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Every email goes out from an address on a domain you have verified. Verifying proves you own the domain, and lets Hiveku sign your mail with DKIM, which Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo check.
Setting up marketing email? Follow Get Set Up to Send Marketing Email, a step-by-step walkthrough with screenshots.
Hiveku refuses an email whose from is not on a verified domain of the account (403 domain_not_verified). This holds for the API and SMTP, and for test keys too.

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Add a domain

1

Open Email domains

Go to Settings > Email Service > Email domains and click Add email domain.
2

Enter the domain

Use a sending subdomain, such as mail.acme.com, rather than acme.com. Its sending reputation then stays apart from your main domain’s mail, and its DNS records do not touch your main domain’s.
3

Pick what it sends

Leave All email to use one domain for everything. See Purpose.
4

Add the DNS records

Hiveku lists the records for your domain. Add them at your DNS provider, or send them to whoever manages your DNS.

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DNS records

The values are made for your domain. Copy each one from the domain’s page: open it from Settings > Email Service > Email domains. For mail.acme.com, the records look like this:
Names are shown in full. Many DNS providers add the zone, such as acme.com, to the name you type. There, type mail for mail.acme.com and _dmarc.mail for _dmarc.mail.acme.com, and use @ only for a name that is the zone itself. An SPF or DMARC record put on acme.com by mistake changes the mail of your main domain: a second SPF record breaks its SPF, and p=quarantine sends its failing mail to spam.
What each one does:
  • DKIM signs every email, so receiving servers can tell it came from you. The domain is verified once these three are found.
  • Bounce domain (a custom MAIL FROM): bounces come back to bounces.mail.acme.com, so SPF is checked on your own domain and lines up with DMARC. Email still goes out without it.
  • SPF lists who may send for the domain. A name can have only one SPF record: if the domain already has one, add the include: part of Hiveku’s record to it, before the final ~all, instead of adding a second record. Two SPF records fail the check.
  • DMARC tells inboxes what to do with mail that fails these checks. The rua address receives reports, so make it a mailbox you read, or change it. A name can have only one DMARC record: if one exists, keep it. A subdomain without its own record is covered by its parent domain’s.

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Verify

Once the records are in, click Check Status next to the domain on the Email domains tab, or on the domain’s page. Verification usually takes a few minutes, and can take up to 72 hours while DNS changes spread. On Settings > Email domains (the Email domains item of the side menu under the Settings button on the Websites page), the check button works on verified domains too. Run it again after you add the bounce-domain records, so Hiveku sets up and checks the bounce domain.

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Send the records to your DNS admin

On the domain’s page:
  • Copy All for Email copies every record as text.
  • Send to Developer emails the records to the address you enter: DKIM, the bounce domain, SPF with the note on merging, and DMARC. The email comes from Hiveku, and replies go to the people on your account.

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Moving from another provider

You can verify a domain in Hiveku while your old provider still sends from it:
  • DKIM: Hiveku’s three records have their own names, so they sit beside the old provider’s DKIM records. Keep the old ones until your apps send only through Hiveku, then remove them.
  • SPF: add Hiveku’s include: to your existing SPF record. Remove the old provider’s include after the switch.
  • Bounce domain: Hiveku’s records go on bounces. in front of your domain. Make sure no other provider’s MX or TXT record is there.
  • DMARC: keep the record you have.
See Migrate from Resend and Migrate from Mailgun.

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Purpose

Pick a purpose when you add the domain: Hiveku’s own senders, such as campaigns, sequences and form notifications, pick a domain by its purpose. Separate domains keep a marketing problem from hurting your app’s mail. Your app’s API and SMTP sends can use any verified domain, whatever its purpose.

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Sender name

On Settings > Email domains, click the pencil next to Sender name. It is the name people see beside the domain’s address, such as “The Acme Team”, on email Hiveku sends for you from the domain when the email names no sender of its own: marketing sequences, new campaigns, form notifications, help desk replies and more. Leave it blank to show your business name. Your app’s API and SMTP emails show the name in their own from instead. A sender name has at most 64 characters, and cannot contain @, angle brackets, double quotes or a backslash.

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Default domain

The first domain you add is the default. To change it, click the star next to a verified domain on Settings > Email domains, or Set as Default on its page. Hiveku’s own senders fall back to it when they have no better match. It never fills in your app’s from: every API and SMTP email names its own sender.

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Reputation

Each domain’s page shows its bounce rate and complaint rate. Hiveku pauses the account’s sending when, over 30 days and at least 100 emails, hard bounces reach 8%, or spam complaints reach 0.3% with at least 3 complaints. Hiveku staff lift such a pause. See Deliverability to stay well below these.

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Remove a domain

Delete it from the domain list or its page. Emails from it are refused afterwards.

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Multiple domains

You can verify as many domains as you need, such as mail.acme.com for marketing and notify.acme.com for your app’s email. Each one has its own records and its own rates.