I’m running a business website at mystore.com and need customers to contact us at [email protected]. Since I prefer using Gmail’s interface, I want all incoming messages forwarded to my personal Gmail account [email protected] while being able to respond directly from Gmail.
I’m planning to use Mailgun with AWS Route 53 for this setup. Here’s what I need to accomplish:
Incoming emails:
[email protected] → [email protected] → Mailgun processing → [email protected] → [email protected]
When customers email [email protected], it should appear in my Gmail inbox.
Outgoing replies:
[email protected] → [email protected] → Mailgun processing → [email protected] → [email protected]
When I reply through Gmail to [email protected], Mailgun should change the sender from my Gmail address to [email protected] before delivering to the customer.
Is this bidirectional email forwarding possible with Mailgun? What configuration steps are needed to make this work properly?
I’ve run this exact setup for two years - works great once you get it right. Here’s what tripped me up: Mailgun doesn’t preserve the original sender info by default, so replies break. You need a webhook that grabs the original sender details before forwarding to Gmail. Skip this and your customers won’t get replies because the routing gets messed up. Test with different email providers too - corporate systems handle forwarded messages way differently than Hotmail or Yahoo. Gmail’s SMTP setup is easy, but double-check your Mailgun API keys have send AND receive permissions.
Yes, using Mailgun for this purpose is quite feasible, but there are specific configurations you’ll need to get right. For incoming emails, set up Mailgun’s Routes to direct messages sent to [email protected] straight to your Gmail account. This involves matching the recipient and adding a forward action. The real challenge comes with the reply functionality. You need to configure the ‘Send mail as’ feature in Gmail with Mailgun’s SMTP settings for your domain. When replying, ensure you select the [email protected] identity so responses are routed through Mailgun, which will adjust the From header correctly. Be mindful of the Reply-To headers as they can complicate the process if not set up correctly. Lastly, confirm that your Mailgun domain is verified and that your SPF/DKIM records are correctly added in Route 53; otherwise, your emails may end up in spam. This setup took me a couple of hours, mainly due to DNS propagation times.
mailgun’s routes work great for this, but gmail’s spam filters can be tricky - they sometimes flag forwarded emails. set up your mx records in route53 first, then configure mailgun routes with the forward action. for replies, you’ll need smtp auth in gmail under ‘send mail as’. heads up - it took me a few attempts to get it right, and dns changes can take a while to kick in.