Zoho Mail lets you have email with your own domain — info@yourrealestateagency.com — at no cost, for up to 5 people. This article covers what you have to do on the Mapaprop side for that email to work: verify the domain and add the MX records.
Zoho Mail is not a Mapaprop service. We do not register accounts for you, we do not administer the service and we do not provide any warranty for it. The Zoho account is yours, and you can use it with Mapaprop or with any other hosting provider.
Before you start: two limits of the free plan
These are the two that come as a surprise later, once everything is set up. It is worth knowing them now.
With the sixth user, everyone pays. The free plan goes up to 5 users. When you add the sixth, it is not only the new one that becomes paid: the whole organization does. If you know there are going to be more than 5, look at the Zoho pricing before you start.
The free plan does not include IMAP, POP or ActiveSync. That means you will not be able to read your email with Outlook, Thunderbird or your phone's mail app. It is used from the browser or from the Zoho Mail app. If you need Outlook or your phone's native app, a paid plan is required.
What the free plan includes
| Price | Free forever, no credit card |
| Users | Up to 5 |
| Storage | 5 GB per user |
| Domains | One, with custom email |
| Access | Webmail and the Zoho Mail app (no IMAP/POP) |
| Also includes | Calendar, ToDo and Cliq |
Step 1 — Create your Zoho account
Zoho does not show the free plan on its pricing page: you have to go in through the direct sign-up link.
Create a free Zoho Mail account
That link takes you straight to the organization sign-up, which is the one that lets you use your own domain. Follow the form: it will ask you for your domain, your details and a phone number to verify you by SMS.
The first email address you create is the administrator of the organization. It is the only one that can create the other mailboxes, so it is better to make it a general one — info@ or administration@ — and not that of a person who may leave some day.
The sign-up may appear in English. Do not worry: the language is changed afterwards, from your mailbox settings.
Step 2 — Verify that the domain is yours
Zoho needs to confirm that the domain belongs to you. To do that it gives you a verification record (a TXT or a CNAME, depending on the method you choose) that has to be published in your DNS zone.
Since your domain is delegated to Mapaprop, you administer that zone yourself from the panel:
- Copy the name and the value of the record that Zoho shows you.
- In Mapaprop, go to Websites > your site > Internet Domain > your domain > DNS Records.
- Click Add record, choose the type Zoho asked for, paste the name and the value, and save.
- Go back to the Zoho screen and press Verify.
If Zoho does not find it on the first attempt, wait a few minutes and try again: the record is already published, but the internet takes a while to pick it up.
How it is done on the Zoho side: domain verification.
This step used to require an email to support and a wait of up to 48 hours. Not anymore: you add it yourself and it is published instantly. See DNS Records.
Step 3 — Point your email to Zoho
Once the domain is verified, the internet still has to be told that your email is delivered at Zoho. That is what the MX records do, and you do not have to copy them by hand.
- In DNS Records, click Add record.
- Choose the type MX.
- In the provider selector, choose Zoho.
The servers and their priorities are filled in automatically, with the correct values. This is the part where everybody makes mistakes when adding them by hand: the servers are copied correctly but the priorities get mixed up, or one of them is left out.
If you already had email working with your domain at another provider, when you change the MX records the new messages start being delivered at Zoho. Old emails do not move on their own and stay where they were. Before making the change, back them up or migrate them: see Migrate your domain without interrupting email.
How long it takes
The change is published on our servers as soon as you save it. What takes time is the rest of the internet picking it up: the machines that had already queried your domain keep using the previous data until the record's TTL expires.
With the default TTL of 300 seconds, it is done in a few minutes. If the domain came from another provider with a high TTL, it may take several hours. During that time it is normal for some messages to arrive at the old mailbox and others at the new one.
If something goes wrong, who to write to
| What is happening | Who |
|---|---|
| You cannot get into your mailbox, you lost the password | Zoho — Zoho Mail help |
| You want to create, delete or change mailboxes | Zoho — it is inside their panel |
| You want to move to a paid plan or change plans | Zoho |
| A DNS record will not save, or you do not know which one to add | Us — the Report a problem button on the DNS Records screen |
| Zoho says the domain does not verify | Us, if you already added the record and it still does not verify: websites@mapaprop.com |
| You stopped receiving email after a DNS change | Us, urgent: websites@mapaprop.com |
The short rule: what happens inside Zoho is solved by Zoho; what happens in your DNS zone is solved by us.
What Zoho documents
These tasks are on the Zoho side and their own help explains them better and more up to date than we do:
- Get into your mailbox: mail.zoho.com
- Create and manage users (create more mailboxes, assign permissions, reset passwords)
- Import email from another account — from Gmail, Outlook or any account with IMAP
- Set up IMAP — remember that it requires a paid plan
- General Zoho Mail help
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Outlook or my phone's mail app?
Not with the free plan: it does not include IMAP or POP. It is used from the browser or from the official Zoho Mail app, which does work with the free plan. For Outlook or your phone's native app, a paid plan is required.
There are 7 of us. Do I only pay for 2?
No. Once you go past 5 users, the paid plan covers the whole organization. If you already know there are going to be more than 5, it is worth looking at paid plans from the start — Zoho's or those of other providers.
Does Mapaprop create the Zoho account for me?
No. You sign up yourself, and the account stays in your name. What we do is administer your domain's DNS zone, which is where the records from steps 2 and 3 are added.
I changed the MX records and I am still receiving email at the previous provider
That is propagation: until the old record's TTL expires, part of the internet keeps using the previous data. If more than 24 hours have gone by and it is still the same, write to us at websites@mapaprop.com.
Can I go back if Zoho does not convince me?
Yes. You administer your domain's MX records yourself from DNS Records: changing them for those of another provider is the same procedure as in step 3. What does not come back on its own is the email already received at Zoho — that has to be exported first.
My domain does not have the DNS Records screen
This happens with old domains and with subdomains that depend on the main domain's zone. Write to us at websites@mapaprop.com and we will solve it.
Additional information
Do you need another email option? Zoho is not the only one: see Email to compare the free and paid alternatives.
Did you find a problem? Report it from Technical Support.