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Custom Domain Guide

Jonathan
  • Updated

Contents

Getting Started

There are two entry points for you to set up a custom domain with OnMail.

 

New OnMail account custom domain sign up

You can sign up as a new user of the OnMail service with a custom domain username directly, instead of selecting an OnMail.com email address.

Steps:

  1. Go to: https://mail.onmail.com/signup/custom-domain

  2. Fill in your first and last name

  3. Search for a username + custom domain combination

  4. Complete the rest of registration + payment of an OnMail Paid plan

  5. 5 - 10 minutes for us to get things setup before you can start using your custom domain

Existing OnMail account custom domain set up

You can connect a new custom domain to your existing OnMail account. Doing so will not replace your existing OnMail.com email address.

Steps:

  1. Go to Settings from the top right menu

  2. Go to My Domain in the section

  3. Click on either Get your own domain or I want to connect my existing custom domain →

  4. If you are on a Personal plan, you will be redirected to the pricing page to sign up for a Paid plan

  5. Complete the rest of the purchase process

Hosted Domains

Hosted domains are domains that OnMail purchases on your behalf. Domains are split into two categories:

  1. Basic Domains
  2. Premium Domains

Basic Domains

Basic domains are included in your premium OnMail subscription plan for free.

How to disconnect?

At the moment, we do not allow you to disconnect hosted domains by yourself. If you want to disconnect your domains, you have to contact customer support via support.onmail.com.

Premium Domains

These are more expensive domains for which we charge a yearly subscription fee. The price of the yearly subscription fee depends on the price that is quoted by our vendor.

How to unsubscribe?

Please note that currently you cannot unsubscribe from a premium OnMail domain you  create without also canceling your OnMail premium plan / account. 

*Support for this use case of canceling the domain separately from the plan is in development.

Example:

  1. Bob signs up for a Professional OnMail subscription, bob@onmail.com, for $9.99/month
  2. Bob purchases a premium domain, bob.com, for $99.99/year from OnMail
  3. At the moment, the only way Bob can stop payment for bob.com is to unsubscribe from his $9.99/month Professional plan
  4. Bob cannot unsubscribe from bob.com while maintaining an active Professional OnMail Subscription

Custom DNS Records

You can customize your own DNS records via OnMail if you purchased the domain through OnMail. If you purchased your domain from another service that is not OnMail, you can likely customize your DNS records through that provider.

User-owned Domains

If you have purchased your own domain from a domain provider (e.g. GoDaddy, Namecheap etc.), you can connect it to OnMail to send emails from a custom domain. We refer to these as user-owned domains.

For example, John bought john.com from Godaddy. After connecting john.com to OnMail, John can create a new email address: me@john.com, and send emails via OnMail as me@john.com.

Connecting your pre-owned domain to OnMail

Start by going to Settings > My Domains, and clicking on "I want to connect my existing domain".

image15.png

 

Verify domain ownership

To use a custom domain that you own with OnMail, we need to verify that you really own the domain.

Add the following TXT DNS records found in the Domain Verification & DNS section of the domain settings page to your domain provider's DNS configuration page.

  1. SPF: Sending server IP validation. Used by the majority of email service providers. Learn about SPF.

  2. DKIM: Like SPF, but uses cryptographic methods for validation. Supported by many email service providers. We use this to verify that the domain actually belongs to you. Learn more about DKIM.

After you have added these two TXT records, wait for a couple of minutes for DNS propagation. Click on the "Retry Verification" button, and ensure there are green checkmarks next to the DNS records' name. If this does not happen within 15 minutes of trying, please create a support ticket via support.onmail.com.

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Send/receive emails with OnMail

The MX record specifies the mail server responsible for accepting email messages on behalf of a domain name. In this case, you will be designating OnMail mail servers to send/receive emails on your behalf. Learn more about MX records.

Once again, verify there are green checkmarks next to the DNS records' name. If this does not happen within 15 minutes of trying, please create a support ticket via support.onmail.com.

image8.png

 

Custom application and file transfer URLs

When you connect a custom domain with OnMail, we also allow you to access our web interface, along with a file transfer page via the custom domain.

For example, if you own john.com, we would like to setup the following:

  1. OnMail web application at mail.john.com
  2. Custom file transfer URL at files.john.com
  3. Custom branding page at www.john.com

*Note that you can opt-out of any of these URLs by choosing not to configure the CNAME records, they will not affect the functionality of sending emails as me@john.com. 

 

In the domain setup page, enter the corresponding CNAME records in your domain provider's DNS configuration page. Wait a couple of minutes for DNS propagation, and click on the "Retry Verification" button at the top of the screen. Once again, verify there are green checkmarks next to the CNAME records' name. If this does not happen within 15 minutes of trying, please create a support ticket via support.onmail.com.

image12.png

 

DNS Records Summary

Type

Required

Purpose

Value

TXT

Yes

Verification of domain ownership, and used for SPF checks

(generated on demand)

MX

Yes

Mail record for OnMail to send emails as your domain

mx.onmail.com

CNAME

Yes

Two records:

  1. For mail.custom.domain
  2. For files.custom.domain

custom.onmail.com

 

Example Configurations

For ease of troubleshooting, here are screenshots to demonstrate how to set up settings for common DNS providers.

 

GoDaddy

Getting to DNS Management

  1. Login to GoDaddy account
  2. Go to URL: https://dcc.godaddy.com/manage/dns?domainName=<domain name> (replace domain name with your domain)

TXT Records

image3.png

MX Records

image7.png

CNAME Records

image9.png

image16.png

 

NameCheap

Getting to DNS Management

  1. Login to Namecheap account
  2. Go to URL: https://ap.www.namecheap.com/Domains/DomainControlPanel/<custom domain>/advancedns (replace <domain name> with your domain)

TXT Records

image10.png

MX Records

image14.png

CNAME Records

image1.png

image13.png

 

IONOS

TXT Records

Due to a problem with our SPF values, we need to input a different value in IONOS. We will verify their domain manually after this is done.

Value: v=spf1 include:spf.onmail.com ~all

image4.png

MX Records

image11.png

CNAME Records

image6.png

image17.png

 

Domain Subaccounts

This feature is only available for Professional plans (and above.)

 

Terminology

  • We will call the owner of the custom domain as the domain admin
  • The additional email address tied to the domain admin account is called the admin's domain alias
  • Each additional account created will be called a domain subaccount

Pricing

Each domain subaccount created by the domain admin will incur a charge of the same amount, prorated for the current billing cycle.

 

For example, if you start your Professional monthly subscription on September 1st, and create a domain subaccount on September 15th, then the total bill will amount to:

1 x $9.99 + 0.5 x $9.99

 

Account

Price per Billing Cycle

Proration Rate

Main account

$9.99

1.0

Subaccount (s)

$9.99

0.5
   

$14.99


Note: The admin's domain alias does not count as a subaccount.

 

FAQ

Can I change the admin's domain alias after I created it?

We do not support this at the moment, please make sure that the domain admin alias is correct before you create it.

 

Can I create a subaccount with the username of a subaccount that I just deleted?

We do not support this operation at the moment due to security concerns. Please contact support if you have done this by accident, and we will try our best to help you.

 

What happens when I downgrade my account to a tier that does not support subaccounts?

Your subaccounts will still have access to their accounts until the billing cycle ends. When the billing cycle ends, your subaccounts will be deleted.

 

What happens when I miss a payment, and my plan is cancelled?

Your subaccounts will be deleted.

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