Which guide do I need to set up a custom email domain?

Which provider guide should I follow?

Follow the guide of the provider that will receive your mail; each lists the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records to enter. The mailbox provider and the domain registrar are two separate services: Postelva sells the domain and hosts its DNS, and the provider supplies the mailbox. Postelva offers one-click DNS templates for Proton Mail, Fastmail, Zoho Mail, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, plus an SPF + DMARC template and a "no email" template for a domain that sends nothing. Tuta, Mailbox.org, iCloud+ and Migadu have no one-click template, so their records are typed by hand, and each guide says where to copy the exact values.

Which DNS and mail-flow guide should I read?

Read the DNS guides after the provider setup, because they make the domain trusted by receivers and help when mail goes missing. SPF lists the servers allowed to send for your domain and may use at most 10 DNS lookups (RFC 7208). DKIM signs each message. DMARC, defined since May 2026 by RFC 9989, tells receivers what to do when both fail. The difference between the three is in SPF vs DKIM vs DMARC.

In what order should I do the steps?

Register the domain, add it at the provider, enter the MX records, then SPF, DKIM and DMARC. According to Postelva's index of 12 November 2026, a Proton Mail domain needs 8 records, a Mailbox.org domain 11 and a Fastmail domain 6 without DMARC, so a checklist saves time. Postelva registers the domain usually within minutes of the top-up being credited, hosts the DNS for free (free DNS hosting with A, AAAA, CNAME, ALIAS, MX, TXT, NS, SRV and CAA records, DNSSEC, and your own nameservers if you prefer (2 to 13)) and answers questions by email: email replies within 12 hours, 7 days a week, including help with MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records.

If you have no domain yet, read what a custom email domain is and how Postelva works. A .com costs $12.49/year a year, the same at every renewal, and you can see all extensions in the price list.

Do I need every guide?

No: a working mailbox needs the provider guide and the three authentication records, and the rest are for specific situations. Most people read one provider guide, then SPF, DKIM and DMARC. MTA-STS is an extra layer that tells sending servers to refuse delivery to your mail host without a valid TLS certificate (RFC 8461); it matters little for a personal mailbox but costs nothing to add. The guide on checking records is the one to keep open while you work, because every change is confirmed by looking the record up.

The guides assume that your domain is registered with Postelva, which means the DNS editor in the client area is where each record goes. They also work if the domain sits at another registrar: the records are the same, only the editor differs. All values come from the providers' own pages, read on 12 November 2026; where a provider page could not be read, the guide says so and sends you to the provider's admin screen.