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Question
How do you manage emails to and from multiple domains?
I'm not technical whatsoever, and so far I've been using e-mail aliases from one Google Workspace account; however, I am not sure if this is the best way to manage email from and to my various domain names.
Are there any recommendations you would have to handle this?
Are there any recommendations you would have to handle this?
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In the past, I used Google Workspace and found it to be excellent, but the price increases over the years made me feel like a rip-off.
Now, I've settled on a simple yet somewhat technical solution that works quite well. I use my personal Gmail account and set up email redirects with Cloudflare email routing for each domain. This ensures that all emails sent to any domain are forwarded to my personal Gmail address.
To send or reply to emails using an address from a specific domain, I follow a two-step initial process. First, I set up an Amazon SES account and create SMTP credentials. Second, I add a new "Send mail as" entry in the Gmail settings.
This approach gives me a very similar experience to Google Workspace, including labels, search functionality, and more, at a fraction of the cost. Plus, it works regardless of how many domains you have.
Haha same here, I just used mailgun for SMTP instead of SES
Thanks Laurent! -- from my research online, this looks like it is what most resort to 😅 (Gmail redirects + Cloudflare routing).
The SMTP piece seems to be the missing piece I was looking for.
And you're right -- Google's price increases are 100% killer, the platform is well built though -- I was also hoping I could find an alternative for it, but I guess it's hard to beat.
Used this today and it works like magic!
Already had an existing ImprovMX for Retently, so for the last project (2markdown) decided to use it for SMTP (Sending from [email protected]) and redirects ([email protected] -> to another email at Google).
Cloudflare also works for redirects, but you need an SMTP server/account or transactional service such as Mailgun/Postmark to send emails.
just so I'm clear -- for 2markdown, did you redirect via Cloudflare? or with SMTP as well?
Both the redirect and SMTP configured via ImprovMX
got it!
I use Cloudflare + Fastmail. It's $5/mo for unlimited emails and domains I think. I've been using this setup for years and it's perfect.
Cloudflare provides you with MX records for your domain names. This means all incoming emails will first arrive at Cloudflare, which you can configure to then forward these emails to your one Fastmail account. This is free I believe.
Fastmail is a $5/mo email account. Incoming emails are already being forwarded via Cloudflare to your Fastmail inbox. You can then also configure Fastmail to send emails from these domain names. These are known as aliases. You can have as many as you want.
It might be possible to have Fastmail also handle incoming emails so you can skip the Cloudflare step. I'm not sure, but it's something you could look into if you're not already using Cloudflare for DNS.
Thanks Marc! This looks like a solid setup. I'll look into this.
It's Apple-ecosystem specific but here is my method.
I use the iCloud custom domain feature included in iCloud+ (which I pay for anyway): support.apple.com/guide/iclou….
In that case, all the custom domain emails are linked to your iCloud email account. You can receive and send emails from each of them.
I use the default Apple Mail app for mail, which connects my new email as soon as I create it via custom domain iCloud UI.
It's not ideal, but it's the easiest setup I could find, and it's free. Adding new domains is also reasonably straightforward. I use Cloudflare as a register and NS of all my domains, so I just add the MX records that Apple gave me.
I did not think about this -- I pay for iCloud as well 😅. Kind of hate their mail app, but probably because I have not configured it properly.
Their Mail app is very basic, for sure. But also, it's a bit refreshing sometimes not to have all those fancy features, haha.
If you are really willing to spend some time, it can indeed be customized quite well, especially with Apple Script.
You can probably receive emails for a custom domain in any other email client. However, I'm not sure about sending them; it depends on the client and whether it has iCloud mail integration.
Hey Dmitrii, does Apple iCloud allows you to add multiple different email custom domains under a single iCloud account?
Correct. The number of emails per domain is unlimited, AFAIK. All the domains and emails are connected to your primary iCloud account.
You can also create unlimited iCloud aliases on the icloud.com domain.
Excellent!
Last q, do emails all end up in the same "Inbox" in the Apple Mail client (ie. your iCloud account one)?
Or are you able to have multiple inboxes, like one per email?
No, unfortunately, it's all inside one iCloud "Inbox."
I use "Rules" to put different-colored Flags for some. There are more possibilities, but I found it enough for me.
Gotcha, might be the only limitation for me. Thanks a lot for your answers man
This is a great thread - and I've been needing to solve the same problem.
right? this is awesome
I use Forwardemail for dozens of domains and it's great. It's cheap and reliable. I use it to deliver to gmail + fastmail to make it manageable.
Cloudflare might have something in beta too that's email related and might be worth checking out if you already use their products.
forwardemail.net
What email client do you use with this?
Gmail or Mimestream but you can forward them anywhere.
Forwardemail also supports sending via SMTP which covers all of my password resets and app notification needs.
They also support webhooks, which is an interesting way to save emails or handle them from your web app. If you are doing anything in AI, have these emails saved is useful.
Also, if you get big enough to hire someone to help with support, it's nice having email built into your apps.
forwardemail.net/en/free-emai…
We use alias of one domain but change reply-to address belonging to our customers.
I love everyone's solutions for forwarding emails to a single inbox. I also do the same for most of my domains.
I'm just here to share one caveat. If you plan on selling one of your businesses in the future, it is probably best that its domain and inbox are separated from your indie hacker main inbox. When I sold my SaaS last year, the buyer appreciated having all my customer email threads for a smooth transition.
For that business, I used Google Workspace but I agree the price increases were hard to swallow, especially if you have multiple accounts for employees and/or freelancers, e.g. customer support agents.
Yes! this is one of my challenges with forwarded emails -- also, very quickly my inbox becomes a mess.
One way is to use filters to manage the inbox :)
I've tried and use filters on Gmail, but for some reason emails start coming back to inbox, and I have to be constantly re-updating filters or creating new ones
Hm that's interesting. What filters did you set up?
too many 😅 -- but mainly by sender address