A Custom Domain Email I Already Paid For: iCloud+ + Hostinger

For the longest time I assumed that getting a proper hello@vamsisethu.com address meant paying for an email plan somewhere — usually the mailbox add-on your domain registrar upsells you at checkout. I already owned the domain, I had a working portfolio at vamsisethu.com, and the last missing piece felt like it needed a separate subscription.

It didn’t. I was already paying for it.

The realization

I have an iCloud+ 50GB plan — the cheap one, mostly there so my phone backups and photos stop nagging me. Sitting quietly inside that plan is a feature called Custom Email Domain. It lets you attach a domain you own to iCloud Mail and receive/send mail from addresses on that domain, using the iCloud inbox you already have.

No registrar mailbox. No second email provider. No extra monthly fee. The plan I was already paying for covered it.

The mental model that had tripped me up:

• What I thought I needed: buy an email mailbox from Hostinger (my registrar), create hello@vamsisethu.com there, log into a separate webmail.
• What actually happened: iCloud becomes the mailbox. I define the address, point DNS at Apple, and the mail lands in my normal iCloud inbox.

How iCloud Custom Email Domain actually works

The key thing to internalize: there is no separate mailbox to create. When you add a domain and type in the address you want, iCloud creates that address and attaches it to your existing iCloud Mail account. Incoming mail flows like this:

Someone emails  hello@vamsisethu.com
        │
        ▼
DNS MX record says "deliver to Apple"
        │
        ▼
Lands in my iCloud inbox  (same place my @icloud.com mail arrives)

You read it in the Mail app or at icloud.com/mail, signed in with your normal Apple ID. No new account, no new password.

Requirements

• An iCloud+ subscription (any paid tier — the 50GB plan counts; the free 5GB tier does not).
• A domain you own with access to its DNS records.
• Up to 5 domains, and up to 3 addresses per domain.

The setup

1. Start in the Apple wizard

Go to icloud.com/icloudplus → Custom Email Domain → Add a domain you own. Enter the domain (vamsisethu.com) and the address you want to create (hello@vamsisethu.com).

Apple then hands you a set of DNS records to add. Keep that tab open — you’ll copy the exact values from it.

2. Clear the registrar’s default mail records

My domain is on Hostinger. The catch here is that Hostinger auto-creates its own MX records (pointing at mail.hostinger.com) and an SPF record. Those will fight with iCloud, so in hPanel → Domains → DNS / Nameservers I deleted:

• the existing MX records pointing at Hostinger
• the existing SPF TXT record (v=spf1 include:_spf.mail.hostinger.com ...)

Leftover registrar MX records are the number one reason mail “disappears” — they quietly keep stealing delivery even after you add Apple’s records.

3. Add Apple’s records in Hostinger’s DNS Zone

Hostinger’s add-record form uses Type / Name / Points to / Priority / TTL. The mapping:

A few Hostinger-specific notes that saved me some head-scratching:

• Use @ for the root domain in the Name field.
• For the DKIM record, enter just sig1._domainkey — Hostinger appends the domain automatically. Do not type the full sig1._domainkey.vamsisethu.com.
• If you have any other legitimate sender, merge it into a single SPF record (v=spf1 include:icloud.com include:otherservice.com ~all). Two separate v=spf1 records break SPF entirely.
• Keep Hostinger’s own email hosting off for this domain so it doesn’t re-add its MX records later.

4. Verify

Back in the Apple wizard, click Finish Setup. If it complains the records aren’t found, that’s just DNS propagation — wait 15–60 minutes and retry.

Then confirm the address itself is listed and active under the domain (Custom Email Domain → your domain). Verifying the domain is not enough — the address has to exist on Apple’s side before it can receive anything.

Wiring it into the portfolio

The whole point was to put a real address on the site. My portfolio is Astro, and the contact email lives in one place — src/consts.ts:

export const SITE: Site = {
  NAME: "Vamsi Krishna Sethu",
  EMAIL: "hello@vamsisethu.com", // was a gmail address
  // ...
};

SITE.EMAIL feeds the homepage contact link in src/pages/index.astro, so a one-line change updates both the visible text and the mailto: link. A quick pnpm build confirmed it compiled clean.

I also set hello@vamsisethu.com as the default send-from address in iCloud Mail, so replies to contacts go out from the domain rather than my @icloud.com address.

Gotchas worth remembering

• It’s all-or-nothing per domain. MX can only point to one provider, so once you hand vamsisethu.com to Apple, Apple handles all mail for it. You can’t split hello@ to iCloud and sales@ to another host on the same domain.
• No catch-all. Every address must be explicitly defined.
• Migrating from an existing mailbox? Changing MX moves new mail to iCloud; it won’t import old mail sitting on the previous provider. Back that up first.
• Verify vs. create. A verified domain with zero addresses receives no mail. Creating the address is a separate step.

The lesson

The satisfying part wasn’t the DNS — it was realizing I’d nearly paid for something I already owned. If you have any paid iCloud+ tier and a domain, you already have professional custom-domain email. Check before you buy the registrar’s mailbox add-on.