Gmail instead of pop3 email

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snoozee

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I currently have a website hosted, and with that a couple of email addresses. These I have linked to my Outlook so that emails automatically download via pop3. Email addresses are in the form [email protected].

The cost of hosting is really a waste, as I don't really have a need for the website anymore. Is there a way that I could use something like gmail.com or outlook.com as email client, yet retain my [email protected] email address? How does this work? Are there costs involved, or can this be done with a normal gmail account? I haven't done anything in this space, so open to suggestions
 
backstreetboy said:
Good luck sending an important mail out and it not being seen as spam.
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The first method is using Gmail as a pop3/smtp client exactly the same as how they are using Outlook already. It is no more or less likely to be seen as spam than what they are doing at the moment.

I would also recommend M365 Business Basic or the equivalent Gmail offering which are actually fairly reasonably priced per user and far superior offerings to traditional web hosting email.
 
My website and mails used to be hosted by Xneelo (hetzner)

I then moved my emails over to Google Workspace (Gmail) been working flawlessly. Let my website with Xneelo
 
InvisibleJim said:
The first method is using Gmail as a pop3/smtp client exactly the same as how they are using Outlook already. It is no more or less likely to be seen as spam than what they are doing at the moment.

I would also recommend M365 Business Basic or the equivalent Gmail offering which are actually fairly reasonably priced per user and far superior offerings to traditional web hosting email.
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The OP is looking for a free solution which would entail using Google's smtp server.
 
Get yourself a $1 VPS somewhere cheap and reliable. Build a small mail server and whatever else you need.
 
Isn't hosting like R100 a month

Is this for a business? If so, just leave it, which will already have the correct SPF, DMARC, DKIM, etc configured
 
snoozee said:
I currently have a website hosted, and with that a couple of email addresses. These I have linked to my Outlook so that emails automatically download via pop3. Email addresses are in the form [email protected].

The cost of hosting is really a waste, as I don't really have a need for the website anymore. Is there a way that I could use something like gmail.com or outlook.com as email client, yet retain my [email protected] email address? How does this work? Are there costs involved, or can this be done with a normal gmail account? I haven't done anything in this space, so open to suggestions
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Is this a business or personal site? One pain point I have with Gsuite (I use it for my personal domain) is that there are features i would like to use (like some google assistant commands) dont work on a GSuite. So if its for personal, i would really think twice before doing it. I am considering going back to pop3 for mail
 
snoozee said:
I currently have a website hosted, and with that a couple of email addresses. These I have linked to my Outlook so that emails automatically download via pop3. Email addresses are in the form [email protected].

The cost of hosting is really a waste, as I don't really have a need for the website anymore. Is there a way that I could use something like gmail.com or outlook.com as email client, yet retain my [email protected] email address? How does this work? Are there costs involved, or can this be done with a normal gmail account? I haven't done anything in this space, so open to suggestions
Click to expand...
You have to retain your domain, I assume you know this, that cost can't be avoided.

Otherwise you can sign up for mailgun: https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/a...-Differences-Between-the-Free-and-Flex-Plans-
Get the flex plan, it needs a credit card but you'll only be billed if you exceed that limits which should be very hard if indeed you don't have much email.

Add the DNS records: https://documentation.mailgun.com/en/latest/quickstart-sending.html#add-sending-tracking-dns-records

Add a receiving route, with for example the following format:
match_recipient(".*@mydomain.com")
forward("[email protected]")

You can be more specific on your match recipient or be as generic as I show.
If you leave it generic any email going to @mydomain.com will be forwarded to your gmail account.

This takes care of receiving the email.

---

To fix the sending part you'll need to create a specific email address in gmail, you do this by adding a sending account, create an SMTP credential in mailgun, add it to gmail, let gmail send you the verification email and once verified you can select that email name as your sending address.

Now your only cost will be if you want to send/receive > 1000 emails a month per domain (mailgun account per domain)
And renewing your domain.

---

I believe CloudFlare offers something similar btw, but I haven't explored it and it also doesn't cost anything, the catch is, CloudFlare must be your registrar.
That isn't as bad as you think you might think, CloudFlare has 0 fees for registration, they charge you what they pay.
However to move a domain from one registrar to another, you have to pay for a renewal.
Even if your domain, has say 1 year left on it, you'd pay the normal 1 year register fee to move it, but it would add an additional year to your domain (ie. it is not a transfer fee, it is a renewal as it gets added to your current time on your domain).

I've stuck with mailgun (for my email I mean) because they allow sub-domains at no cost. (ie. [email protected]) whereas CloudFlared charges $10 p/m I believe for sub-domain level features.
If you don't use sub-domains, I'd highly consider CloudFlare.
I've already moved to CloudFlare as my registrar, they offer too many great features at no cost to not do that.
 
if you iOS you can just add it as a custom domain to iCloud.

Use Custom Email Domain with iCloud Mail - Apple Support

When you subscribe to iCloud+, you can use a custom domain name that you already own to personalize your iCloud email address, or you can purchase a new domain.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
then host the domain on CF
developers.cloudflare.com

iCloud Custom Email Domains · Cloudflare Support docs

With iCloud Custom Email Domain , you can now purchase a custom domain right from iCloud Settings through Cloudflare and have it automatically set up …
developers.cloudflare.com
 
Gnome said:
You have to retain your domain, I assume you know this, that cost can't be avoided.

Otherwise you can sign up for mailgun: https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/a...-Differences-Between-the-Free-and-Flex-Plans-
Get the flex plan, it needs a credit card but you'll only be billed if you exceed that limits which should be very hard if indeed you don't have much email.

Add the DNS records: https://documentation.mailgun.com/en/latest/quickstart-sending.html#add-sending-tracking-dns-records

Add a receiving route, with for example the following format:
match_recipient(".*@mydomain.com")
forward("[email protected]")

You can be more specific on your match recipient or be as generic as I show.
If you leave it generic any email going to @mydomain.com will be forwarded to your gmail account.

This takes care of receiving the email.

---

To fix the sending part you'll need to create a specific email address in gmail, you do this by adding a sending account, create an SMTP credential in mailgun, add it to gmail, let gmail send you the verification email and once verified you can select that email name as your sending address.

Now your only cost will be if you want to send/receive > 1000 emails a month per domain (mailgun account per domain)
And renewing your domain.

---

I believe CloudFlare offers something similar btw, but I haven't explored it and it also doesn't cost anything, the catch is, CloudFlare must be your registrar.
That isn't as bad as you think you might think, CloudFlare has 0 fees for registration, they charge you what they pay.
However to move a domain from one registrar to another, you have to pay for a renewal.
Even if your domain, has say 1 year left on it, you'd pay the normal 1 year register fee to move it, but it would add an additional year to your domain (ie. it is not a transfer fee, it is a renewal as it gets added to your current time on your domain).

I've stuck with mailgun (for my email I mean) because they allow sub-domains at no cost. (ie. [email protected]) whereas CloudFlared charges $10 p/m I believe for sub-domain level features.
If you don't use sub-domains, I'd highly consider CloudFlare.
I've already moved to CloudFlare as my registrar, they offer too many great features at no cost to not do that.
Click to expand...
Thank you for an incredibly detailed response - it's really appreciated. Will be looking into the options soonest! Thank you
 
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