How to add MX records to GoDaddy

These instructions are for users who purchased their domain on GoDaddy and would like to change their MX (mail exchange) records so they can send and receive mail with Fastmail.

Changing your MX records is the best option for users who have a website on their domain hosted with another service. For users who do not have a website hosted at their domain, switching nameservers to Fastmail is usually a better option.

This guide covers three steps to setting up your domain:

• Step 1: Add your domain to Fastmail
• Step 2: Edit your MX records in GoDaddy
• Step 3: Set up DKIM and SPF

Advanced instructions for setting up MX records can be found here.

Step 1: Add your domain to Fastmail

We have a domain setup wizard to help you get your domain working as quickly and easily as possible.

After you have purchased your domain from GoDaddy, you can get to our setup wizard using these steps:

1. Log in to your Fastmail account and go to the Settings → Domains screen.
2. Click Add or buy domain, then select Use a domain you already own.
3. Enter your domain into the text box and click Continue.

Follow the steps in the setup wizard to add your domain and email addresses to Fastmail. To have the wizard provide you with steps to update your MX records by default, choose Yes when you are asked if you have a website.

For more information, please see our Using the domain setup wizard help page.

Please note: If you are on a legacy plan, the domain setup wizard can only set up email addresses, not users. You will need to add users manually in order to create additional user accounts at your custom domain.

Step 2: Edit your MX records in GoDaddy

Note: We recommend making these changes at a time that you do not expect much mail to be sent to your domain.

1. Log in to your account at GoDaddy.

2. In the Domain List on your account, find the domain you want to use with Fastmail, and click Manage:

3. In DNS Records, select Add New Record:

4. For the record type, select MX and list the details as follows, then click Save.

5. Click Add New Record, and add a second MX record with the following details:

6. Click Save All Records. 

When you are finished, your MX records should look like this:

You should now have two MX records, in1-smtp.messagingengine.com and in2-smtp.messagingengine.com.

Please make sure that these two MX records are the only MX records present on the domain. Any other MX records should be removed.

Step 3: Set up DKIM and SPF

Your domain should now be ready to receive messages. In order to make sure your sent messages reach your recipients, there are a couple more records to add in your GoDaddy account.

1. In DNS Records, click Add New Record. Add three new records, all with the type CNAME and the following information (make sure to replace mydomain.com with your actual domain name):

You can leave any other CNAME records you have for your domain where they are.

When you are finished, it should look like this (with your actual domain name in place of yourdomain.com)

2. Add another record in the same place you added your CNAME records. In the drop down for the record type, choose TXT, then enter the following information:

When you are finished, it should look like this:

3. Add one more record in the same place you added your CNAME records. In the drop down for the record type, choose TXT, then enter the following information:

Once you have finished this step, your domain should be ready to use with Fastmail.

To check that all of your settings are correct, log in to your Fastmail account and go to the Settings → Domains screen. Click Recheck DNS. Your domain should now say Active. MX records set.