Free email on your own domain: receive with Cloudflare Email Routing, send as your custom address from Gmail. Step-by-step guide with exact settings, troubleshooting, catch-all addresses, and security notes.
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The complete, beginner-friendly guide to receiving and sending email from your own domain (like
hi@yourdomain.com) for free, using Cloudflare Email Routing and Gmail — no paid mailbox required!
anything@yourdomain.com, forwarded to your existing inboxhi@yourdomain.com directly from GmailA comprehensive, beginner-friendly guide to receiving and sending email from your own domain using Cloudflare Email Routing and Gmail.
There are two independent halves to email, and this guide wires each one up separately:
Receiving — Cloudflare Email Routing acts as a free forwarding service. It adds MX records to your domain so mail sent to hi@yourdomain.com is delivered to Cloudflare, which then forwards it to your existing inbox (Gmail, Outlook, anything). No mailbox is created; Cloudflare is just a relay.
Sending — Gmail's "Send mail as" feature lets you compose email that shows hi@yourdomain.com in the From field. Under the hood, Gmail sends it through its own SMTP servers (smtp.gmail.com), authenticated with your Google account. Your domain never needs its own mail server.
Incoming: sender → MX records → Cloudflare Email Routing → your Gmail inbox
Outgoing: your Gmail → smtp.gmail.com → recipient (From: hi@yourdomain.com)
The key insight: your domain has no mail server, and it doesn't need one. Cloudflare handles inbound, Gmail handles outbound.
Before starting, ensure you have:
Note: Part 1 (receiving) works with any destination inbox — Gmail, Outlook, Proton, etc. Part 2 (sending) is Gmail-specific; see the FAQ for other providers.
⚠️ Warning: If your domain already has MX records (an existing mail provider), enabling Email Routing replaces them. Only proceed if you're not already receiving mail elsewhere on this domain.
DNS changes usually take effect within 5–15 minutes for domains on Cloudflare DNS.
The destination is the real inbox that will receive forwarded mail.
yourname@gmail.com) and submitThe address now shows as Verified in the dashboard.
In Email Routing, select your domain and open the Routing rules tab
Select Create routing rule (or use the Custom addresses form)
Fill in:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Email pattern / Custom address | hi (the part before the @) |
| Action | Send to an email |
| Destination | your verified personal address |
Select Save
You can create as many aliases as you like (contact@, jobs@, newsletter@...) — all pointing at the same destination or different ones.
hi@yourdomain.com from a different account than the destination — some providers silently discard messages that appear to come from the same account they are delivered to✅ Receiving is done. Anything sent to hi@yourdomain.com now lands in your inbox.
Cloudflare Email Routing is receive-only — it cannot send. To send as your custom address, add it to Gmail as a "Send mail as" alias using Gmail's own SMTP server.
Gmail's SMTP requires an app password (your normal password won't work here).
gmail-alias and select CreateOpen Gmail → ⚙️ Settings → See all settings → Accounts and Import tab
In the "Send mail as" section, click Add another email address
In the popup:
hi@yourdomain.comClick Next Step
On the SMTP screen, enter:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| SMTP Server | smtp.gmail.com |
| Port | 587 |
| Username | your full Gmail address (not the alias!) |
| Password | the 16-character app password from Step 5 |
| Secured connection | TLS (recommended) |
⚠️ Common mistake: Gmail pre-fills the SMTP server as
smtp.yourdomain.com— change it tosmtp.gmail.com. Your domain has no mail server; Cloudflare only forwards. The pre-filled value will fail.
Click Add Account
hi@yourdomain.comhi@yourdomain.com from the dropdown✅ Done! You can now receive and send as hi@yourdomain.com.
Tip: In Settings → Accounts and Import → "Send mail as", you can set the alias as the default From address, and enable "Reply from the same address the message was sent to" so replies to
hi@automatically go out ashi@.
Forward everything sent to your domain (any local part) to your inbox:
Now anything-at-all@yourdomain.com reaches you. Great for signing up to services with per-site addresses like netflix@yourdomain.com.
Create separate rules for contact@, jobs@, billing@ etc. Each can forward to a different destination address (each destination must be verified once).
Email Routing also works on subdomains (e.g. hi@mail.yourdomain.com) — add the subdomain in the Email Routing settings.
