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6. Use forwardemail.net for mail forwarding

Date: 2025-05-20

Status

Accepted

Supersedes 2. Use Zoho for domain email

Amended 7. Upgrade to ForwardEmail.net Paid Plan

Context

We initially trialed Zoho Mail for handling custom domain email (john@startmeup.nz) as per ADR-0002. However, Zoho's setup complexity, and the need for a paid plan to use SMTP, led us to seek alternatives.

Decision

We will use ForwardEmail.net to handle email forwarding only, forwarding all messages for @startmeup.nz to a free Gmail account.

Outbound email will still originate from Gmail, but includes a Reply-To: john@startmeup.nz header to support proper reply routing.

A single encrypted DNS TXT record is required, which we manage via the Metaname API.

Consequences

  • No vendor lock-in or mailbox hosting; we retain flexibility
  • Cost remains zero for inbound mail
  • Outbound email shows the Gmail address in "From", but replies go to our domain
  • SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are all validated
  • DNS changes are automated via:
  • scripts/metaname-prod-forwardemail-txt.py
  • scripts/metaname-test-forwardemail-txt.py

Future improvements could involve: - Using ForwardEmail's paid SMTP feature for outbound - Migrating to a full transactional email provider (Mailgun, SendGrid, etc) - Build a New Zealand based mail forwarding startups for NZ businesses ;)