Look for the part of their interface that lets you change your DNS records or "zone files". (Yes, I know those last 2 words sound frighteningly cryptic, but that is the technical name for the location of the records I mentioned earlier. Your registrar may or may not use those words though, but I mention it here so that if they use the technical term, you will recognize that it's what you are looking for.) At one registrar, you will have to go to the DNS Management page for that domain, scroll down to the Records section and click the edit icon next to "MX". Then enter the name of the email server you noted down earlier.
If you have trouble with this step, such as not being able to locate where to change the MX record, search the registrar's site with a query like "how to change MX record". Or ask their customer service. In my experience, though, it's usually faster to search their documention yourself. (It saves a step, since if you were to ask their customer service, they will just point you to the same document on their site.)
You will also need to log into your account at your email provider and change some settings so that it accepts mail for your domain. That is, it's not enough to set your domain's MX record. The email service must also be informed that they are now the official handler of your domain's emails, otherwise they will just reject all mail sent to them for that domain. Again, if you cannot find the part of their site to modify, search their documentation (perhaps with a query like "custom domain", "domain", or "MX record") to find out what to do.
If you want to use a web host as an email service, first sign up with a web host. Many, if not all, domain registrars are also themselves web hosts, so it's possible to purchase a web hosting account from them if you don't want to look for another company.
If you have signed up with a separate company as a web host, you will need to log into your registrar again and point your domain to that web hosting account. (Read the article linked to in the previous sentence to find out how this is done.) If you have signed up for web hosting at your registrar, you probably don't need to do this step, since they will automatically do it by default. But don't let that stop you from using 2 separate companies if you wish; pointing a domain is an easy task.
Once you do that, the web host will automatically set up their email facilities so that you can access your mail through both a webmail interface and an email program, as well as provide you with a website (which is probably empty, or has a placeholder page, at this time) and all its accompanying facilities. If your only purpose is to use this account to email, you can just ignore the website and other features.
Note, though, that since this is a web host and not merely an email host, you will probably need to log into your web hosting control panel (which is just a fancy name for a "settings" or "preferences" page for your account) to manage some things associated with your domain. For example, email aliases, autoresponders and additional email addresses on a web host are usually set up using the control panel and not from the webmail's preferences page, since the webmail interface only allows you to access the mail and settings for a specific email account.
As such, on a web host, you can potentially set up different email addresses for different people (such as for each member of your family), each of whom can only log into their own email account from the webmail interface.
As you can see, it's entirely possible to get a domain name so that you have one or more custom email addresses without having to start or run a website. An email address on your own domain lets you have the ideal email address you want, without having that name conflict with those created by others (and then having to append some numbers just to make it unique). In fact, with your own domain, you have potentially an infinite number of email addresses to play with.
Copyright © 2019-2022 Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.
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