Free Business Email for Your Bluehost Domain

Bluehost lists Professional Email and Google Workspace as paid services, and says cPanel Email (mailboxes on the hosting server) may be included with eligible hosting plans. New Shared, WordPress and eCommerce plans come with a free Professional Email trial: one mailbox for one month, renewing monthly unless you turn off auto-renewal in the Renewal Center. It is not available with domain-only purchases.

Next, check who runs the DNS. In the Bluehost Portal, Domains, then the Nameservers tab shows it.

Just bought the domain? I bought a domain, how do I get email on it? covers the first hour.

Create the mailboxes before you touch DNS. If you already use Bluehost cPanel mailboxes, copy the mail you want to keep: Bluehost says old messages stay there, but new mail stops arriving once MX points elsewhere. The Mailbux migration tool copies mail from any IMAP provider into a paid Mailbux plan. The Free plan doesn't include IMAP, so upgrade first, then run the migration.

On Bluehost nameservers, the default MX record is your own domain name with priority 0, so mail is handled by the hosting server. A lower number wins, so if you add my.mailbux.com at 10 and leave that record, mail keeps going to Bluehost. You can edit the existing record instead of adding a new one.

SPF lists who may send mail for your domain, and a domain should have only one SPF record. Bluehost's cPanel creates one for local mail that starts v=spf1 +a +mx, and Professional Email adds v=spf1 include:spf.titan.email ~all. In the DNS tab, look under TXT for a value that starts with v=spf1.

• No other service sends as your domain: edit that record and replace the value with v=spf1 include:msg25.com ~all.
• Your website or another tool also sends mail as your domain (a WordPress contact form on the Bluehost server, a newsletter tool): keep its parts and add ours to the same line, for example v=spf1 +a include:msg25.com include:_spf.newslettertool.example ~all.
• No SPF record yet: add one with the steps below.

With a Bluehost hosting plan, the server keeps its own Email Routing setting for the domain. Left on Local Mail Exchanger, mail sent from the server itself, such as WordPress contact form messages to you@yourdomain.com, lands in the old cPanel mailbox instead of Mailbux. Bluehost links errors like "Temporary Local Problem" to a wrong routing setting.

1. In the Bluehost Portal, click Hosting, then My Plans.
2. Click the cPanel Email button, then Email Routing, then Continue.
3. Select your domain from the drop-down menu.
4. Choose Remote Mail Exchanger and click Change.

Bluehost advises against Automatically Detect Configuration, so pick Remote yourself. The setting matters even when the domain uses other nameservers.

DKIM is optional and improves deliverability. In Mailbux open Domains, then Open DNS setup, copy the DKIM TXT record and add it in the DNS tab with + Add record, type TXT and the Host Record Mailbux shows. An old Professional Email DKIM record (for example titan1._domainkey) can go once that mailbox is unused.

DMARC is optional too: a TXT record with Host Record _dmarc. Start with a monitoring policy such as v=DMARC1; p=none and tighten it only after SPF and DKIM pass.

• The priority 0 record. The default MX points to your own domain at priority 0, which beats every other number. Edit or delete it; don't just add a new MX.
• Mixed providers. Bluehost warns that only one email provider's MX records should be active at a time. Leftover Titan (mx1 and mx2.titan.email) or Google rows split your mail.
• Import DNS zone. The DNS tab's Actions menu can import a zone file. Use Export DNS zone first as a backup, and avoid importing an old file, which can bring the old MX back.
• Website records. Leave the A and CNAME records that run your site alone. Email without changing nameservers explains why mail records don't affect the site.

1. Bluehost says record changes can take up to 8 hours to show everywhere (nameserver changes 24 to 48). Then run nslookup -type=MX yourdomain.com and nslookup -type=TXT yourdomain.com, or use an online DNS lookup. You should see only my.mailbux.com for MX and one v=spf1 line that includes msg25.com.
2. In Mailbux, Domains, then Open DNS setup checks the records for you; choose Re-check now after editing.
3. Send a test from a personal address outside your domain to your new mailbox, and reply from Mailbux webmail. In the reply's headers you should see spf=pass.
4. If the site runs on Bluehost, submit your own contact form. The notification should arrive in Mailbux, not in the old cPanel mailbox. If it doesn't, recheck Email Routing.

Sources: Bluehost knowledge base articles "How to Edit MX Records" (bluehost.com/help/article/dns-management-how-to-modify-mx-records), "Bluehost DNS Records for Email Services", "Guide to the DNS Tab in the Bluehost Portal" (bluehost.com/help/article/dm-guide-to-the-dns-tab-in-the-account-manager), "How to Manage DNS Records in cPanel" (bluehost.com/help/article/dns-management-add-edit-or-delete-dns-entries), "How to Change Your Bluehost Nameservers" (bluehost.com/help/article/custom-nameservers) and "How to Sign Up for a Free Professional Email Trial" (bluehost.com/help/article/free-email-trial), checked 14 Nov 2026.

The Mailbux Free plan is free forever: 7 GB of shared storage, 1 domain, webmail, the Mailbux apps and SMTP sending, and outgoing mail carries a small "Sent via Mailbux" footer. The Free plan includes up to 7 business mailboxes.

Standard IMAP and POP3 access for clients like Outlook or Apple Mail is available on paid plans, so on Free you read and send mail in Mailbux webmail and the Mailbux apps. Hosting a site somewhere else too? Our Hostinger email setup works the same way. For the full picture, read our guide to free business email accounts, and compare plans on the pricing page.