Question

Setup MX and Gmail without Google Apps

Posted October 3, 2014 6.5k views

Is there a way to forward an MX record to Gmail without a Google Apps account? Gmail already has everything I need and I want to avoid paying for Google Apps service.

I know very little about MX records. This is the first time I am dealing with this.

If the above is impossible, what would be the easiest way to setup a mechanism where my MX record is pointing to my Digital Ocean IP address and my Debian based VPS is forwarding the mail to one or more Gmail accounts?

I have no need to read or store the emails on the VPS and just need to relay them to Gmail as painlessly as possible.

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VanLuda October 27, 2015

This seems to cover how to setup free email with Digital Ocean if you have your domain name with a service like GoDaddy or NameCheap.

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions/how-do-i-set-up-email-forwarding-to-gmail-account

Good Luck

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merelbrok December 3, 2020

For anyone still looking for the answer, the linked instruction is not actually the answer. There’s a difference.

  • MX records specifies the mail server responsible for handling the e-mail on behalf of the domainname. If you want your domain email to be handled by the gmail server, you need to work with MX.

——-> This is actually fully moving your e-mail from your domain’s servers to Gmail

  • The link is how to forward mail to gmail and send mails from the gmail interface with your domain emailadress. The e-mail will still be handled by your domain’s mailserver.

——-> This is basically a smokescreen that lets you use the Gmail app/interface to send and receive e-mail with your domainname

I have been looking for a while, and I’ll have to conclude at this point that forwarding and using aliasses is possible with the free version of Gmail. Moving with MX is not. You’ll need to use Google Workspace for that.

If someone finds out otherwise, please respond.

Also, do realise that ‘free’ is relative here. You pay with your information. The user of 'free’ Gmail is not the customer, but the product.

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