This article is about email hosting (e.g. using Outlook or OSX Mail to send and receive emails). If you have a question about emails sent from your website (e.g. the contact form), look here.
At Performance Foundry, we want to load your web pages as quickly and securely as possible. As a result, we do not host email — hosting providers who also host email are prone to hacking, and we really don’t want that to happen to your site.
We recommend using specialist email services, such as GSuite or Outlook 365, for email; each of these cost around $5 per user per month.
We can help you get that set up when you join our Managed WordPress Hosting service, but we do not provide ongoing support for your email service. You'll deal directly with the email hosting provider for that.
You need to set up your own account and payment details with the provider. We can't do that for you.
After that's done, as part of the set-up process, you'll be asked to make changes to your DNS. We can do that for you.
You'll need to send us as much as you can of the following:
Normally, you'll be able to email us those details as part of the setup process (look out for an option to "send to your IT administrator" or similar). Don't panic if you can't get all of them -- we can work with what you get.
If you use Google Apps for Business, we have all these details. Just tell us you need the Google Apps DNS records set up.
MX records tell the email where to go. Without MX records, your email goes nowhere.
SPF and DKIM are two different types of security check. They are optional, but tell the receiving server the mail is actually from you, and isn't a fake spam account.
It's best to set up a time with us, so we can ensure we have trained staff with time to do the changeover on hand. Dropping us a note with an emergency heading to change email providers isn't helpful if all the development and server teams are in a training session. Of course, we'll do what we can, but we can do a lot more with a little planning.
We do not provide email support for your organisation. Please go to the relevant supplier or hire an IT company to help with user management, setting up your devices, data security, etc.
We do want to make sure that transactional email from your site is working: contact forms should contact you, after all. If you have an issue with receiving email from your site, see this post on SMTP, then contact us.