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Add a new custom domains article
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‎content/assets/images/custom-domains/edit-custom-domains-detail.png‎

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‎content/assets/images/custom-domains/edit-custom-domains-link.png‎

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‎content/receiving_email/custom_domains.md‎

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# Custom Domains
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> A new version of this documentation is available [here](/receiving_email/using-your-own-domain/).
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The Custom Domain feature allows you to use CloudMailin to receive all email for your domain. With Custom Domains you can create a DNS entry in your own domain name to allow CloudMailin to accept all email on that domain and forward it onto your website just like your regular CloudMailin address.
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Each of your CloudMailin addresses can have its own custom domain allowing you to use the feature for any number of websites and domains.

‎content/receiving_email/using-your-own-domain.md‎

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---
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title: "Custom Domains: Receiving Email with Your Own Domain"
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---
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# Custom Domains: Receiving Email with Your Own Domain
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> The old version of this documentation is available [here](/receiving_email/custom_domains/).
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The Custom Domain feature allows you to use CloudMailin to receive all email for
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your domain. With Custom Domains you can create a DNS entry in your own domain
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name to allow CloudMailin to accept all email on that domain and forward it onto
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your website just like your regular CloudMailin address.
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Each of your CloudMailin addresses can have its own custom domain allowing you
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to use the feature for any number of websites and domains. You can also apply
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multiple custom domains to a single address if required.
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## Overview
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Let's see an overview of the next steps:
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* [Warning: only one email server can be used](#warning-only-one-email-server-can-be-used)
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* [Wildcards and Catch All addresses](#wildcards-and-catch-all-addresses)
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* [Selecting the Region](#selecting-the-region)
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* [Adding the MX records for your domain](#adding-the-mx-records-for-your-domain)
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* [Setting up your CloudMailin address](#setting-up-your-cloudmailin-address)
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> We have a beta feature to allow sending different custom domains to a different
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> HTTP endpoint. If you are interested in this feature, please let us know.
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### If you are in a hurry
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* [Skip to the MX records section](#adding-the-mx-records-for-your-domain) if
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you don't want to read the full details.
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* [Setting up your CloudMailin address](#setting-up-your-cloudmailin-address) to
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setup your CloudMailin address to use the custom domain.
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Custom domains require a paid plan at present.
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### Warning: only one email server can be used
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Before we can add the MX records it's important to check that the domain is not
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already expecting email. You can do this by checking the MX records for your
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domain. As an example we can check using the host command on mac / linux:
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```bash
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host -t mx example.com
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```
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Due to the way that DNS systems work we cannot have multiple servers receiving
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for the same domain. Although adding the records will work we'll randomly see
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different servers receiving the email. If you already have MX records for your
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domain you either need to remove them to add CloudMailin as the only email
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server or you may need to use a subdomain for CloudMailin.
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## Wildcards and Catch All addresses
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CloudMailin supports wildcards and catch all addresses.
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### Catch all email addresses and regular expressions
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By default all custom domains are catch all addresses. This means that any email
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addresses to @example.com will be received by CloudMailin. For example,
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`[email protected]` and `[email protected]` will both be received by CloudMailin.
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We highly recommend using a pattern for all of your email addresses. For example
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`[email protected]`, `[email protected]`, etc. This allows your to
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use regular expressions to block email addresses that you don't want to receive.
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For example you could set the regular expression in the example above to:
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```regular-expression
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\w+-\d+@example\.com
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```
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> You can test using [Rubular](https://rubular.com/r/d2rSX5bdxWT1L1)
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This would match any email address that starts with one or more word characters
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and then a dash and then one or more digits.
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Taking this approach allows you to block most SPAM attempts that will just try
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random email addresses on your domain.
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Remember you should also use the
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[HTTP status code](/receiving_email/http_status_codes/) to reject email that
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you don't want to receive too.
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### Wildcard custom domains
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CloudMailin also supports a single level of wildcard custom domains. For example
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if you have a custom domain of `*.example.com` then any email to
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`[email protected]` or `[email protected]` will be received by
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CloudMailin.
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In order to set this up you will need to create wilcard DNS entry with your DNS
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provider (and they must support wildcards). Following this when you
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[setup your domain in CloudMailin](#setting-up-your-cloudmailin-address) you
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will need to add *.example.com instead of example.com as the domain.
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## Selecting the Region
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In order to add a custom domain we'll need to add MX records to your domain.
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> We used to allow adding CNAMEs too but this can cause issues with email being
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> sent to cloudmailin.net rather than with your domain. You can still add a
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> CNAME record as detailed [here](/receiving_email/custom_domains/#cname-records)
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> but we recommend using MX records instead.
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CloudMailin has 3 clusters at present:
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| Cluster | AWS Region | MX Record |
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|---------|-----------------|-------------------------|
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| US | us-east-1 | client1.cloudmailin.net |
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| EU | eu-west-1 | client2.cloudmailin.net |
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| AP | ap-southeast-2 | client3.cloudmailin.net |
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By default the cloudmailin.net domain will use all three regions but will tailor
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the MX priority to the region of the DNS server making the request.
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For example a DNS server in the US will see:
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```bash
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10 client1.cloudmailin.net
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20 client2.cloudmailin.net
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30 client3.cloudmailin.net
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```
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and a DNS server in Europe will see:
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```bash
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10 client2.cloudmailin.net
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20 client1.cloudmailin.net
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30 client3.cloudmailin.net
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```
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Each of these examples use a different priority for the client1 / client2 email
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clusters to prioritise the server in the region of the user.
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(the records will be slightly different because we don't use the client prefix
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for cloudmailin.net)
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## Adding the MX records for your domain
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When you come to set the DNS record for your own domain you'll need to either
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use geolocation or make a decision around which cluster to use.
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Here we'll assume you want to setup the MX records at equal rate:
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```bash
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10 client1.cloudmailin.net
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10 client2.cloudmailin.net
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10 client3.cloudmailin.net
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```
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If your DNS provider requires a TTL then you can set this to what make sense for
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your setup but if you're going to play consider using a low TTL like 5 minutes.
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Once you've added the MX records you'll need to wait for them to propogate
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and then setup your CloudMailin address to use the custom domain.
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## Setting up your CloudMailin address
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Once you've added the MX records you'll need to wait for them to propogate
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and then setup your CloudMailin address to use the custom domain.
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Once your MX records have propograted head to CloudMailin and open your address
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you should see an option to 'Edit Custom Domains'
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![Link to edit custom domains screenshot](/content/assets/images/custom-domains/edit-custom-domains-link.png)
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Once you click this you'll see the following screen:
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![Edit custom domains screenshot](/content/assets/images/custom-domains/edit-custom-domains-detail.png)
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Clicking this will allow you to add your custom domain. CloudMailin will check
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that it can see the MX records and that the domain is valid. If everything is
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correct then you'll have successfully added your custom domain.
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> If you see an error message containing `regexp` then this is because the email
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> did not meet the regular expression you set.
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You should be all set to send email to your domain and have CloudMailin forward
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it onto your website via HTTP POST webhook.
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As always if you have any questions or issues please
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[contact us](https://www.cloudmailin.com/contact_us) and we'll be happy to help.

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