Send email from your own domain

By default, emails your project sends come from a Spark address, such as yourname@send.spark.site. Customers see your sender name followed by “via Spark”.

You can send from an address at your own domain instead, such as hello@yourbusiness.com. Your project then uses it for every email it sends, including receipts, notifications, and newsletters.

What you can customize

When you set up email for your domain, you choose:

• the sender name customers see, such as Acme Outdoors
• the email address emails come from, such as hello@yourbusiness.com

The sender name starts as your project name. You can change it later, including while your project still sends from Spark’s address.

This doesn’t create an inbox

Setting up hello@yourbusiness.com in Spark lets your project send email from that address.

It doesn’t create an inbox where you can receive and read email. It also doesn’t change any email service you already use for your domain.

If you want replies to go to hello@yourbusiness.com, you need an inbox for that address from an email provider, or email forwarding from your domain provider. See Receive replies at your custom domain.

Set up your sending address

You’ll need to sign in wherever your domain’s DNS is managed, which is usually the company you bought the domain from.

1. Open Project settings → Email and choose Set up next to your own domain. If your site already uses your domain, you can also choose Set up next to the email address in Project settings → Domain.
2. Enter the sender name and the part of the address before the @. Spark fills in the domain your site uses. To send from a different one, such as yourbusiness.com for a site on shop.yourbusiness.com, choose Use a different domain. If your site isn’t on your own domain, enter the domain yourself.
3. Choose Continue.

A domain can send email for only one Spark project.

If you already connected your site’s domain, Spark knows your provider and goes straight to its steps. Otherwise, it looks up where your domain is managed first, as it does when you connect a domain.

Required records

If your site doesn’t use this domain, Spark first asks for a TXT record that proves the domain is yours. If you connected the domain for your site, you already added that record, and Spark skips this step.

Spark then asks you to add three CNAME records. Spark can’t send email from your domain until they’re in place.

Add each one as a CNAME record, exactly as shown, and leave TTL unchanged. If a record with the same name is already there, for example from an earlier attempt, edit it instead of adding a second one. Your provider may add your domain to the end of the Name field automatically, so enter only the value Spark gives you. Don’t delete any other records.

Recommended records

Next, Spark asks for an MX record and a TXT record. Your emails send without them, but they can improve deliverability and help keep messages out of spam.

Choose Skip for now to leave them out.

Wait for Spark to check the records

After you add the records, choose I’ve added them.

Spark checks your DNS every few minutes and shows what it found for each record. You can close the window while it checks. To open it again, choose View progress in Project settings → Email.

Once Spark finds the required records, your address shows Active and your project’s emails start coming from it. The recommended records never hold this up.

DNS changes often appear within a few minutes, but some providers can take longer.

If a record needs fixing

If a record is set up wrongly, Spark shows which one and what to change. Fix it at your provider, then choose I’ve fixed it to check again.

Two problems come up most often.

Your domain appears twice in the record name

Some providers add your domain to the end of a record’s name automatically.

For example, if Spark asks you to enter abc123._domainkey, don’t enter abc123._domainkey.yourbusiness.com at a provider that adds yourbusiness.com for you. The saved record would become abc123._domainkey.yourbusiness.com.yourbusiness.com.

If Spark shows Wrong name, edit the record’s Name field so it holds only the part before your domain.

Cloudflare is proxying the record

If your domain uses Cloudflare, set each record Spark gives you to DNS only (the gray cloud), not Proxied. Spark can’t check a proxied record.

If the address isn’t verified

If Spark can’t find the required records within 3 days, your address shows Not verified. Check your records at your provider, then choose Try again in Project settings → Email.

Where replies go

The address your emails come from and the address replies go to are separate. Setting up your domain changes only where emails come from.

By default, replies go to your email, the address you sign in to Spark with. To change this, open Project settings → Email and choose Change next to Replies go to. Your options are:

• Your email. This is the default.
• Another email address. Spark sends a confirmation link to the address and starts using it once the link is opened.
• Save replies in Spark. Replies are kept in your project, and you can ask Spark to build an internal tool to view them. Customers reply to an address at send.spark.site, even when your emails come from your own domain, so there’s nothing extra to add at your DNS provider. It doesn’t affect your existing inbox.
• Don’t accept replies. Customers who reply won’t reach anyone.

The setup window also shows where replies go, with a Change button that opens these options.

If you want replies to go to your new address, such as hello@yourbusiness.com, first make sure email sent to that address reaches you, through an inbox or forwarding. See Receive replies at your custom domain.

Sign-in codes

If customers sign in to your site, their sign-in codes come from no-reply@yourbusiness.com once your address is active.

You don’t need an inbox for this address.

Change or remove your address

To change the sender name or the part before the @, choose Edit next to your address in Project settings → Email.

To stop sending from your domain, choose Remove. Your project’s emails go back to Spark’s address.

Removing the address from Spark doesn’t delete your domain or change any inbox you have with your email provider.