Jeff Triplett

Side Projects: Side Projects: Email is a Pain

Filed under: email, side projects

I love working on side projects, but I hate setting up and configuring email for projects. Not only is configuration a pain, but troubleshooting and then remembering to check a dozen+ mailboxes while juggling SPAM and misclassified emails is arduous at best.

A few months ago, I saw a recommendation on Twitter for Forward Email, an email forwarding service. I decided to try it out on a whim, and I have been a happy customer ever since.

Forward Email’s secret sauce is that it’s configurable with just a few DNS records, and then it just works. Setting up a new domain is as easy logging in, registering your domain, and then configuring three DNS records:

MX   @  mx1.forwardemail.net  10
MX   @  mx2.forwardemail.net  20
TXT  @  [email protected]

Now all of my emails go to one account, and setting up a new group or alias for someone only takes me less than a minute from my Cloudflare account, which is where I manage my DNS these days.