DNS
Can I move my website without moving email?
Short answer
Yes. You can point the website to a new host while keeping email with its current provider. Preserve the mail records and keep the existing email service active.
What changes the answer
- Whether you change nameservers or only website records
- The hostname your MX records use
- Where your website sends outgoing mail
Website hosting and email can stay separate
Moving a website does not require moving its mailboxes. Your domain can send web traffic to one company and email to another. The details depend on which DNS records you change.
If you keep the same DNS service, you may only need to update the website's A, AAAA or CNAME records. Leave the mail provider's records in place. Before making a change, save the current DNS zone so you have a clear record of what worked.
Check where the mail records lead
MX records identify the servers that accept incoming email. Follow their target hostnames as well as checking the MX entries themselves. If an MX record points to your bare domain, changing that domain's address can also change where mail is delivered. A separate mail hostname may need its own unchanged address record.
Preserve the provider's SPF, DKIM and DMARC records too. They help receiving systems assess messages sent from your domain; moving the homepage does not replace them.
Changing nameservers needs more care
New nameservers make a different DNS zone authoritative. Copy the required website, mail and verification records before switching. An empty zone at the new provider will not inherit the records from the old one.
Keep the old email subscription active. DNS changes do not transfer stored messages, passwords, aliases or forwarding rules, and cancelling a hosting bundle may cancel mailboxes included in that bundle.
Check forms as well as inboxes
After the move, test incoming and outgoing email using an address outside your domain. Then submit a website contact form. The form may depend on the old server's mail setup even when normal mailbox access works. Configure it to use your mail provider's supported sending method, and keep its credentials on the server.