Glossary

MX Record

An MX record is the DNS entry that directs a domain’s email to the correct mail servers, with priority values choosing primary and backups.

An MX record (Mail Exchange) tells sending mail servers where to deliver email for a domain. It points to the hostname of a mail server, which in turn resolves via an a-record.

Example

example.com.   3600   IN   MX   10   mail1.example.com.
example.com.   3600   IN   MX   20   mail2.example.com.

The number is the priority (preference): lower values are tried first, so mail1 is primary and mail2 is a backup.

Why it matters for hosting

Email and website hosting are independent. You can host your site at one provider and route mail to another (e.g. Google Workspace or Microsoft 365) purely by setting the right MX records.

For reliable delivery, MX records work alongside authentication records — spf, dkim, and dmarc — which let receivers verify that mail genuinely came from your domain.

See also

TXT Record A TXT record stores arbitrary text in DNS, widely used for domain verification and email authentication policies like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) SPF is a DNS TXT record listing which servers may send email for your domain, helping receivers reject forged messages and spam. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) DKIM cryptographically signs outgoing email so receivers can verify it truly came from your domain and was not altered in transit. DMARC DMARC builds on SPF and DKIM to tell receivers how to handle mail that fails authentication and sends you reports on abuse of your domain. DNS (Domain Name System) DNS is the internet phone book that translates human-readable domain names like example.com into the IP addresses computers use to connect.

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