How to Set Up Email Forwarding for a Domain

Forward help@yourdomain.com to an inbox you already use with your registrar's free email forwarding, so mail sent to your domain arrives without a paid mailbox.

You own a domain and want an address like help@yourdomain.com without paying for a mailbox. Most registrars forward mail to an inbox you already use at no charge, and they add the DNS records for you.

Open the email forwarding section at your registrar

Sign in where the domain is registered and open the domain's settings.

  • Porkbun: Domain Management, click the domain, then Email Forwarding.
  • Namecheap: Domain List, Manage, then the Redirect Email section on the Domain tab.
  • Squarespace Domains: select the domain, then Email Forwarding.
  • Cloudflare (if the domain's DNS is on Cloudflare): select the domain, then Email, then Email Routing.

Add a forward

Enter the address to create and the inbox that should receive it:

help@yourdomain.com  forwards to  you@gmail.com

Saving the first forward adds the required MX records to the domain's DNS on all four of the registrars above. If the registrar warns that existing MX records will be replaced, confirm only when the domain has no other mail service. To catch every address at the domain, add a catch-all forward for *@yourdomain.com instead of listing addresses one by one.

Verify the destination address

Cloudflare, and some registrars, send a verification email to the destination inbox. Open it and click the link. The forward stays inactive until this is done.

Send a test message

From a different account, send a message to help@yourdomain.com and confirm it lands in the destination inbox. If the MX records were just created, allow up to an hour. Check the spam folder before assuming it failed.

Forwarding is receive-only. Replies go out from your personal address. To send as help@yourdomain.com from Gmail, open Settings, Accounts and Import, then Send mail as, and add the address with an SMTP server: one from your registrar's paid mailbox plan or a sending service such as Resend.

Cloudflare Email Routing is free. If the domain's nameservers already point to Cloudflare, use it instead of the registrar: the MX records, destination verification and catch-all address all live in one place, and it does not count toward any plan limits.

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