Set up email on a new domain
Your domain has no email yet — a clean start, and the simplest way to begin. In about five minutes you'll have real mailboxes on your own domain, running entirely inside your own AWS account. No servers to run, no command line.
Before you begin
- Install the MailPoppy desktop app on your Mac or Windows computer — that's where you set everything up.
- Have an AWS account ready. If you don't have one yet, the app links out to create one; it's free to open and you only pay AWS for what your email actually uses (usually a few dollars a month for a whole domain).
- Own a domain — and make sure its DNS is managed in AWS (Route 53). MailPoppy adds your email settings there automatically. If your domain's DNS lives somewhere else today, point it to Route 53 first (a one-time change with your domain provider).
New to DNS? It's just the “address book” that tells the internet where your domain's email and website live. MailPoppy fills in the email entries for you — it only needs your domain's address book to be kept in AWS so it can do that automatically.
Step by step
Every step happens inside the app, in plain language. Here's the whole journey.
- 1
Connect your AWS account (once)
Open the MailPoppy desktop app and follow the on-screen steps to connect your AWS account. You don't need any cloud experience — the app checks it can reach everything it needs and tells you in plain words if anything's missing. This is a one-time step; every domain after this skips it. - 2
Add your domain
Type your domain (like yourdomain.com) and press Continue. MailPoppy checks it can find your domain and gets ready to set things up. - 3
Set up the email service
Press “Set up email service.” MailPoppy builds everything your email needs inside your own AWS account — the part that receives, stores and sends your mail. It takes about one to three minutes and runs in the background, so you can leave the screen and come back. - 4
Set up your domain's email
Press “Set up email for this domain.” MailPoppy adds the settings that let your domain send and receive mail, and that keep your messages out of the spam folder. You'll then see a short “checking your domain” step — usually a few minutes while the change spreads across the internet. - 5
Create your first mailbox
Once the domain is ready, add a mailbox — an email address (like you@yourdomain.com) and a password. That's the address you sign in with to read and send mail. You can add as many as you like, any time, for no extra per-mailbox fee. - 6
Send a test and you're live
Send a test message to a personal inbox you can open (your Gmail or the like) to confirm it arrives. Then read your mail anywhere — in your browser, or the iPhone and Android apps.
What MailPoppy sets up in your AWS
Everything lives in your own account — you can see it all in the app, and a single button removes the lot whenever you want. In short, MailPoppy creates:
The mail engine
The service that receives, stores and sends your email, plus the storage your messages live in — all in the AWS region you choose.
Your mailboxes
Each address you create is a sign-in you fully control. Add or remove them any time, with no per-mailbox fee.
Your domain's email settings
The entries (in Route 53) that let your domain send and receive, and that help your mail reach the inbox instead of spam.
Spam & malware protection
Incoming mail is filtered for spam and, if you like, scanned for viruses — set up for you, running in your account.
Good to know
A brand-new domain warms up
Sending limits at the start
No lock-in, ever
Ready to start?
Open MailPoppy and set up your first domain. Already using email on this domain elsewhere? Read the other guide first.