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Email that reaches the inbox

You can send email the moment you create a mailbox — but whether it lands in the inbox or the spam folder comes down to three small DNS records that prove your mail is really from you. Set them once and your delivery jumps.

SPF, DKIM and DMARC checks decide whether your email reaches the inbox or spam You send an email SPF who may send for you DKIM a tamper-proof signature DMARC what to do if a check fails 📥 Inbox 🗑️ Spam All three set → inbox. Missing → receivers get suspicious → spam.

What the three records do

  • SPF — a TXT record that lists which servers are allowed to send email for your domain. If a stranger’s server sends “from” you, SPF flags it.
  • DKIM — your server adds an invisible cryptographic signature to every message. The receiver checks it to confirm the mail wasn’t forged or altered. You publish the matching public key as a TXT record.
  • DMARC — a TXT record that ties SPF + DKIM together and tells receivers what to do if a message fails (ignore, quarantine, or reject), plus where to send reports.

Without them, mailbox providers (Gmail, Outlook) can’t tell your real mail from a forgery — so they play it safe and send it to spam.

Set them up in OrbixPanel

  1. Open Deliverability — it shows which of SPF/DKIM/DMARC are present and what’s missing.
  2. Add the missing ones as TXT records in DNS. If your mail and DNS are both on the panel, much of this is filled in for you (DKIM keys via the panel’s OpenDKIM).
  3. Give DNS a little time to propagate, then send a test email to a Gmail account and check it arrives in the inbox.

One more thing: reverse DNS (PTR)

Your server’s IP should have a PTR record matching your mail hostname (set at your VPS/cloud provider). Mismatched reverse DNS is another common reason mail gets flagged.

Quick test: send an email to a Gmail address, open it, and choose “Show original.” It literally prints SPF: PASS, DKIM: PASS, DMARC: PASS. Three greens = you’re landing in inboxes.

Related: Email accounts · next: Cron jobs explained →