Over the weekend I've spent some time migrating my personal portfolio from the free Vercel option to a DigitalOcean Droplet (I'll refer to DigitalOcean as DO for the remainder of this article). Previously I've used other hosting providers, however, these services mostly came with restrictions such as not having the freedom to install node.js or accessing the server through the command line.
Compared to a lot of other options DO gives you the absolute freedom to control what runs on your server, and how you would like to set this up. And this for as little as $5 a month! DO is described as an IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) provider. This means that DO provides us with a server and leaves it up to the user to decide how to set up, maintain, interact, and deploy code. Luckily there is a host of documentation on the DO website on almost any topic you can think of!
The problem:
Expect one... Or at least specifically the thing I was after. Finding an easy way to set up e-mail forwarding from my domain proved elusive. There were some options to install a full blow e-mail server on my droplet, but as the droplet will only ever run my projects that seemed a bit unnecessary, not to mentioned it takes quite a bit of work and seeing as my domain e-mail is listed on my CV I needed it rather quickly! After some googling around I came across forwardemail.net.
Forward Email is a free and open-source email forwarding service focused on a user's right to privacy, and was launched in November 2017. It is powered by Node.js and operates using the DNS, HTTPS, and SMTP protocols. The service offers unlimited custom domain names, unlimited email addresses, aliases, unlimited disposable email addresses, spam and phishing protection, and other features. Paid plans are offered for "Enhanced Privacy Protection", whereas the email alias configuration is hidden from the public. It accepts conventional payment methods, donations, and also encourages contributions towards the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and DuckDuckGo.
Their website helps you setting up the required MX DNS records by providing step by step instructions and even helps you set up the alias in Gmail. Initially, I messed around with some other services in setting MX records, however, getting the e-mails to actually forward through to Gmail is oftentimes a paid service. Even Google offers this through its Gsuite as a paid service.
As I was going through the steps I noticed however that forwardemail.net does have a minor caveat, in order to forward your e-mail you'll have to create a TXT DNS record, in this, you will list the e-mail that will receive all forwarded messages. This leaves the information you provide to be publicly searchable. However at the moment, forwardemail is offering a free upgrade to a paid plan while they are in Beta, I come across this while having a browse through their Github. Upgrading your domain is as easy as clicking a button and changing a TXT record
forwardemail
/
free-email-forwarding
The best free email forwarding for custom domains. Visit our website to get started >>>>>
Important note, however, once the program leaves the Beta phase it will send a reminder to enter your payment details.
Quick and easy:
All in all, it took me a little under 30 minutes (It took me longer to write this post!) to configure everything and get my e-mails working if you are after a quick and easily maintainable solution to use a domain e-mail without the hassle of setting up a full-blown email-server, go over and have a look at forwardemail for sure!
Top comments (2)
Founder here! Thanks for sharing our service. If anyone has questions let us know - we've also published a bunch of walkthrough narrated videos on our YouTube channel.
youtube.com/channel/UC1_QscdQnsej0...
Hey another self-hosted email forwarder service is SimpleLogin and it comes with some niceties like browser extension and mobile app. Would love to hear your thoughts on it. I'm its creator btw 😅