Getting started
Setting up takes four steps, and the only slow one is DNS propagation. Budget ten minutes of work and up to half an hour of waiting. The dashboard's first-run wizard walks through the same steps in the same order; this page explains what each one does.
1. Create an account
Register at app.foundermail.mx with an email address and a password, or with a Google account. Confirm the address from the email you receive, then sign in. Every account starts on the Free plan with no card required.
The address you register with is your sign-in, not a mailbox. Mailboxes live on domains you add in the next step.
2. Add your domain
On first sign-in the wizard asks for the domain you want mail on: yourdomain.com,
not mail.yourdomain.com. Later, domains are added from Domains → Add
domain.
Adding a domain creates a claim. Nothing is verified, and no mail is accepted, until you prove you hold the domain by publishing the ownership record below.
3. Publish the DNS records
The wizard shows the records with the exact values to copy, written the way your DNS provider's form expects them (it detects Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Amazon Route 53 and Google Cloud DNS from your name servers). Add them at whoever hosts your DNS.
| Type | Name | Value | Priority | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TXT | _foundermail | the token shown on your domain page | — | Proves you own the domain. Required. |
| MX | @ | smtp.foundermail.mx | 10 | Routes your mail to FounderMail. Required. |
| TXT | @ | v=spf1 include:foundermail.mx ~all | — | Authorises FounderMail to send for your domain. Required for sending. |
| TXT | _dmarc | v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com | — | Tells receivers what to do when SPF and DKIM fail. Recommended. |
Underscore names. Some DNS panels refuse a record name that starts with an
underscore. If yours does, put the same ownership value in a TXT record on the domain itself
(@); the verifier checks both places.
If your DNS is on Cloudflare, the domain page can add every record for you with an API token scoped to that zone. It shows what it will add and remove before it touches anything. See Domains and DNS.
Replace any existing MX records rather than adding ours beside them: mail goes to whichever host the sending server picks, and two hosts means some of your mail lands at the old one.
4. Verify
The wizard checks for the records every ten seconds and shows each one turning green as it lands. You do not have to stay on the page; the domain page has a Verify domain button for later. Verification happens in two parts:
- Ownership: the TXT token is found. From this moment the domain is yours and nobody else can claim it.
- Receiving: the MX record points at
smtp.foundermail.mx. From this moment mail for the domain is accepted.
Sending is enabled separately, from the domain page, and issues its own records. That is covered in Domains and DNS; you do not need it to receive.
5. Create your first mailbox
Choose the local part: hello gives you hello@yourdomain.com. The
wizard shows the mailbox's password once it is created; copy it somewhere safe, it is the
password for IMAP and SMTP. You can always read it again from the mailbox page.
There is no charge per mailbox on any plan, so create every address you want rather than the
fewest you can manage with: hello@, billing@, support@,
and one for each person.
What to do next
- Send yourself a test message from any external account and open Inbox. Your first conversation appears, grouped under the sender.
- Connect a mail client if you want one, using the settings on the mailbox page. See Mailboxes and mail clients.
- Reply from the dashboard. Replies to anyone who has written to you work immediately. If you need to write to people who have not, see Sending and outbound access.
- Moving from another host? Follow Moving in before you change the MX record, so your old mail is imported first.