Moving My Mailbox From Gandi To Skiff
Earlier this year, Gandi announced some pretty major changes. One of them was suspension of free mailboxes that were packaged with the domain purchase. Since my domain and email were both hosted by this provider and I am not interested in paying ~INR 4,000.0/year, I decided it is time to move.
My requirements were simple:
- A platform that allows me to receive emails for custom domains and is available for both web and mobile.
- Something that allows me to send emails.
- Is free, because who pays for emails! right?
Or so I thought. Turns out, many people do. That’s why there are so many platforms offering email as a service and almost everyone is charging some amount. Those who’re not, don’t offer custom domain option.
For a brief moment I thought about self hosting my emails. But after reading tons and tons of online comments about what a PITA it’s going to be, I dropped the idea (thankfully!)
Fortunately, same forums/threads introduced me to Skiff. It checked all my requirements and then some. The emails can also be end to end encrypted like protonmail and even the paid subscription is way less than what Gandi is charging.
So here’s how you move your mailbox from Gandi to Skiff:
STEP 1: Create an account at Skiff
No credit card required. Just fill a form and you’re done. They even give a $10 credit if you download their app on your phone.
STEP 2: Settings > Custom Domains > Manage Domains
Add your domain name — for me it was manavgarg.in It would then show you DNS records that you need to add to your Gandi nameservers.
STEP 3: Add MX Record
Don’t miss the ‘.’ after skiff.com in the hostname.
STEP 4: Add SPF Record
STEP 5: Add DKIM signatures
There are two of them, I’ll share the screenshot for one and another one is almost the same. Please note that a . is very necessary after skiff.com.
If you want to expand your knowledge upon DKIM, I’d recommend go here.
STEP 6: Add DMARC signature
STEP 7: Remove Gandi’s Corresponding DNS Records
Here’s a list of things that you’d need to remove, it’d be a good idea to create a backup in case things don’t work out:
- gm1._domainkey
- gm2._domainkey
- gm3._domainkey
- Both the MX records containing mail.gandi.net.
- SPF record for Gandi — TXT record ending with ?all
STEP 8: Wait for Spiff to Verify Domain
This usually takes about an hour or so. You’ll get an email about it so you don’t have to keep checking it.
STEP 9: Create an Email Address
Once your domain is verified, it’ll show an option to create an email address to start receiving emails.
You are done. Enjoy your new email provider :)
