Send Email with Custom Domain Setup Guide

Follow the instructions below to send email with your custom domain and alias using outbound SMTP.

Forward Email Team
Written by
Forward Email TeamVerified
Published
5/1/25
Time to read
Less than 5 minutes

Step by Step Instructions

Important: Please ensure you have read our Terms, Privacy Policy, and Outbound SMTP Limits – your use is considered acknowledgement and agreement.
Important: If you are using Gmail, then refer to our Send Mail As with Gmail guide. If you are a developer, then refer to our email API docs.

  1. Go to My Account Domains Settings Outbound SMTP Configuration and follow setup instructions

  2. Create a new alias for your domain under My Account Domains Aliases (e.g. hello@example.com)

  3. Click on Generate Password next to the newly created alias. Copy to your clipboard and securely store the generated password shown on the screen.

  4. Using your preferred email application, add or configure an account with your newly created alias (e.g. hello@example.com)

    Tip: We recommend using Thunderbird, Thunderbird Mobile, Apple Mail, or an open-source and privacy-focused alternative.

  5. When prompted for SMTP server name, enter smtp.forwardemail.net

  6. When prompted for SMTP server port, enter 465 (SSL/TLS) – see alternate SMTP ports if necessary

    Tip: If you are using Thunderbird, then ensure "Connection security" is set to "SSL/TLS" and Authentication method is set to "Normal password".

  7. When prompted for SMTP server password, paste the password from Generate Password in step 3 above

  8. Save your settings and send your first test email – if you are having issues, then please contact us

Important: Please note that in order to maintain IP reputation and ensure deliverability, we have a manual review process on a per-domain basis for outbound SMTP approval. This typically takes less than 24 hours, with most requests being honored within 1-2 hours. In the near future we aim to make this process instant with additional spam controls and alerting. This process ensures that your emails reach the inbox and your messages don't get marked as spam.
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