An address like sales@yourcompany.az tells a customer three things before they read a word: the company is real, it owns its name, and the person writing to them works there. A free address at a public mail service says the opposite. This guide walks through the whole path to business email on your own domain — what to decide first, which records to add, how to create the mailboxes and how to bring the old mail with you — using the Rivervo panel as the example.
What "business email on your domain" actually means
Business email (also called corporate email) is a mailbox whose address ends with your company's domain instead of a public provider's. Behind it there are three parts:
- The domain —
yourcompany.az,yourcompany.comor any other you own. It can be registered anywhere; it does not have to be registered with your email provider. - The mail service — the servers that receive, store and send the letters, with the webmail, the mobile apps and the spam filtering.
- The DNS records — a handful of entries in your domain's DNS that tell the internet which service handles your mail (MX) and prove that letters signed with your name really come from you (SPF, DKIM, DMARC).
When the three are connected, your team writes and reads mail as usual — in the browser, in Outlook or Apple Mail, on the phone — but every address carries the company name.
Two ways to have mailboxes at Rivervo
Before you start, decide which of the two options fits you. They run on different systems, so a domain uses one of them, not both.
- Business email — a separate email plan, managed in the panel under Mail. It is paid per mailbox and works whether or not you host a website with us. Every plan includes webmail, apps for iPhone and Android, calendar, contacts, Drive and documents; Professional and Enterprise add chat and video meetings.
- Mail on the hosting — mailboxes that come with a website hosting plan (10 on Stream, 100 on Current, no limit on Rapids and Delta), managed on the website's page under Mailboxes. It is a good fit for a small site with a couple of addresses. If the hosting is suspended, these mailboxes go offline with it.
For a company whose email matters more than its website, business email is the safer choice: it does not depend on the hosting and it comes with the apps your team will use every day.
Choosing a plan
Business email has three plans, priced per mailbox per month (see current prices):
| Plan | Storage per mailbox | Sending limit | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 5 GB (mail and Drive) | 250 emails a day | Addresses that mostly receive mail; yearly billing only |
| Professional | 50 GB (mail, Drive and chat) | 1,000 emails a day | Most teams |
| Enterprise | 100 GB | 2,000 emails a day | Heavy mailboxes, Exchange ActiveSync, priority support |
A few things that keep the bill small:
- You pay only for real mailboxes.
info@,sales@andhello@do not need three mailboxes: an alias delivers to one inbox for free (more below). - One plan covers all your domains. Add a second domain later without a second plan.
- Professional starts with a free month for new customers — up to 4 mailboxes, on the first purchase.
- Yearly billing is 15% cheaper than paying month by month.
Step 1 — set up email on the domain
In the Rivervo panel: + Create → Business email. If you already have an email plan and are adding another domain, open the domain's email page and choose Add email to this domain.
Type the domain you want to use. You do not need to move the domain to Rivervo: a domain registered at any registrar works.
Step 2 — add the DNS records
This is the step that connects the domain to the mail service, and the one most people worry about. The panel makes it mechanical.
Open Mail → your domain. The page lists every record the domain needs:
- MX — where mail for your domain is delivered (required)
- SPF — which servers may send mail as your domain (required)
- DKIM — the public key that verifies the signature on your letters (required)
- DMARC — what receivers should do with letters that fail the checks (recommended)
Each record is marked Found or Not found yet. Copy the exact values from the page — do not type them from memory or from another guide — and add them where your domain's DNS is managed:
- Domain on Rivervo nameservers with a Rivervo website → Websites → your site → DNS zone (there is a button on the email card).
- Domain registered at Rivervo with other DNS → Domains → your domain → DNS records.
- Anywhere else → at your registrar or DNS host. On Cloudflare, add the records as DNS only, not proxied.
Then click I've added the records — check. The panel also re-checks on its own every 5 minutes. New records usually appear within minutes; if your DNS host caches longer, it can take a few hours — why DNS takes time explains it.
If your domain already receives mail somewhere else, read the migration section below before you change MX.
Step 3 — create the mailboxes
When the records are found: Mail → your domain → New mailbox.
- Address — letters, digits, dot, dash and underscore. A common pattern is
firstname@orfirstname.lastname@for people and role addresses as aliases. - Password — 8 to 128 characters. Save it in a password manager: support cannot see or recover mailbox passwords.
Each mailbox uses a slot of your plan. To add more: Your email plan → Add or remove mailboxes.
Aliases instead of extra mailboxes
Mail → your domain → Aliases and forwarding → Add. An alias is an extra address that delivers to up to 20 addresses, inside or outside your domain. Use it for info@, sales@, support@ or invoices@ — the letters land in the right person's inbox and the plan does not grow. Aliases are free.
Step 4 — move the old mail
If the company already uses email somewhere, there are two ways to bring the history along, and both are free:
- Yourself, in the panel. Mail → Mail import → New import. Add the source server — presets exist for Gmail (with an app password), Microsoft 365, Yahoo and Google Workspace, and Other server covers any IMAP server. Add the mailboxes to copy (one by one or from a CSV template), let the panel check the mailboxes, then start copying. Mailboxes that do not exist yet are created automatically if your plan has free slots; their passwords are shown once.
- By our team. Write to us from the panel (Help → Write to us) and we move the mailboxes for you.
Either way, keep the order: copy first, switch MX second. While the copy runs, mail keeps arriving in the old mailboxes. Around the switch a few letters may land in the old place — run the import again to pick them up. The full procedure is in Migrating email mailboxes.
Step 5 — connect computers and phones
- In the browser — Open webmail on the email page.
- On the phone — the apps for iPhone and Android, or the phone's own mail app.
- In Outlook, Apple Mail or Thunderbird — IMAP and SMTP with SSL/TLS and the full email address as the username. The exact server names and ports for each program are in Setting up email clients.
Making sure your letters reach the inbox
The records from Step 2 do most of the work. Three habits do the rest:
- Don't send newsletters from personal mailboxes. Sending limits exist for a reason; bulk mailings belong to a dedicated sending service.
- Start DMARC gently. Begin with a policy that only reports, then tighten it once you know who sends mail in your name. Our guide to SPF, DKIM and DMARC walks through it.
- One SPF record per domain. If another service (a newsletter tool, a CRM) sends mail as you, merge it into the same SPF record instead of adding a second one.
Common questions
Do I need to transfer my domain to Rivervo? No. The domain can stay at its current registrar; you only add the DNS records.
Can I keep my website at another host? Yes. Business email does not depend on where the website lives. MX, SPF and DKIM are separate records from the website's A record.
Can business email and mail on the hosting work on the same domain? Not for receiving: the domain's MX points to one system. Pick one per domain.
What happens to mail during the switch? Nothing is lost if you copy the old mail before changing MX. For a few hours, some letters may still arrive in the old mailboxes — import them again afterwards.
How much does it cost for a team of ten? Ten Professional mailboxes cost ten times the per-mailbox price — see the calculator on the email page. Role addresses as aliases do not add to it.
Is there a trial? Yes: a free month of Professional for new customers, up to 4 mailboxes. Start here.