Guide

Family email without the technical setup

An address on your family's domain needs a few settings written into the domain before any mail arrives. Some services write them for you.

Updated October 2026

Short answer

Use a service that registers the domain for you and writes its settings itself. With InboxFamily you pick a name and pay, and six mailboxes are ready a few minutes later, for $19 a month with domain renewals included. iCloud+ can do the same for a family where everyone has an Apple Account.

What “DNS setup” means

Every domain has a short list of settings, called DNS, that tells the rest of the internet where its mail goes and which servers may send for it. Email needs four of them: one so mail arrives (MX), and three so your mail isn't taken for spam (SPF, DKIM and DMARC).

Most email providers give you the values and leave you to type them in at the company that sold you the domain. Every company labels the fields a little differently, and a typo gives no error. Mail just stops arriving, or lands in spam.

Which services do the setup for you?

Three things have to happen: someone buys the domain, someone writes its settings, and someone renews it every year. Here is who does each, as of October 2026.

Service	Who buys the domain	Who writes the settings	Who renews it	Fits
InboxFamily	We do, in your name	We do	We do, included in the $19	Any family, on any phone or computer
iCloud+, domain bought in iCloud	Cloudflare, from iCloud settings	Cloudflare, automatically	You, at Cloudflare. Auto-renew needs a card or PayPal	Families where everyone has an Apple Account
Cloudflare Email Routing	You	Cloudflare, if the domain uses Cloudflare	You	Forwarding to inboxes you already have. No mailboxes of its own
Google Workspace, Fastmail, Proton, Zoho	You	You	You	Anyone happy to edit domain settings

InboxFamily

Who buys the domain: We do, in your name
Who writes the settings: We do
Who renews it: We do, included in the $19
Fits: Any family, on any phone or computer

iCloud+, domain bought in iCloud

Who buys the domain: Cloudflare, from iCloud settings
Who writes the settings: Cloudflare, automatically
Who renews it: You, at Cloudflare. Auto-renew needs a card or PayPal
Fits: Families where everyone has an Apple Account

Cloudflare Email Routing

Who buys the domain: You
Who writes the settings: Cloudflare, if the domain uses Cloudflare
Who renews it: You
Fits: Forwarding to inboxes you already have. No mailboxes of its own

Google Workspace, Fastmail, Proton, Zoho

Who buys the domain: You
Who writes the settings: You
Who renews it: You
Fits: Anyone happy to edit domain settings

Sources: Cloudflare on iCloud domains, Apple on custom email domains and Cloudflare Email Routing.

What's left once it's set up

The setup happens once. The renewal comes back every year, and if it lapses, every address on the domain stops working. For a domain bought through us, the renewal is part of the $19 for as long as you stay, and the domain stays registered in your name. Everywhere else it is a separate bill on your card.

Check how each option charges, too. Most bill per person, so a family of six pays six times. Here is what each one costs a family.

Already own the domain?

Bring it. If its settings live at Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Porkbun or one of the other providers we support, you paste an API key (a password the provider issues for apps like ours) and we write the settings and keep them right. Anywhere else, the panel shows the few lines to copy in and checks each one as you go.

Prefer to do it all yourself? Our step-by-step guide covers it.

Pick a name. We do the rest.

Your family's domain and six mailboxes, ready in a few minutes. $19 a month, renewals included.

Find your family's domain