Beyond forwarding, Cloudflare can pipe incoming email into a Worker for custom processing — auto-replies, filtering, webhooks. Out of scope for this guide, but good to know it exists.
nslookup -type=MX yourdomain.com — you should see route1/2/3.mx.cloudflare.netsmtp.gmail.com, port 587, TLSsmtp.yourdomain.com and it failsExpected — that server doesn't exist. Your domain has no mail server; Cloudflare only forwards inbound mail. Change the server to smtp.gmail.com as in Step 6.
Some clients show this because the mail is physically sent by Gmail's servers rather than your domain's. It's cosmetic and fine for personal use. To remove it you'd need a sending provider with your own domain's DKIM (e.g. a transactional email service or a paid mailbox) — see Limitations.
Be aware of what this free setup does and doesn't give you:
| Capability | Status |
|---|---|
| Receive at custom domain | ✅ Forwarded to any inbox |
| Send as custom domain from Gmail | ✅ Via Gmail SMTP |
| Free | ✅ Cloudflare Email Routing and Gmail cost nothing |
| Actual mailbox on your domain | ❌ Mail lives in your Gmail account |
| IMAP/POP access at your domain | ❌ Use your Gmail credentials instead |
| "via gmail.com" hidden | ❌ Shown by some clients |
| Bulk / marketing sending | ❌ Use a proper email service |
If you outgrow this (e.g. you need a real mailbox, shared team inboxes, or your own DKIM sending), the usual next steps are Google Workspace, Zoho Mail (has a free tier), Fastmail, or Proton — your Cloudflare MX records just point at them instead.
Quick lookup for the exact values used in this guide:
Cloudflare routing rule
Email pattern: hi (or any local part; enable catch-all for everything)
Action: Send to an email
Destination: your verified personal inbox
Gmail "Send mail as" SMTP settings
SMTP Server: smtp.gmail.com
Port: 587
Username: your-full-address@gmail.com
Password: 16-character Google app password
Security: TLS
Verify MX records are live
nslookup -type=MX yourdomain.com
# Expect: route1.mx.cloudflare.net, route2..., route3...
nslookup -type=TXT yourdomain.com
# Expect a TXT containing: v=spf1 include:_spf.mx.cloudflare.net ~all
A: No. Cloudflare Email Routing is free (including catch-all and multiple rules), and Gmail SMTP is free. Your only cost is the domain itself.
A: Yes — Part 1 forwards to any inbox. Part 2 is Gmail-specific, but Outlook.com has a similar "connected accounts / send as" feature, and Proton supports custom domains natively on paid plans.
A: Yes. Create a routing rule per address in Cloudflare, and add each one as a separate "Send mail as" alias in Gmail if you also want to send from it. Or enable catch-all to receive everything with one rule.
A: No — that's the point of this guide. Workspace gives you a real mailbox on your domain (~£5/month); this setup gives you the same practical experience for free with minor cosmetic trade-offs.
A: Replies go to hi@yourdomain.com, which Cloudflare forwards to your inbox. With Gmail's "Reply from the same address" setting enabled, your reply goes back out as hi@ too — the loop is seamless.
A: The From header shows your custom address. Technically-minded recipients can inspect raw headers and infer Gmail was the sending server, and some clients show "via gmail.com" — but your actual Gmail address is not displayed in normal clients when "Treat as an alias" is configured correctly.
A: Not directly. Email Routing requires Cloudflare to be your authoritative DNS. Moving DNS to Cloudflare is free and doesn't require transferring your domain registration.
A: Yes — aliases configured in Gmail on the web sync to the mobile apps. Tap the From field when composing.
A: Gmail signs the mail with Google's DKIM and it passes SPF as Google's infrastructure. Mail authenticates as Gmail-sent, which is why "via gmail.com" can appear. Adding your own DMARC record is optional; if you do, start with p=none.
Current version: v1.0 (2026-07-20)
See CHANGELOG.md for dated major/minor releases and notes on structural updates.
Found an issue or have a suggestion? Contributions are welcome!
git checkout -b feature/improvementgit push origin feature/improvementFor detailed contribution guidelines, including commit message conventions, see CONTRIBUTING.md.
Helpful contributions:
This guide is released under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.
Done! You now have professional email on your own domain — for free. 🎉
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