Email addresses on your domain

Once your marketplace runs on your own domain, you’ll probably want an email address to match, such as hello@yourdomain.com. Yclas hosts your website but not mailboxes, so you get email from an email provider. The two work side by side: your website’s DNS records and your email’s DNS records don’t get in each other’s way.

Choose an email provider

Popular choices are:

• Google Workspace — Gmail with your domain.
• Microsoft 365 — Outlook with your domain.
• Zoho Mail — a low-cost option for small teams.

Many domain registrars also sell mailboxes or offer free email forwarding (mail to hello@yourdomain.com lands in your existing inbox). Forwarding is a good start if you only need to receive mail.

Set it up

The exact screens depend on the provider, but the steps are always the same:

1. Sign up with the provider and add your domain.
2. Prove you own the domain. The provider asks you to add a TXT (or sometimes CNAME) record to your DNS.
3. Add the provider’s MX records. These tell the internet where to deliver your email.
4. Add the provider’s SPF record (a TXT record) and, if offered, DKIM, so your mail isn’t marked as spam.
5. Create your mailboxes, such as hello@ or support@.

Add these records where your domain’s DNS is managed: usually the company you bought the domain from, the same place you added your site’s record in Connect your own domain. If your domain was connected before the one-record setup and runs through your own Cloudflare account, add them in Cloudflare, under DNS, instead.

Google Workspace

Google Workspace (once called G Suite) gives you Gmail, Calendar and Drive with your own domain. It works alongside your Yclas site; the setup is the same as above, with Google’s values:

1. Sign up at workspace.google.com with your domain.
2. When Google asks you to verify the domain, choose the TXT record method and add the record in your DNS settings.
3. Add the MX record Google shows you in the setup (for new accounts a single record, smtp.google.com, priority 1). Delete any MX records left over from an earlier email provider.
4. Add or update your SPF record: a TXT record on @ containing include:_spf.google.com, for example v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all.
5. In the Google Admin console, turn on DKIM (Apps › Google Workspace › Gmail › Authenticate email), add the TXT record it gives you in your DNS settings, then click Start authentication.

Google’s setup wizard shows the exact records for your account; follow it if they differ from these. Leave your site’s @ record alone.

To send your marketplace’s own emails through your Workspace mailbox, choose SMTP under Email › Sending service and use smtp.gmail.com with an app password. See Send email through SMTP.

Keep your website and email records apart

• Don’t touch the website record. Leave the @ CNAME record that points your domain to Yclas (and any www record) as it is. Email uses separate MX and TXT records.
• Your MX records stay at your DNS provider. Connecting your domain to Yclas doesn’t move or replace them.
• Using Cloudflare? On sites connected through your own Cloudflare account, MX records are always DNS only, which is correct, and mail subdomains such as mail or autodiscover must be DNS only (grey cloud), not Proxied.
• One SPF record only. If you already have a TXT record starting with v=spf1, add the new provider to it instead of creating a second one.

Use your new address on your marketplace

Once your mailbox works, you can use it on your site:

• As the address your site’s emails come from, and where notifications go to: see Email settings.
• On your contact page: see Contact page.

Sending your site’s emails “from” your domain needs a little more setup so they don’t land in spam. See Make sure your emails arrive.

Related guides

• Connect your own domain — point your domain to your site with one DNS record.
• Email settings — the sender name and address of your site’s emails.
• Make sure your emails arrive — SPF, DKIM and DMARC for your site’s emails.
• Send email through SMTP — send your site’s emails from your Google Workspace or other mailbox.