Use Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace email

You can host your website with Sheernox and use Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for email. Your domain stays on the Sheernox nameservers; you change its DNS records so email goes to the other provider, and tell the control panel that email for the domain is handled elsewhere.

Before you start

• Set up your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace account and add your domain there. The provider shows you the exact records to add.
• If you have email accounts at Sheernox you want to keep, move their email first. Once the MX records change, new mail stops arriving at Sheernox.

Every change below is made on the domain’s settings page: open Websites, select the website, select Domains, then choose Manage from the domain’s menu. See Manage DNS records for how to add and delete records.

1. Verify the domain

1. In the other provider’s admin centre, copy the verification TXT record they give you.

2. Under DNS records, add it as a TXT record with @ as the hostname.

3. Return to the provider and verify the domain.

2. Send mail to the new provider

The MX record decides where mail for your domain is delivered.

Google Workspace: under Auto configuration, select Gmail, then Configure now and Add records. This replaces your existing MX record with Google’s five MX records (ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM and the four ALT servers) in one step.

Microsoft 365:

1. Under DNS records, find the existing MX record (it points to mail. followed by your domain) and delete it.

2. Add the MX record Microsoft gives you, with the priority they specify. Remember the dot at the end of the server name.

3. Switch mail routing to remote

Under Mail routing settings, select Remote mail (“I’m using a third party email server to receive inbound emails”). The change is saved straight away.

This tells the Sheernox server not to treat the domain’s email as its own. Without it, messages sent from your website to your own addresses, such as contact form notifications, can stay on the Sheernox server instead of reaching your new provider.

4. Finish the provider’s setup

1. Update your SPF record to include the provider, as they instruct. Edit the existing TXT record that starts with v=spf1 rather than adding a second one.

2. Add the provider’s DKIM record or records, then turn on DKIM signing in their admin centre.

3. Add any CNAME records the provider lists, for example for automatic setup of mail apps.

New mail starts arriving at the other provider once the MX change has spread, usually within an hour.

Caution

Do not create email accounts for this domain in the Sheernox control panel after switching. Use the other provider for all of the domain’s mailboxes.

Website forms

If your website sends email, such as contact form notifications, make sure your SPF record still allows Sheernox to send, or set the website to send through the other provider’s SMTP service. Otherwise those messages may be marked as spam. See Understand SPF, DKIM and DMARC.

Switching back

To receive email at Sheernox again, select Local mail under Mail routing settings, delete the provider’s MX records and add an MX record pointing to mail. followed by your domain, with a dot at the end.