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An email address on your own domain

Updated

An address like info@yourbusiness.co.uk needs two things: a domain you own, and a mailbox from an email provider. grafter.ly Websites doesn't provide the mailbox. This page is how to set one up beside your website.

Your website and your email are separate

Your domain holds a short list of records, and each kind does one job:

  • A and CNAME records say where your website is.
  • MX records say where your email is delivered.
  • TXT records are mostly there so other mail servers trust email sent from your domain.

Connecting your domain to your website changes the A and CNAME records and nothing else. So you can have your website here and your email with anyone.

If you already have email on your domain

Leave the MX and TXT records exactly as they are when you add the records for your website. Your email carries on as before.

If you don't have one yet

  1. Pick an email provider. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are the usual two. The company your domain is registered with almost certainly sells a mailbox as well, and that's often the cheapest.
  2. Sign up with your domain name. The provider asks for it, then shows you the records to add: one or more MX records, and usually two or three TXT or CNAME records.
  3. Add those records where your domain is registered, in its DNS settings. That's the same page you added your website's records on, sometimes called Manage DNS or Advanced DNS. If you bought the mailbox from the company your domain is registered with, it usually adds them for you.
  4. Leave the A record for @ and the CNAME for www alone. Those are your website.
  5. Send a test both ways. New records can take an hour or so to be picked up, and occasionally up to a day.

Use the new address in grafter.ly

Put it in Settings → Business details. When a customer replies to a quote or an invoice you've sent, the reply goes to that address.

Worth knowing

  • You need your own domain for this. An address at yourname.findagrafter.com isn't possible. We don't register domains yet, so buy one from a domain registrar and connect it from Website → Your own domain.
  • The enquiry form on your site doesn't need any of this. An enquiry arrives in grafter.ly as a job, and you're told by email and text as you are now.
  • Can't log in where your domain is registered? It's often held by whoever built your last website. Ask them to add the records. The provider's list is all they need.