Don't Spend Money on Custom Mail

Blog post by Anand: "Don't Spend Money on Custom Mail" (published February 8, 2026; categories: Tech). If you have spent money for domain, that's enough. Use Cloudflare + Gmail for free custom email (e.g. contact@yourdomain.com) without Zoho or paid hosting.

I had reminded that paying 1K+ for a year of using one custom mail to Zoho mail, which I bought for my customer. Even many of them, like me, spent the amount unnecessarily on a custom mail.

If you have spent money for domain, that's enough. Don't need to spend money on hosting and custom mail. In this blog, we take a look at "How to use custom mail without spending money?"

First of all, What is Custom Mail?

A custom mail uses your domain name instead of public mail providers like sanand@gmail.com; we use contact@anandsundaramoorthy.com

This builds:

Trust. Professional identity. Brand value

And the best part? You already own the domain; that's enough.

But how does it work?

Before jumping into steps, understand the flow 👇

Cloudflare → receives emails for your domain. Email Routing → forwards mails to Gmail. Gmail → reads mails + sends replies as your custom mail

So Gmail becomes your inbox + outbox, but the email address is yours.

Requirements:

Domain (from any provider). Cloudflare account (free). One Gmail account

That's it.

Step 1: Add Your Domain to Cloudflare

If your domain is not already in Cloudflare:

Go to Cloudflare Dashboard. Click Add a Site. Enter your domain name. Choose Free Plan. Cloudflare will give the Name Servers. Update those Name Servers in your domain provider (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.)

⏳ Wait 5–10 minutes until Cloudflare shows Active

Now many of them are filled with questions. When Cloudflare became my custom server, then how am I gonna host my website?

Will this email setup affect my website?

No, Cloudflare is NOT traditional hosting like cPanel.

Cloudflare mainly handles:

DNS. Security. CDN. Email routing (what we're using here)

Your website can be hosted in any one of these ways, which are mentioned below,

Option 1: Host Website on Cloudflare Pages (FREE)

If your website is: Static (HTML, CSS, JS), Portfolio, Blog, Landing page — Simply, Use Cloudflare Pages (Free)

Flow: Domain → Cloudflare DNS → Cloudflare Pages → Website. Domain → Cloudflare Email Routing → Gmail. Website and email work side by side without conflict.

Option 2: Host Website Elsewhere (Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages)

Even if your website is hosted on Netlify, Vercel, or GitHub Pages — you can still keep DNS in Cloudflare and use Cloudflare for email routing. Just point to the required DNS records. Website works, Email works, No issue.

You can even host the website using Hostinger and other platforms. But here we focus on free custom mail and hosting for free. So, the above two option is good and enough.

Just remember: Website → A record / CNAME → Hosting server. Email → MX records → Cloudflare Email Routing. As long as MX records belong to Cloudflare, your custom mail setup stays intact.

Important Rule (Don't Break This)

While using Cloudflare Email Routing:

Do NOT add other mail MX records. Do NOT enable cPanel email services. Do NOT mix Zoho / Google Workspace MX

Cloudflare must be the only mail handler.

Back to our core part.

Step 2: Enable Email Routing in Cloudflare

Now the magic begins.

Open your domain in Cloudflare. Go to Email → Email Routing. Click Get Started. Turn Email Routing = ON. Cloudflare will automatically add MX records and prepare your domain to receive mails

You don't need to touch MX manually.

Step 3: Create Your Custom Email Address

Inside Email Routing go to Routing Rules. Click Create Address. Enter & Save: Custom email → hello@yourdomain.com, Destination → your Gmail (e.g. anand@gmail.com). You got confirmation mail in the Gmail, just confirm that and all is set.

Now, any mail sent to hello@yourdomain.com will arrive in Gmail. But just check once.

Step 4: Send Emails from Custom Mail using Gmail

Receiving is done. Now let's SEND mails as hello@yourdomain.com.

4.1 Open Gmail Settings

Open Gmail. Click Settings → See all settings. Open Accounts and Import

4.2 Add "Send mail as"

Click Add another email address. Enter: Name → Your Name / Brand, Email → hello@yourdomain.com. Uncheck Treat as alias. Click Next Step

4.3 Configure SMTP (Use Gmail SMTP)

Fill details:

Important: Create an App Password from Google Account → Security → App Passwords.

4.4 Verify & Finish

Gmail sends a verification code → confirm it.

Now, when you compose an email, you can choose the sender:

anand@gmail.com. hello@yourdomain.com

All done. Just test once,

Send mail from another account → check inbox. Reply from Gmail → receiver sees hello@yourdomain.com. Send new mail → same custom email

Final Thoughts

People pay not because it's required, but because they don't know alternatives. If you already own a domain: Don't waste money, Don't overcomplicate, Use smart tools. Cloudflare + Gmail = Free, clean, professional email setup. Spend money where it matters.

When you feel this content is valuable, follow me for more upcoming Blogs.

Connect with Me:

LinkedIn: Anand Sundaramoorthy. Instagram: @anandsundaramoorthysa. Email: sanand03072005@gmail.com

Read it: https://www.anandsundaramoorthy.com/blog/don-t-spend-money-on-custom-mail