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Set up email on a domain you just bought

From a domain with nothing on it to hello@example.com that sends and receives. Six steps: two of them at the place that manages your domain's DNS, the rest on imado. Usually under an hour; a DNS change can take up to a day to be seen.

Last updated

What changed
16 October 2026
The button that creates your first address is called Add the address.
15 October 2026
Each step is shorter, and what can cost you mail is set apart as a warning.
23 September 2026
Catch-all is described as coming with any pack, now that there is no plan to choose.
On this page6 steps
  1. Before you start
  2. 1Create an accounton imado
  3. 2Connect your domainon imado
  4. 3Prove you own itat your DNS host
  5. 4Publish the mail recordsat your DNS host
  6. 5Create a mailboxon imado
  7. 6Send yourself a messagefrom anywhere
  8. If a record is not found

Before you start

You need three things.

  • A domain you own. The root name: example.com, not www.example.com. Any domain works; imado does not sell them.
  • The login for its DNS host. That is usually the registrar you bought the domain from. If you have pointed the domain's nameservers somewhere else, such as Cloudflare or Vercel, the records go there instead. Your registrar's domain page shows the nameservers.
  • An email address you already read, for your imado account.
Note

Sign-in and password-reset mail is sent to that address, so it cannot be an address on the domain you are about to set up.

1. Create an account

Sign up with that address and a password, then open the verification link we send.

The account is free and holds every domain you connect. You do not make one account per domain.

2. Connect your domain

The first page after sign-in asks for the domain. Type the root name and press Connect this domain. Nothing about the domain changes yet: it changes when you publish the records in step 4.

Your first domain creates a project of the same name. A project is the place a domain, its mailboxes and the people who read them live, and you can rename it later.

If mail on this domain already goes somewhere, such as forwarding your registrar set up or Google Workspace, we say so and ask before you go on.

Step 1 of 5, Connect a domain: example.com typed into the Domain field, the Connect this domain button, and under it the path to your first message with its five steps.
The first step, as it appears after sign-in; the path under it says what opens next.

Under the form is the path: five steps on imado's side, each opening the next. This guide follows it, with the account before it and the first message after.

3. Prove you own it

One TXT record shows the domain is yours and not someone else's, so it comes first and everything else waits on it. The value is unique to your domain: copy it from the page, not from here.

Prove you own this domain1 record
  • TXTNot found yet
    Host
    _imado-challenge
    Value
    imado-verification=…
The value marked … is yours alone and is on your domain's page; nothing here is one to copy. Most DNS forms add the domain to the host themselves, so _imado-challenge is the whole host; a form that wants the full name gets _imado-challenge.example.com, and the page has a switch for that.
  1. Add the record at your DNS host. Leave the TTL at whatever the form suggests.
  2. Come back and press Check again. A new record is usually seen within a few minutes.
  3. When the status changes to Added, the next step opens.

4. Publish the mail records

Once ownership is verified, the page shows four more records and one optional one. This is the second visit to your DNS host.

Sign the mail you send3 records
  • CNAMENot found yet
    Host
    k4m2…._domainkey
    Value
    k4m2….dkim.amazonses.com
  • CNAMENot found yet
    Host
    p7ax…._domainkey
    Value
    p7ax….dkim.amazonses.com
  • CNAMENot found yet
    Host
    zq1n…._domainkey
    Value
    zq1n….dkim.amazonses.com
Three records that let Gmail, Outlook and the rest confirm a message really came from your domain; the check is called DKIM. Without them, what you send is likely to land in spam. The parts marked … are different for every domain; copy all three from your domain's page.
Receive mail here1 record
  • MXNot found yet
    Host
    @
    Value
    inbound-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
    Priority
    10
The one record that points mail sent to your domain at imado. @ means the domain itself; some forms want it blank, and a few want the full name. Priority goes in its own field where there is one, or in front of the value (10 inbound-smtp…) where there is not.
Extra protection · optional1 record
  • TXTNot found yet
    Host
    _dmarc
    Value
    v=DMARC1; p=none;
Tells mail providers what to do with a message that fails the checks above. Nothing breaks without it.

Add them, come back, and press Check again. Each record turns to Added as it is seen.

Warning

The MX record moves all of the domain's mail to imado. If mail on this domain goes somewhere today, it stops arriving there as soon as the new record is seen.

  • Receiving works the moment the MX record is found.
  • Sending turns on once the mail provider has checked the three CNAME records on its own, usually within the hour and occasionally longer. Until then a message you send is refused with "This address can't send yet", and the draft is kept.

The domain's page says which of the two it is still waiting for.

You do not have to wait on the page. We check every domain once a day and finish the setup when the records appear. If something is still missing after a while, we send you one email saying which record.

5. Create a mailbox

The fourth step asks for the address. Type the part before the @, such as hello, hi or your name, and press Add the address. The address takes shape as you type, and what you see is what is created.

The name is optional. It is what people see in front of the address; left empty, they see the address itself.

Step 4 of 5, Create a mailbox: hello typed into the Address field before @walk-173.test, an optional Name, and the Create mailbox button.
A mailbox can have more than one address, and a second person can be given access to it at no charge.

6. Send yourself a message

  1. From any other account, send a message to hello@example.com. It appears in the inbox within a minute.
  2. Open it and reply. The reply goes out from hello@example.com and lands in the same conversation on the other side.

That is the setup finished.

Warning

Mail to an address you have not created does not reach you. Create support@ before you print it.

Catch-all, meaning mail to an address you never created still reaching you, comes with any pack once it ships. The pricing page says what that costs.

If a record is not found

Most of the time the record is right and DNS has not caught up; give it an hour. If it still reads Not found yet after that, it is one of these.

  • The host was doubled. The form added your domain to a host you had already typed in full, so the record exists as _imado-challenge.example.com.example.com. Open the record at your host: if you can see the domain twice, shorten the host to the part before it.
  • The record went to the wrong place. You added it at the registrar, but the domain's nameservers point at another host. Your registrar's domain page shows the nameservers; the records go wherever they point.
  • The record is proxied. On Cloudflare, an orange cloud means the record answers with Cloudflare's own address. Click it until it turns grey.
  • Doesn't match means the record was found with a different value, usually an old one from a previous service. Replace it with the value on the page.

If none of these is it, write to us with the domain name; a person replies.

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