---
title: Create an email account
description: Add a mailbox on one of your domains and connect your email client.
sidebar:
  order: 4
---

import { Steps, Aside } from '@astrojs/starlight/components';
import SignIn from '~/content/partials/signing-in.mdx';
import Support from '~/content/partials/support-link.mdx';

## Before you start

- A **domain added** to your account ([Add a domain](/whp/how-to/add-a-domain/) covers that).
- Decide what local part you want — the bit before the `@`. For example, `jane` to get `jane@example.com`.
- About 5 minutes.

## Sign in to WHP

<SignIn />

## Steps

<Steps>

1. In the sidebar, click **Email**. The page is organized into tabs — **Email Accounts**, **Forwarders**, and **Email Domains (DNS)** — and opens on **Email Accounts**. The buttons along the top (**Webmail**, **Admin Panel**, **Setup Instructions**) open the mail server's web tools in a new tab.
   ![The WHP Email page on the Email Accounts tab, showing the tab bar and the top access buttons](~/assets/screenshots/whp/whp-email.png)

2. On the **Email Accounts** tab, click **Create Email Account** to open the new-account form. You'll be asked for the domain, the local part, a password, and an optional mailbox size cap.

3. Set a **strong password** — at least 12 characters with a mix of upper case, lower case, numbers, and symbols. Email accounts are common attack targets.

4. Click **Create Account**. The new account appears in the **Email Accounts** list.

</Steps>

## Auto-configure your mail app

Most modern mail apps — Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, and the iOS and Android mail apps — can set themselves up from your domain's DNS. You enter your **full email address** and **password**, and the app finds the right servers, ports, and security settings on its own.

**If your domain uses our nameservers, this already works** — we add the necessary records automatically when you add the domain, so there's nothing for you to do.

### If your DNS is hosted elsewhere

If your domain's DNS lives at another provider (Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, and so on), your mail app can't auto-configure until you add a few records there yourself. The Email page builds the exact records for you: open the **Email Domains (DNS)** tab, find **Autodiscovery Records (DNS)**, pick the domain, and copy them in.

![The Autodiscovery Records (DNS) section on the Email Domains (DNS) tab, showing autodiscovery DNS records for a domain](~/assets/screenshots/whp/whp-email-autodiscovery.png)

Add these records to the domain's zone at your DNS provider. The names are **relative to your domain** — most providers fill in the rest automatically, so `autoconfig` becomes `autoconfig.example.com`.

| Type | Name | Priority | Weight | Port | Value |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CNAME | `autoconfig` | — | — | — | your mail server |
| SRV | `_autodiscover._tcp` | 0 | 0 | 443 | your mail server |
| SRV | `_imaps._tcp` | 0 | 1 | 993 | your mail server |
| SRV | `_submission._tcp` | 0 | 1 | 587 | your mail server |
| SRV | `_pop3s._tcp` | 0 | 1 | 995 | your mail server |

Use the **mail server hostname shown in the Autodiscovery Records (DNS) section** as the value — it's the same host your **MX** record points at. The `_pop3s` record is only needed if you read mail over POP3 instead of IMAP. Click **Copy records** to grab them all at once in zone-file format.

<Aside type="tip">
  If your provider has a proxy toggle (such as Cloudflare's orange cloud), keep these records **DNS only** — proxying them stops mail clients from reading them.
</Aside>

<Aside type="note">
  These records only help apps *find* the server. You still create the mailbox in WHP first, and your domain's **MX** record must point at our mail server for mail to be delivered.
</Aside>

## Set up your email client

Most apps configure themselves from the records above once you enter your address and password. If yours doesn't support that — or you'd rather enter the settings by hand — the exact IMAP, POP3, and SMTP hostnames are listed on the Email page: click **Setup Instructions** at the top of the page for a step-by-step that includes the right hostnames, ports, and security settings for your server.

The typical settings look like this; substitute the hostname shown in the Setup Instructions:

```text
IMAP (incoming)
  Host:     <see Setup Instructions>
  Port:     993
  Security: SSL/TLS
  Username: full email address (e.g., jane@example.com)
  Password: the one you set above

SMTP (outgoing)
  Host:     <see Setup Instructions>
  Port:     587
  Security: STARTTLS
  Username: full email address
  Password: same as IMAP
```

For per-client walkthroughs (Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, etc.), see the Email clients section — coming soon.

## Webmail

Click **Webmail** at the top of the Email page to sign in to webmail in a new tab.

## Verify it worked

Send yourself a test message from another account (your personal Gmail, for example). It should arrive within a minute or two and be retrievable from both your client and webmail.

<Aside type="caution">
  **SPF and DKIM records matter.** Without them, your outgoing mail will get flagged or rejected by other providers. We add an SPF record automatically when you add a domain. DKIM records are listed in the **DKIM Management** section on the **Email Domains (DNS)** tab — make sure they're present at your registrar if the domain isn't using our nameservers.
</Aside>

## Troubleshooting

**Webmail isn't reachable.** DNS for the mail subdomain may still be propagating — wait an hour and try again.

**Outgoing mail is bouncing or going to spam.** Check the SPF and DKIM records. The **DKIM Management** section on the **Email Domains (DNS)** tab shows whether DKIM is configured for each of your domains.

**Client can connect on IMAP but not SMTP.** Some ISPs and corporate networks block outgoing port 587. Try sending from a different network to confirm; if the issue is your network, your ISP is the place to ask.

## Related

- [Add a domain](/whp/how-to/add-a-domain/)
- [Archival email add-on](/whp/add-ons/archival-email/)
- [Email upgrades](/whp/add-ons/email-upgrades/)

## Still stuck?

<Support />