This article explains how to set up your own domain with StartMail to be able to send and receive emails with your domain. Please note that StartMail does not provide domains, so you must already have your own domain to be able to set it up with StartMail.
Verify your domain
- Go to the main homepage and click to sign up for a Custom Domain. Enter your own domain and click on Use your own domain.
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Enter your domain and click on Continue.
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To verify your domain, log in to your domain's registrar in a separate browser window. Copy the startmail-verification and enter it then as a TXT record in the registrar's DNS settings.
Back in the StartMail window click on Check. -
When you have successfully entered the TXT startmail-verification value, your domain is shown as verified. Click on Continue with signup.
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Complete the registration process by entering the following information
- New email address
- Enter your password twice.
There is no set number of characters or special characters that your password should contain. However, it is important that you choose either a good or a strong password. The password strength is automatically displayed when you enter it.
- Billing Information
- Billing Country
- Tick the box to confirm that you have read the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
- Finally, click Start 7-day free trial. -
You will now be shown a one-time recovery code. Store this code safely as it is used to recover your StartMail account in case you lose your password. Confirm you saved the one-time recovery code and click on Go to inbox.
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Click on Next.
- To be able to send emails from your own domain, please also add the MX records and the SPF record in your registrar's DNS settings. See the instruction below.
If you have trouble adding a TXT record with our instructions, please check with your domain registrar as they might require different inputs to add a record.
If you are planning to migrate your emails and contacts from an existing custom domain account with the same domain which is currently run by another email service, please stop at this point and follow the steps on Email and contact migration tool, before you proceed with setting up your MX and SPF records as described in the next step.
Set up your MX and TXT SPF records
- Update all MX records in the DNS settings to match the following. Delete or create new entries as needed:
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Record
Host / Name
Value
Priority
MX
@
mx1.startmail.com
10
MX
@
mx2.startmail.com
10
TXT
@
"v=spf1 include:spf.startmail.com ~all"
The interface will indicate if there are any missing or wrong records configured.
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Enable Catch-all
- Our new feature Catch-all allows you to collect all email messages sent to non-existent email addresses in your domain. To enable it, visit Settings > Domain.
- When all statuses are set to Completed, you are able to send and receive emails from your own domain.
Add additional domains
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- If you want to add more domains to your custom domain account with your own domain, go to Settings > Domains and click Add Domain + in the top left hand corner.
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Enter the additional domain you want to add to your account. This domain must also be owned by you and you will also need access to the DNS settings for this domain to verify it.
Click Add.
- To be able to send and receive email from the new domain, transfer all the entries shown as TXT and MX records to the DNS settings of your domain host.
- Once each entry has been successfully added, the status of the entry will change from "Missing" to "Correct".
If an entry could not be added successfully, a more detailed description will appear in the status area when you hover over the.
- Once you have successfully set up the domain, you will also be able to set up alias addresses with this domain.
- If you want to add more domains to your custom domain account with your own domain, go to Settings > Domains and click Add Domain + in the top left hand corner.