Set up email on a Namecheap domain

Is Namecheap your DNS host?

If you bought the domain at Namecheap and have not pointed it elsewhere, yes. Open Domain List and press Manage beside the domain: the Nameservers box reads Namecheap BasicDNS (or PremiumDNS), and the Advanced DNS tab is where the records go. If it reads Custom DNS and names another company — ns.cloudflare.com, vercel-dns.com — the records go there instead, and that host's guide is the one to follow.

Where the records go

1. Sign in at namecheap.com and open Domain List in the left sidebar.
2. Press Manage beside the domain.
3. Open the Advanced DNS tab. Two sections on it matter, and they are not the same section: Host Records, which takes five of the records, and Mail Settings further down, which is the only place the MX record can be added.

Switch Mail Settings to Custom MX first

This is the step that catches people out, so do it before anything else. In Mail Settings, set the dropdown to Custom MX. Until it says that, there is nowhere on the page to put an MX record at all.

If it was set to Email Forwarding or Private Email, Namecheap has already put its own MX records on the domain, and changing the dropdown to Custom MX is what clears them. That matters: two sets of MX records on one domain send some mail each way, and the half that goes to Namecheap never reaches your imado inbox. Any forwarding you had stops here, and the same addresses can be created on imado instead.

What Namecheap calls each field

What to put for the domain itself

One record — the MX record, the one that makes mail arrive — belongs to the domain itself rather than to anything in front of it. Every DNS panel has its own way of saying that, and instructions written for a different one are the usual reason a correct-looking MX record receives nothing.

On Namecheap, type @. Namecheap's own documentation says @ stands for yourdomain.tld in the Host field, and that the domain name itself must not be included there — it calls that a system requirement, not a preference.

So there are two wrong answers, not one. Leaving Host blank because another panel's instructions said to is one; typing example.com is the other, and it becomes example.com.example.com when Namecheap appends the domain.

The other five records all have something in front of the domain — _imado-challenge, _dmarc, the three _domainkey names — and those go in Host exactly as shown, with no domain after them.

Add the six records

The ownership record, the three CNAME records and the DMARC record go in Host Records, one press of Add New Record each. The MX record goes in Mail Settings, under Custom MX. Then press Save All Changes — Namecheap keeps nothing you have typed until you do, and a row left unsaved looks exactly like a row that is live.

Add the ownership record first and wait for imado to show it as Added; the other five appear after it.

What gets in the way

• A CNAME on the bare domain. If Host Records has a CNAME whose Host is @, mail will not work however correct the MX record is: a CNAME on a name outranks every other record on that name, MX included. Namecheap says so in its own guide. Remove it, or point the domain at its web host with an A record instead.
• The host typed in full. Namecheap appends your domain to whatever is in Host. _dmarc.example.com in that field becomes _dmarc.example.com.example.com, saves without complaint, and is never found. Type _dmarc.
• Save All Changes. Namecheap stages your edits and applies them in one go. It is easy to add the last record, close the tab, and have added nothing.

Then, on imado

Back on your domain's page, press Check again. Namecheap usually publishes a change within half an hour. When the ownership record is Added, the other records appear; when those are, create the mailbox and send yourself a message — steps 5 and 6 of the setup.

Namecheap's own guides cover the mail settings and MX records and the TXT records.