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Send Without a Domain

Don’t have a custom domain ready or want to start testing Mailofly immediately? You can use Identities as an alternative to setting up a custom domain. An Identity allows you to connect an existing email account—such as a personal or Google Workspace Gmail account, or any custom SMTP server—and send emails directly through Mailofly’s API, SDKs, or dashboard without touching DNS settings.

When to Use an Identity vs. a Domain


Important Limitations of Identities

While identities provide an instant way to begin sending emails, they have specific technical limitations compared to verified custom domains:

Event Tracking Differences: No Downstream Event Detection

Unlike verified domains—which route through Mailofly’s Amazon SES infrastructure and capture real-time delivery notifications, bounce codes, and spam complaints—identities send directly through your connected email provider.
  • Supported Events:
    • Sent: Recorded when Mailofly hands the email off to your provider.
    • Opened: Tracked via Mailofly’s transparent 1x1 tracking pixel when the recipient loads images.
    • Clicked: Tracked when the recipient clicks any link wrapped with Mailofly’s click tracking redirect.
  • Unsupported Events (Cannot be detected):
    • Delivered: Mailbox providers (like Gmail or third-party SMTP servers) do not report remote server acceptance status (250 2.0.0 OK) back to Mailofly.
    • Bounced: If the recipient address does not exist or has a full inbox, the bounce message (NDR) is sent back directly to your Gmail/mailbox inbox, not to Mailofly. Mailofly cannot detect or mark the message as bounced.
    • Complained: If a recipient marks your email as spam in their email client, no Feedback Loop (FBL) webhook is returned to Mailofly.

Daily Sending Limits

Mailofly tracks sends per identity according to provider quotas:
  • Google (Gmail personal): 500 emails / day.
  • Google Workspace: Up to 2,000 emails / day (depending on your Google account tier).
  • Custom SMTP: Configurable in the dashboard (default 500 emails / day).
Recipients sent after reaching your daily quota are marked as deferred and held until your quota resets at 00:00 UTC.

Quick Setup Guide

1

Go to Identities

Navigate to Identities in your Mailofly dashboard.
2

Connect your account

Click Add Identity:
  • Google: Authenticate via 1-click Google OAuth to connect your @gmail.com or Google Workspace account.
  • Custom SMTP: Enter your SMTP host, port (587 or 465), username, and password.
3

Copy your Account Key

Each connected identity displays an Account Key (acc_...). You can copy this key to target the identity explicitly in API calls, or simply use the connected email address as your from address.

Sending Your First Email with an Identity

Once your identity is connected, you can send emails using either the connected email address in the from field or by specifying your account_key:

Next Steps

When you are ready to send at scale, receive incoming mail, and monitor full delivery statuses (including bounces and complaints), you can easily add a custom domain: