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What Email Service is right for me?

We are frequently asked by customers how they can set up their email so that they can receive/send/manage email for their domains (i.e. [email protected]). There are multiple ways this can be accomplished for both receiving and sending email using your domain names. The right solutions for you really depend upon your specific email needs. Below, we list some common solutions that work for many customers and weigh some of the pros and cons of each.

Receiving Email

This section covers different options for receiving email addressed to your domain name. For example, if you had the domain example.com and wanted to use that domain for setting up email addresses such as [email protected], [email protected], etc. We will cover different options for receiving email to addresses setup for your domain name below.

Receiving email using Email Forwarding

We offer a free email forwarding service.Email forwarding implies that we accept email for [email protected] and then forward that on to another email address(es) that you specify, for example, a gmail.com account. Email forwarding offers pros and cons, including:

  • Pros
    • It is free.
    • It is easy to setup. Simply follow these instructions.
    • It simply forwards email addressed to your domain to the email account you are already comfortable using so no extra setup is required. For example, if you are currently using Gmail, Outlook.com, Hotmail, etc., then forwarded email to your domain simply shows up in your existing inbox.
  • Cons
    • There are no advanced features such as webmail, per-user accounts and settings, and custom email filters.
    • You will require a third-party service/software to send email appearing to come from your domain (read below).

If you decide to use email forwarding to receive email, please see the section below for more information and options regarding sending email using your domain.

Receiving email using third-party email hosting

As opposed to email forwarding where email is simply forwarded to existing email address(s), email hosting offers a more complete solution. As with email forwarding, there are pros and cons to third-party email hosting as well, including:

  • Pros
    • More flexibility including advanced options such as webmail, IMAP, per-user settings, custom email filtering, etc.
    • You can likely use the same service/software for sending and receiving email using your domain.
  • Cons
    • Many services are not free (we list free options below).
    • Not as easy to set up as email forwarding. You will need to contact the service/software provider for specific instructions to link your domain to their service.

If you would like to use a third-party email hosting provider, but do not know which to use, we offer a few options further down this page.

Sending email

Most people not only want to receive email to email addresses associated with their domain, they also want to send email coming from an email address using their domain. Please note that we do not offer a service for sending email. Therefore, if you decide to use our system for email forwarding, you will need to determine how you will be sending email using your email address. We cover a few options below.

Not all email services/software allow you to change the From header in email replies. For example, let's assume you have setup [email protected] to forward to your existing email account. When you reply to that email, the From value that the recipient sees in the reply email may not show [email protected] if 1) your email provider does not support this, or 2) you have not configured this with your email provider yet. Below are a few popular email providers offering customized From addresses/headers. Please keep in mind that we do not offer support for these services. Therefore, you need to contact them for help regarding issues you may have with their service.

Email Hosting Options

If you decide that email forwarding is not a good option for you, but you also do not have an existing email service/software provider, please read below regarding a few different options:

  • Your web hosting provider
    If you are already paying for web hosting, odds are that the provider includes email hosting as a separate service or even possibly as part of your hosting package. It may make sense to utilize this service to meet your email hosting needs.
  • NameSilo hosting
    We have freemium email by FlockMail with our hosting packs, you can check them out here
  • A dedicated email hosting provider
    Googling "email hosting provider" reveals many available solutions. We frequently get asked which providers offer a good free service. We can recommend two, however, please keep in mind that we do not offer support for their services so please do not ask us how to configure their offerings. These are entirely separate companies and they control their services. You therefore need to contact them for help regarding issues you may have with their service.

Can I use NameSilo's email forwarding and an email host at the same time?

You may have a situation in which not all of your domains call for email hosting. A common pattern we see is that customers may have one or two main domains for which they set up email hosting and then they have other domains for which setting up simple forwards for addresses such as [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] suffices for their needs. This is commonly the case and it is perfectly fine to mix and match email hosting solutions across your different domains as needed.