How to use Gmail with a custom domain

Use your @yourdomain.com address in your personal Gmail—without pop3 or google workspace.

Requirements

• A domain name with access to DNS settings (typically at your registrar—namecheap, godaddy, etc.)
• A personal Gmail account

Step 1 — Choose a mail provider for your custom domain

You’ll need a provider that will (a) receive and forward email and (b) let you send email via SMTP. Many low-cost providers support this; we like purelymail since (like us) it's a service run by "one guy who wanted to make things better". Whoever you choose, make sure they will support forwarding incoming mail on a per-address basis.

Step 2 — Test your provider's forwarding (optional)

Verify your domain with your provider and tell them to forward the desired address (e.g. you@yourdomain.com), to your most reliable email account (e.g. ye-olde-account@early-webmail-site.com). (At purelymail they call this "routing".) Send a test message and make sure you see it appear at ye-olde-account.

You can of course use your gmail address for this step, and you can even leave it that way and just directly forward to Gmail. But gmail is notorious for rejecting forwarded email, so even if your intitial test gets through, you will almost certainly start missing messages at some point.

Step 3 — Set up gmail for "magic" forwarding

Create a MagicForward account and follow the instructions to connect to your destination gmail account. After successful connection, you will receive a forwarding address like abcdef@magicforward.email. Go back to your provider (step 2) and enter this address as the forwarding address. Send a test email to you@yourdomain.com and watch it magically appear in your gmail!

Messages delivered with the "magic" forwarding pattern are never rejected by gmail. You will get every single one.

Step 4 — Configure Gmail to send as your custom-domain address

Receiving is only half the experience—most people also want replies to come from you@yourdomain.com. Gmail can do this via your provider’s SMTP server.

1. In Gmail, open Settings → See all settings → Accounts and Import.
2. Under Send mail as, click Add another email address.
3. Enter your name and you@yourdomain.com. (Most people should leave “Treat as an alias” enabled.)
4. Enter your provider’s SMTP settings (server, port, username, and password/app password), then submit.
5. Gmail will send a verification email to you@yourdomain.com, which will appear in gmail via the magic forwarding you set up in step 3. Click the verification link.
6. Back in Gmail’s Accounts and Import settings, choose the default “From” address and configure reply behavior.

What you should have now

Rinse and repeat for as many custom domains/addresses as you like, setting up a single, unified gmail inbox.