How to Create a Free Custom domain Email Address

A few weeks ago, I decided I wanted a proper email address with my own domain.

You know, the kind that makes you look like you have your life together: contact@thomas-cogez.fr

I knew that you can pay for google workspace or hosting my own mail server in order to do so, but i wanted to keep the set-up cheap (free) and keep my sanity.

So I went hunting for a free way to do it and I found one! It’s super simple, works perfectly, and costs exactly €0/month. No Gmail hacks, no weird hosting tricks. Just two free tools: Cloudflare and Resend.

Cloudflare catches all emails sent to your domain and forwards them to your regular inbox.Resend sends emails from your domain so they look 100% legit.Put them together, and you’ve got a full professional email setup without paying a cent.Here’s exactly how I did it.

Step 1 - Grab Your Domain

If you don’t have a domain yet, you’ll need one. I like Cloudflare Registrar because it’s cheap and has no sneaky markups. If you already have a domain somewhere else, you can still use it and transfer you dns nameserver to cloudflare

Step 2 - Setup email redirection

Once your domain is ready on cloudflare you can now enable E-mail routing !

On your cloudflare dashboard select your desired domain (here i’m choosing thomas-cogez.fr)

1. In your Cloudflare dashboard, go to Email > Email Routing
2. Add your destination address (this is your real inbox (Gmail, ProtonMail, whatever))
3. Create your custom email address (e.g., hello@mydomain.com)
4. Let Cloudflare automatically add the DNS records

Boom ! you can now receive emails sent to your domain in your usual inbox.

Step 4 - Set Up Resend (for Sending)

• Sign up at Resend
• Go to Domains > Add Domain
• Follow the dns configuration
• Wait for your domain to be verified

Step 5 - Use It with Gmail (Optional)

If you want to send emails right from Gmail:

1. In Gmail, go to Settings > See all settings > Accounts and Import
2. Under Send mail as, click Add another email address
3. Enter your name and your-name@your-domain.com
4. SMTP settings:
5. Server: smtp.resend.com
6. Port: 587
7. Username: resend
8. Password: Your Resend API key

Verify it from your inbox, you should now have the options to reply email with your-name@your-domain.com

Step 6 — Test It

Send an email to yourself, reply to it, and watch everything just… work.Now you’ve got a shiny new custom email without paying for anything.

The result?

I now have a professional-looking email address, and nobody knows I didn’t spend a single cent to get it.It’s all powered by Cloudflare and Resend, and honestly, I wish I’d done it sooner.Any questions/problems ? contact me at contact@thomas-cogez.fr 😉