# Set up email sending from your own domain

**Category:** [Email Sending](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/email-sending)
**Updated:** 2026-10-04

By default, email TotalCtrl sends on your behalf goes out from a TotalCtrl
address. It arrives fine — but it does not look like it came from you. Verifying
a domain you own fixes that: newsletters, CRM journeys, campaigns, support
replies and automated messages all start sending as your address.

## Why a domain has to be verified

Your mail is sent through our mail infrastructure, not your mail server. Mail
providers like Gmail and Outlook check whether the sender is genuinely allowed
to send for that domain. Verifying publishes a cryptographic signature in your
DNS that proves it.

This is not a formality. Many organisations publish a policy called DMARC
that tells receiving servers to *reject* unverified mail claiming to be
from their domain. Sending unverified would mean messages silently landing in
spam, or being refused outright.

## Set it up

  
- Go to **Connections → Email Sending**. You need to be a
      workspace admin.
  
- Under **Add your domain**, enter the domain your email should
      come from — `acme.com`, or an address on it like
      `hello@acme.com`. Either works.
  
- Click **Add**. TotalCtrl shows the DNS records to publish.
  
- Add those records at your DNS provider. We have step-by-step guides for
      [Cloudflare](dns-records-cloudflare),
      [GoDaddy](dns-records-godaddy) and
      [Namecheap](dns-records-namecheap).
  
- Come back and click **Verify**.

## What the records do

  
- **TXT records** prove we are allowed to send as your domain.
      This is what mail providers check.
  
- **A CNAME**, if shown, serves tracked links from your domain
      rather than a shared one.

**None of these change where email sent TO your domain is
delivered.** Your inbox, your team's mail and anything else on the domain
carry on exactly as before. We never ask you to change MX records.

## While you wait

Nothing breaks. Until the domain verifies, email keeps sending from a
TotalCtrl address, carrying your name and your reply-to address — so replies
still reach you. The Email Sending page tells you which state you are in.

## Choose the name and address your email comes from

Once a domain is verified, set a **Default sender** on the same
page — the name and address used whenever an app has no sender of its own.
Individual newsletters, journeys and campaigns can still set their own; they just
have to be on the verified domain.

An address on a domain you have not verified will not be used. That is
deliberate — it is what stops anyone using TotalCtrl to send as a domain they do
not control.

## If verification does not succeed

  
- **Check the Name field.** Most DNS providers add your domain
      automatically, so entering the full record name creates a doubled-up one.
      See the provider guides above.
  
- **Check for stray spaces.** Use the copy buttons next to each
      value rather than selecting text by hand.
  
- **Give it time.** DNS changes are usually live in minutes but
      can take up to 48 hours.
  
- The records table shows which records we can and cannot see yet, so a
      partial result tells you which one to look at.

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## Related Articles

- [Add your DNS records in GoDaddy](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/dns-records-godaddy)
- [Add your DNS records in Cloudflare](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/dns-records-cloudflare)
- [Add your DNS records in Namecheap](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/dns-records-namecheap)
- [Link tracking, and why we do not track opens](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/link-tracking-and-opens)

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