Use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 email with Dredge

How it works

Once your domain's nameservers point at Dredge, its DNS records live in cPanel's Zone Editor. The website records already point at us. To send your email to Google or Microsoft instead, you change the MX records and add a few records they ask for. Nothing about your website changes.

Before you start

• Your domain's nameservers point at Dredge. If not, start with connecting your domain.
• You've signed up for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and added your domain there. Keep their setup page open: it shows the exact values for your account.
• Already using mailboxes on Dredge? Once the MX records change, new mail goes to Google or Microsoft. Mail already in your Dredge mailboxes stays there, so move anything you need first. Both services have tools to import old mail.

Step 1: Verify your domain

1. Google or Microsoft gives you a TXT record to prove you own the domain. Copy its value.
2. In cPanel, open Domains → Zone Editor and click Manage next to your domain.
3. Click Add Record, choose TXT, enter your domain (with a dot on the end, like yourdomain.com.) as the name, paste the value, and save.
4. Go back to Google or Microsoft and click Verify. If it doesn't work straight away, wait an hour and try again.

Step 2: Point your MX records at your email provider

1. In the Zone Editor, filter by MX and delete the existing MX record, which points at your Dredge server. Old MX records left in place can send some mail to the wrong place.
2. Add the new MX record:
   • Google Workspace: priority 1, destination smtp.google.com.
   • Microsoft 365: priority 0, and the destination shown in your Microsoft 365 admin center. It's unique to you and ends in mail.protection.outlook.com.
3. Finish setup on their side: in Google, click Activate Gmail; in Microsoft 365, continue the domain setup until it checks your records.

Step 3: Tell cPanel your email lives elsewhere

Your website sends email too: contact forms, order confirmations, password resets. If cPanel still thinks it handles your domain's email, messages your site sends to your own address get delivered to an empty mailbox on Dredge instead of your inbox.

1. In cPanel, open Email → Email Routing.
2. Pick your domain, choose Remote Mail Exchanger, and click Change.

Step 4: Update your SPF record

SPF tells other mail servers who is allowed to send email for your domain. You need one SPF record that covers both your email provider and your website. Two separate SPF records break it.

1. In the Zone Editor, find the TXT record that starts with v=spf1.
2. Edit it and add your provider just before the ~all or -all at the end, keeping everything that's already there:
   • Google Workspace: include:_spf.google.com
   • Microsoft 365: include:spf.protection.outlook.com

For example, v=spf1 +a +mx ~all becomes v=spf1 +a +mx include:_spf.google.com ~all.

Step 5: Turn on DKIM, and for Microsoft, Autodiscover

• DKIM signs your mail so it's less likely to land in spam. Turn it on in your Google or Microsoft admin console, and add the record it gives you in the Zone Editor: a TXT record for Google, two CNAME records for Microsoft.
• Microsoft 365 only: cPanel already has an autodiscover record pointing at Dredge. Delete it, then add a CNAME named autodiscover pointing to autodiscover.outlook.com so Outlook sets itself up.

Check it worked

DNS changes usually take effect within an hour, but Google says to allow up to 72 hours. Send a test message from another account, and submit your website's contact form to make sure that arrives too. For more on staying out of spam folders, see Stop your email going to spam.

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