I Built a Custom Domain Email for Free. Here’s What Broke.

I didn’t want to send emails from

ashishgogula12@gmail.com

It works. But it doesn’t feel intentional.

So I wanted:

ashish@ashishgogula.in

Clean. Minimal. On brand.

I also didn’t want to pay monthly for Google Workspace.

So I built a free setup using Cloudflare and Gmail.

And of course, it broke before it worked.

The Setup

First, I moved my DNS to Cloudflare.

Cloudflare gives free Email Routing.

That means:

Any email sent to my domain gets forwarded to my real Gmail inbox.

No server. No backend. Just DNS doing its job.

Receiving emails? Easy.

Sending emails? That’s where things get interesting.

Inside Gmail → Settings → Account and Import → “Send mail as”

I added my custom domain email and used Gmail SMTP.

Now I could send emails from:

ashish@ashishgogula.in

Felt powerful.

Until my emails started landing in spam.

The issue was SPF.

I hadn’t told the internet that Google is allowed to send emails on behalf of my domain.

So I updated my SPF record in Cloudflare to:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all

That fixed half the problem.

Then I made it worse.

I set my DMARC policy to quarantine because it “looked secure”.

Bad idea.

Since I’m not using Google Workspace, Gmail cannot fully DKIM-sign my domain.

So DMARC saw a failure and did exactly what I told it to do:

Send it to spam.

I switched DMARC to monitoring mode instead:

v=DMARC1; p=none; adkim=r; aspf=r;

And suddenly, inbox.

No.

You don’t get full enterprise-level authentication.

You don’t get guaranteed avatar display everywhere.

But for personal use, portfolio contact, and normal conversations, it works.

Cost: ₹0

Time spent debugging: more than I’d like to admit

Email looks simple.

Until you realize it’s just DNS convincing the internet that you’re not a scammer.

And once you understand that, it’s actually kind of fun.

Me when the email finally lands in inbox.