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16 Comments

Setting up an email for a new business domain is annoying

Hi folks,
Often when I try to create a new online business I buy a domain, and then go cheap and instead of buying a G Suite subscription for a monthly payment, I add DNS records on MailGun (free 10,000 mails per month) then use it in Gmail for free.

Anyone does the same? Do yo

  1. 2

    Doing exactly the samen on Mailgun.
    However I would like to give Google domains free email forwarding a try. It seems automatic.
    Only things is you need to keep Google Nameservers but I often switch to Cloudflare's ones.

    1. 1

      Google Domains certainly looks good. It's a bit more expensive than GoDaddy and NameCheap, but has this advantage of simplicity.
      You have to keep Google's nameservers? How do you switch to Cloudflare's ones then?

      1. 1

        if you switch to Cloudflare's nameservers you lost Google Domains features (free email redirections, etc) that's the problem

        1. 1

          Got it. So ideally, you'd use Cloudflare's nameservers and then use Mailgun to forward the emails to you, right (if it was super simple to set up)? So you can enjoy both worlds.

          1. 1

            I cannot live without Cloudflare. I mean come one, one of the best CDN for free :)
            So yes usually I connect domain to Mailgun.

  2. 2

    It usually just takes a few minutes for me to register the domain, set up email on my VPS, and add it into Gmail. I would have to be doing this several times a week before it would be worth implementing a system or automating it.

    1. 1

      I just happen to have to do it every 1-2 months (because I test out ideas with landing pages before building the products, and unfortunately they don't get much traction so I keep building new landing pages with new domains...).

  3. 2

    I set up many domains every month and wish there was an easier solution.

  4. 2

    yeah I have the same problem, don't think I'd pay for a solution but I wish setup was easier

  5. 1

    I'm not a big fan of emails hosted by registrars but there are some worth consideration, like gandi.net, they throw in email hosting with the domain purchase. Many registrars provide free/cheap email forwarding but IMO getting hosting is more convenient.

    1. 1

      But no integration with Gmail unfortunately, so how can you respond to emails being forwarded to you with ease from your Gmail account?

  6. 1

    I have one gsuite account and add all of my subdomains as user aliases.

    I use namecheap for domains. They have a one-click button to setup MX records for gmail.

    Import my account into my main gmail so it all goes to one inbox and I can send from any address.

    In total, it takes ~5 minutes to set up, 0 cost (aside from the first gsuite account), and I've never had any issues.

    1. 1

      Yeah in G Suite it's a non-issue, in private, non-G-Suite Gmail accounts it's a little more annoying and you can go wrong in a bunch of places.

  7. 1

    While not the same process, I did something similar and it's a drag. I'm using Zeit to host my domain, but using Google Apps for email/everything else.

    I had to update the DNS records to point to Zeit, and then had to update the MX records on Zeit to point to google in addition to verifying the site.

    Here's an example of what I had to type into the command line:
    https://gist.github.com/ryanbozarth/e9f97cef33a607a11496309a3bb3a0e6

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