Custom Email with Domain for Free
So you got a domain and want an email for it but not want to pay for it? Well, there is a way to do it. A long long time ago, Google allowed you to have free GSuite for your custom domain and have 5 users for it. However, in 2015ish (I don’t know when they stopped, but I am guessing the year), they no longer let you do that. Luckily, WolfPak Labs was able to do it when GSuite was free. But now it is at least $6 a month per user. Which can add up quickly if you are trying to keep costs low. I recently figured out how to get a custom email using Gmail with no cost at all. You don’t get all of the bells and whistles of GSuite, but at least you have a custom domain email with Gmail. The best of both worlds for free.
So I’ll be going over the steps. To be specific, I’m going over how I got this to work. From what I can tell, the steps I have here are the only way I figured to make this work. It might work with other services, but I haven’t tried it.
Things to keep in mind
Benefits
- You can use Gmail
- It is free
- You can have up to 100 alias going to the same Gmail
Drawbacks
- You don’t have advanced Gsuite Functionality
- There is no user account management
- There is just 1 Gmail for all accounts. (You can do this for multiple gmails using the domain, but you can’t stop someone from messing things up.
Step 1 (or 2): Get your domain!
You can do this step first or second. To purchase a domain, you need a google account anyway. So, if you do step 2 first, then you can purchase the domain using that Gmail and skip step 3.
I purchased my domain through Google Domains. This trick from what I can tell must be done with Google Domains. So, you want to navigate and purchase your domain of choice from there.
Fill out everything you need and want.
Step 2 (or 1): Sign up for a Gmail Account
As you read earlier, you can do this step first. If you do that, you can use this to purchase the domain. Otherwise, you can use a different google account to purchase the domain.
Navigate over to Gmail and create an email. The username doesn’t matter, but I do recommend trying to get the same username as your domain (just to keep your branding). For example, if your domain name is “SomeCoolDomain.com” then get “SomeCoolDomain@gmail.com”.
Step 3: Give the Gmail account that you just made rights
If you purchase the domain with the Gmail account in Step 2, then just skip this step. If you didn’t, then we need to give Gmail access to use the domain.
Go back to your Google Domains, and select your domain that you just purchased.
After you click on the domain, click on “Registration” on the left side, and scroll down until you see “Users”.
Add the Gmail account that you just created in Step 2.
Step 4: Create Custom Email Alias
You should still be in Google Domain. Now on the left side, select “Email”.
In the “Email forwarding” section, click on “Add email alias”.
Here, you can create as many aliases as you want. You can make up to 100 (At least that is how much Gmail lets you). I do recommend to add the alias to your email. For example, jobs@SomeCoolDomains.com -> SomeCoolDomains+jobs@gmail.com . Gmail will send it to the same email and also tag the email so that it makes it easier for you to filter and label. You can find that information here.
When you create an alias, you will get a confirmation email in your Gmail that you need to follow instructions.
Step 5: Get a one time password
So, there is a few extra steps. But it is what Gmail requires. We will be adding it so that Gmail will recognize the email from the domain. But we need to be able to tell and have Gmail validate that. So, we need to get a one time password to provide.
Navigate to Google Accounts, log in using the Gmail account you created in step 2. Click on “Security” on the left side.
Now turn on 2-factor authentication by clicking on “2-Step Verification” and follow the steps to turn it on. Now return to this same page, and you should see a new option to add “App passwords”.
Click and add an app password. I recommend select “custom” so that you can add a custom name. I typically use the email alias as the label so that I can remember which password exactly for what app.
Click Generate
They will provide a password, write down this password. We will need this later.
Step 6: Step it up in Gmail
Now let's navigate to Gmail. Log into your Gmail account and go to “Settings”. To access the settings, it is typically the “Gear Icon” on the upper right of your screen. Then click on the “Accounts and Import” tab. In the “Send mail as:” section, click on “Add another email address”.
Then fill out the Name (should make sense with the alias), and the custom email alias. And ensure that “Treat as an alias” is checked.
Now on the “Next Step”, ensure SMTP Server is set to “smtp.gmail.com”. The username should be your gmail account username, and the password should be the app password we got in step 5. Keep “TLS” selected and then add account.
That should now allow your email to get emails sent to the alias. But before you leave, in the same spot in settings ensure that you turn this setting on. Which will allow you to reply to emails as the alias address and not as your Gmail address.
You now can receive and send emails as this alias. If you want to send this email, make sure when you create an email that you select the alias from the “From” dropbox.
Step 7 (Optional): add filters
Now to make life easier and less confusing, you want to add a filter to sort things easier.
Go to Settings in Gmail, to go to the “Filters and Blocked Addresses” tab, and click on “Create a new filter”. Add your custom alias as the “To” filter, and then
And apply the label that you want. This would make it so that you can tell easier where this email to directed to if you have multiple aliases.
Rinse and Repeat
Now repeat steps 4 to 7 for each alias you want to add. And when you are done, you now have a Gmail with custom domains Gmail.
