My Free Custom Domain Email Setup: Porkbun + Brevo + Gmail

When I started Unrushed Apps Ltd, one of the first things I needed was a professional email address. Having contact@unrushedapps.com just looks more trustworthy than a bare Gmail address - especially when you’re submitting your app to the Play Store and corresponding with users.

However, I didn’t want to spend $10/month on a email hosting like Google Workspace. I wanted to keep my business running cost as lean as possible. That way the business can be more sustainable.

I still needed to buy a domain and that can’t be free (at least .com domains won’t be free). Paying for a domain can’t be avoided and that’s fine. I was willing to fork out money for the domain at least. The question was just: how do I get email on it without paying monthly forever?

Here’s how I got a professional email setup for essentially £0 - the only cost is the domain.

Step 1: Buy the Domain from Porkbun (Free Email Forwarding Included)

I bought unrushedapps.com from Porkbun. I’ve used them for a while - they’re simple, reliable, and cheap. What I didn’t fully appreciate until setting this up: Porkbun includes free email forwarding with every domain.

So I simply created a free Gmail account and set up a forwarding rule so that any email sent to contact@unrushedapps.com gets forwarded to my personal Gmail account at unrushedapps@gmail.com.

Step 2: Fix Outgoing Emails with Brevo SMTP

Forwarding handles incoming mail, but replying is a different story. When I hit “Reply” in Gmail, the email went out from unrushedapps@gmail.com - not contact@unrushedapps.com. Not great.

The fix: Brevo, a free SMTP relay. Their free plan gives you 300 outgoing emails per day - more than enough for a solo dev inbox.

The setup involves:

Creating a free Brevo account
Adding and authenticating your domain (they walk you through adding DNS records - DKIM, DMARC etc.)
Getting your SMTP credentials from Brevo (smtp-relay.brevo.com)
Adding a “Send mail as” address in Gmail settings, pointing at Brevo’s SMTP

Brevo’s own documentation covers the exact setup - Send transactional emails using Brevo SMTP.

Once done, when I reply to any email from Gmail, it goes out as contact@unrushedapps.com. Recipients see a professional address. Nobody knows it’s just Gmail under the hood.

What It Costs

Item	Cost
Domain (Porkbun)	~£8/year
Email forwarding (Porkbun)	Free
SMTP sending via Brevo	Free (up to 300/day)
Gmail	Free
Total monthly cost	£0 (just the annual domain renewal)

Wrapping Up

If you’re just starting out as an indie dev or solo founder, don’t pay for Google Workspace right away. The Porkbun + Brevo + Gmail combo gives you a fully professional email setup for the cost of your domain alone.

The whole thing took me an afternoon to set up and I haven’t thought about it since.