A new feature from Cloudflare allows you to easily create a custom email@yourdomain address for free.

However, unlike Google Workspace for example, which creates a completely separate email account - with this email routing solution from Cloudflare, you will continue to use your existing email account (like @gmail / @outlook email address). Cloudflare will simply automatically forward all emails sent to the custom address to the email address that you already use.

So this is a quick and free solution for those who want to share with others an email address that has a professional look but at the same time, would be fine with continuing to use their existing mailbox.

Still in beta

As of this moment, the Email Routing feature from Cloudflare is still in beta, and so you will have to request access to this early release:

  1. Log in to your Cloudflare account.
  2. On the Cloudflare homepage, click on the desired site.
  3. Click the “Email” tab in the left menu.
  4. Click the “Request access” button.
  5. You will receive an email as soon as this feature becomes available for your account (for me, it took about 3 days).
  6. On the same “Email” page in your Cloudflare account, click the main button that should now say “Get started”.
  7. You can follow the instructions in the “quick start” wizard to create your first custom email address. After verifying your destination email address, Cloudflare will display the DNS records required for the email routing functionality. Click the “Add records automatically” button.
  8. You can now manage, disable/enable, edit and create additional custom addresses through the “Email” panel in the Cloudflare dashboard.

Create a custom email address

(Normal process, not through the “quick start” wizard).

  1. Log in to your Cloudflare account.
  2. On the Cloudflare homepage, click on the desired site.
  3. Click the “Email” tab in the left menu.
  4. Click the “Create address” button in the “Custom addresses” section.
  5. Under “Custom address”, type the custom email address you want to share.
  6. Select “Send to” as the “Action”.
  7. Under “Destination Address”, type your existing email address to which you would like to receive the emails sent to the custom address.
  8. Click “Save”.
  9. If this is your first time using this destination URL, you will need to verify it.
    • You will receive a verification email to the destination address you typed.
    • Click the “Verify email address” button in this verification email from Cloudflare.

The custom address is now active.

You can send a test email to this custom email address to make sure that it was received correctly at the destination address.

References