Direct Mail is a transactional email sending service — it sends outbound emails at scale but does not provide inbox or mailbox services. An enterprise mailbox (such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365) is a hosted inbox service for sending and receiving business communications. These two services serve different purposes and are designed to coexist, not replace each other.
|
Direct Mail |
Enterprise mailbox |
|
|
Purpose |
Send transactional and bulk emails programmatically |
Send and receive business emails |
|
Receives incoming email |
No — inbound email is discarded |
Yes |
|
Provides an inbox |
No |
Yes |
|
Typical use |
Order confirmations, alerts, notifications |
Internal and external business communication |
Do I need to purchase an enterprise mailbox to use Direct Mail?
Can I use my enterprise mailbox domain name directly as an email domain in Direct Mail?
Can I use a Direct Mail sender address as an enterprise mailbox?
Do I need to purchase an enterprise mailbox to use Direct Mail?
No. Direct Mail only requires a valid domain name to get started.
Can I use my enterprise mailbox domain name directly as an email domain in Direct Mail?
No. Do not use your enterprise mailbox domain as an email domain in Direct Mail.
Direct Mail requires MX record configuration to verify your domain. Pointing your enterprise mailbox domain's MX records to Direct Mail's servers creates a conflict: both your enterprise mailbox and Direct Mail will receive incoming email for the same domain. Direct Mail discards all inbound email and does not store bounces, so any messages routed to Direct Mail's MX server are permanently lost. Your enterprise mailbox may also stop receiving email reliably.
Instead, create a subdomain of your enterprise mailbox domain and use that as your email domain in Direct Mail. For example, if your enterprise mailbox uses yourcompany.com, add mail.yourcompany.com to Direct Mail. The subdomain has its own independent MX records and does not affect your existing email setup.
Can I use a Direct Mail sender address as an enterprise mailbox?
No. Direct Mail does not provide mailbox services. Sender addresses in Direct Mail are for outbound sending only — they cannot receive email.