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Email hosting for your domain

How to get email for your domain

You bought a domain. Now you want a real hello@yourdomain.com that actually sends and receives mail - not a forwarding trick, and not a whole webhotel you'll never use. Here's exactly how that works, and how to set it up in a few minutes.

Email and web hosting are two different things

The most useful thing to understand first: email hosting and web hosting are separate. Where your website lives is controlled by your domain's A and CNAME records. Where your email goes is controlled by a different set of records - the MX records. That's why you can have a domain with a live website and no email, or email and no website, or both hosted in completely different places.

So to get email on a domain you own, you don't need a webhotel, a website, or a server. You need something that runs a real mail service, and you point your domain's MX records at it. That's the whole idea behind Mektup.

What "email for your domain" actually means

A real domain inbox does two things a lot of half-solutions skip:

  • Receiving. Anyone can email hello@yourdomain.com and it lands in a real inbox you can read - not a black hole, and not just a forward to your Gmail.
  • Sending. You can reply and send from that address, and it passes the checks (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) that keep your mail out of spam.

Forwarding-only setups give you the first half badly (you can't reply from the address) and transactional email APIs give you the second half only (they can't receive). A proper mailbox does both.

How to set it up in three steps

1. Register your domain

Add the domain to Mektup - through the dashboard, the REST API, or by asking your AI coding agent to do it. You immediately get back the exact DNS records to add: the MX records, an SPF record, a DKIM key, and a DMARC record.

2. Add the DNS records

Paste those records at whatever registrar or DNS host you already use - Cloudflare, Simply, GoDaddy, Vercel, Namecheap, wherever your domain lives. Mektup never touches your DNS for you; it only ever tells you the values. If you already have a website, leave your A and CNAME records alone - only the MX and TXT records change, so your site is untouched.

3. Create a mailbox

Create an address like hello@yourdomain.com. From that moment it's a real mailbox: it receives mail from anyone, and you can send from it. Read it in Mektup's webmail, or add it to Outlook, Apple Mail, or your phone over standard IMAP and SMTP.

Reading and sending from anywhere

Mektup includes a full webmail dashboard - threaded conversations, search, folders, drafts, forwarding, and vacation replies - so you never have to configure a mail client if you don't want to. But nothing is locked in: because every mailbox speaks real IMAP and SMTP, you can just as easily add it to the mail apps you already use. Same inbox, your choice of where you read it.

Add a contact form while you're at it

Most people who want email on their domain also want a way for visitors to reach them from a website. Mektup includes built-in contact forms: you drop a plain HTML form on your site, and submissions arrive as real messages in your domain inbox - no separate form service, no backend to build.

What it costs

Getting email on one domain is free - 1 domain, 1,000 emails a month, and 3GB of storage, no credit card. Need more domains or volume? Paid plans start at $20/month. You're only ever paying for email and forms, not for web hosting you won't use - which is usually a lot cheaper than buying a whole webhotel just for the email. See the full pricing.

Give your domain an inbox

FAQ

Common questions

Do I need web hosting to get email on my domain?

No. Email and web hosting are separate. Your domain's MX records decide where email goes, independently of any website. Point the MX records at Mektup and you get a real inbox, with or without a website anywhere.

Can I keep my website where it is and only move email?

Yes. Email is controlled by MX records, your website by A or CNAME records. Changing the MX records to Mektup doesn't affect your website at all.

Will my domain email work in Outlook and on my phone?

Yes. Every mailbox works over standard IMAP and SMTP, so you can add it to Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, or your phone's mail app, alongside Mektup's own webmail.

Ready when you are

Real email for the domain you own

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