Today I decided to get a custom domain for my email and honestly I think it's one of the best things I've done for my online privacy.
Here’s why.
The probl...
I recently swapped to a custom domain with PurelyMail as the backing and sometimes it doesn’t even go to spam but straight to the void. I had to add it to my work Outlook’s trusted list for it to even show up at all. Also signing up for store rewards the other day the system wouldn’t even recognise my address as valid. That said, all my emails to businesses have been responded to as normal so I have yet to have major issues.
As long as your DKIM and SPF are correctly configured in your DNS (usually your registrar) and the IP of the email server is not blacklisted by some others, you should be just fine.
I’ve hosted websites since 1997, and for the last decade, I’ve given up fighting just that. I use - and this is not an ad, but is an endorsement - mxroute to handle that. They handle fighting blacklists so I don’t have to worry about it.
Glad to explain more if wanted, but it’s pretty simple to set up - as long as you control your DNS.
Even then, a lot of email is reputation based on ip blocks. You can have all of those things correct and still be sent to spam if you’re using a cloud provider or the like. If you want to avoid trying to get up reputation up, your best bet is to use a reputable mail sending system like resend or smtp2go
Yep, the big ones (MS, Google) don’t give a shit about your self hosted e-mail server and throw all of your mail to spam. They don’t do that with replies though.
No, although I don’t host my own email so my “reputation” is bound to my email provider (soverin.net). I’ve found https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx to be useful when checking email sending at work, though
You can run email on a custom domain, but as other replies demonstrate, it’s a huge challenge these days. (My primary email is on a custom domain, but I probably wouldn’t do it again if I hadn’t already been on it for two decades.)
Are you referring to running your own email servers specifically?
If so then I agree it’s probably not worth the trouble.
Email service is inexpensive with large providers and deliverability is good also with customer domains.
Exactly. I can understand the push to discourage the general public from hosting their own emails but serving up emails on a custom domain (including self hosting) is not as difficult as it’s made out to be. It just takes some patience if the right DNS entries are in place.
Depending on how the hosting provider sets things up, you might have to create a few dns entries (spf, dkim, dmarc) to help your reputation. Also avoid using addresses historically reserved for admin stuff, like admin, mail, etc.
Does anyone run into problem with their custom domain’s emails being sent to other people’s spam folders?
I recently swapped to a custom domain with PurelyMail as the backing and sometimes it doesn’t even go to spam but straight to the void. I had to add it to my work Outlook’s trusted list for it to even show up at all. Also signing up for store rewards the other day the system wouldn’t even recognise my address as valid. That said, all my emails to businesses have been responded to as normal so I have yet to have major issues.
Set your DMARC and SPF
As long as your DKIM and SPF are correctly configured in your DNS (usually your registrar) and the IP of the email server is not blacklisted by some others, you should be just fine.
I’ve hosted websites since 1997, and for the last decade, I’ve given up fighting just that. I use - and this is not an ad, but is an endorsement - mxroute to handle that. They handle fighting blacklists so I don’t have to worry about it.
Glad to explain more if wanted, but it’s pretty simple to set up - as long as you control your DNS.
You need a DMARC policy, and then dkim or and spf record set up. Without these a lot of email providers will just assume your emails are spam.
Even then, a lot of email is reputation based on ip blocks. You can have all of those things correct and still be sent to spam if you’re using a cloud provider or the like. If you want to avoid trying to get up reputation up, your best bet is to use a reputable mail sending system like resend or smtp2go
I wasn’t even thinking about self hosted email, but you’re right about that.
Yep, the big ones (MS, Google) don’t give a shit about your self hosted e-mail server and throw all of your mail to spam. They don’t do that with replies though.
https://kb.mailbox.org/en/private/custom-domains/spf-dkim-and-dmarc/
No, although I don’t host my own email so my “reputation” is bound to my email provider (soverin.net). I’ve found https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx to be useful when checking email sending at work, though
+1 for Soverin. They are a great provider. I have 4 domains and a dozen mailboxes with them.
You can run email on a custom domain, but as other replies demonstrate, it’s a huge challenge these days. (My primary email is on a custom domain, but I probably wouldn’t do it again if I hadn’t already been on it for two decades.)
Are you referring to running your own email servers specifically? If so then I agree it’s probably not worth the trouble. Email service is inexpensive with large providers and deliverability is good also with customer domains.
Pretty much every company in the world runs their email on a custom domain. I really doubt the domain is the problem.
Exactly. I can understand the push to discourage the general public from hosting their own emails but serving up emails on a custom domain (including self hosting) is not as difficult as it’s made out to be. It just takes some patience if the right DNS entries are in place.
Depending on how the hosting provider sets things up, you might have to create a few dns entries (spf, dkim, dmarc) to help your reputation. Also avoid using addresses historically reserved for admin stuff, like admin, mail, etc.
Almost everyone does.
Thats not true at all
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