Email forwarding for a custom domain

Email forwarding lets people write to an address on your domain while you continue reading the messages in an inbox you already use.

When someone sends email to your custom-domain address, your domain's MX records direct the message to MailLogic. MailLogic receives it, applies automated routing and spam checks, and forwards it to the destination you configured, such as Gmail or Outlook.

Forwarding handles incoming mail only. Sending from the custom-domain address is a separate path and requires a MailLogic sending method or another authorized sending provider.

MX records tell the internet where email for your domain should be delivered.

When someone sends email to your domain, the sending mail server checks DNS to find the mail servers listed in your MX records. In plain English, MX records are the delivery address for email sent to your domain.

MX records often have a priority number. A lower number has higher priority, so a record with priority 10 is tried before one with priority 20. Some services publish more than one MX record to provide another path if a server is unavailable.

Changing MX records should be done carefully because they control incoming mail. If working records are replaced with incorrect values, new messages may stop arriving where you expect.

If your MX records point to MailLogic, MailLogic can receive messages sent to your custom-domain address and forward them to your existing Gmail inbox. You do not need to check a separate mailbox just because you use an address on your own domain.

Receiving mail at that address does not automatically mean Gmail can send from it. Receiving and sending use separate paths.

During Google's 2026 transition period, Gmail's third-party “Send mail as” feature can still connect to MailLogic SMTP. Google has announced that this feature will end in January 2027 and may restrict new configurations before then. See Google's announcement.

This change does not stop MailLogic from forwarding incoming messages to Gmail. For outbound mail, use Send Email or Batch Send in the MailLogic dashboard, an API where included, or a compatible email client or application configured with your MailLogic SMTP credentials.

MailLogic has no fixed monthly limit on the number of messages it forwards, on any plan. Forwarding is subject to fair use.

This is separate from the number of named addresses in your plan. A named address is an address such as [email protected] that you create and manage individually. The Free and SMTP plans support five named addresses, Starter supports 15, and Founder supports 50.

Catch-all receiving is different again. When catch-all is enabled, mail for otherwise unconfigured addresses can be forwarded to the destination you choose without creating every possible address first.

• Forwarding volume has no fixed monthly limit, subject to fair use.
• Named-address limits depend on the plan.
• Catch-all can receive other addresses without turning each one into a named address.

Self-addressed forwarding means sending a message from an inbox to a custom-domain address that forwards back to the same inbox.

This can work normally with some providers such as Outlook.com. Gmail behaves differently: it may suppress the forwarded copy as a duplicate or display a security warning.

For that reason, MailLogic does not recommend testing Gmail forwarding by sending from the same Gmail account that receives the forwarded message.

MailLogic includes a forwarding test in the dashboard:

1. Open Accounts in the sidebar.
2. Find the custom-domain address you want to test.
3. Open its three-dot menu in the Action column.
4. Select Test forwarding.

If you test manually, send from a different account than the destination inbox. That avoids Gmail's self-addressed duplicate behavior and gives you a more meaningful end-to-end check.

SRS stands for Sender Rewriting Scheme. It is one of the technical details that makes cross-domain email forwarding work properly.

When MailLogic forwards a message, the final inbox receives it from the forwarding server rather than directly from the original sender. That creates a problem for SPF: MailLogic is not supposed to appear in the original sender's SPF record.

SRS solves this by rewriting the technical envelope sender during forwarding. The visible From address stays the same, but the return path is rewritten so the forwarded message can be authenticated as coming through the forwarding service.

• Forwarding changes the delivery path.
• SRS updates the technical sender information so SPF still makes sense.

SRS is part of MailLogic's forwarding path. For the wider authentication model, see SPF, DKIM, and DMARC explained.