Buy and Manage Hover Email Accounts

Hover offers add-on, domain-based email services for any domain registered with Hover. A professional email address that matches your domain name helps you look more credible to customers and keeps your business communications consistent. This article covers choosing an email service, buying and setting up your mailbox, managing your account day to day, and troubleshooting common setup issues.

Choosing an email service

Hover offers three email services so you can pick what best fits your needs.

The small and big mailboxes both include access to Hover's private, ad-free webmail client, the ability to use IMAP and POP for third-party mail client setup, mail forwarding, a vacation auto-responder, and built-in anti-virus and spam protection.

Email addresses created under the mail forward service require an existing, active email address to work — all mail sent to the forward address is redirected there. Because a mail forward isn't a traditional mailbox, you can't send or reply directly from it; any reply will appear to come from the forwarded-to address instead.

Before you begin

• A domain registered with Hover: email add-ons are only available for domains registered with Hover.
• A Hover account: you'll sign in to the Hover control panel to buy, create, and manage mailboxes.
• Your mailbox type decided: choose a mail forward, small mailbox, or big mailbox using the comparison above.

Buy a mailbox during domain registration

If you're registering a new domain, you can add an email service directly at checkout.

1. Once you've added the domain to your shopping cart and are ready to check out, select the + next to the email service you'd like to add, then select Secure checkout.
2. If you already have a Hover account, select Use an existing account and sign in with your chosen two-factor authentication (2FA) method. If you don't have an account yet, fill out the registration information and select Continue.
3. Fill out the registration information for the domain and email service. Check the box confirming you've read and agree to the terms of service, then select Continue.
4. Confirm your billing information is correct (select Edit to update it if not). Check the box confirming you've read and agree to the terms of service, then select Submit order.

Buy a mailbox after you've already registered your domain

You can add a mailbox to an existing domain at any time.

Note: Hover always syncs a mailbox's expiry date with the domain it's associated with, so the cost is automatically pro-rated for you at checkout.

1. Sign in to your Hover control panel using your chosen 2FA method.
2. Select Emails from the navigation bar, then select the + button.
3. Select the mailbox type from the dropdown menu and the number of mailboxes, then select Add to cart.
4. Confirm the price reflects the pro-rated amount based on your domain's expiry date, then select Secure checkout. You can also adjust the number of mailboxes here using the - or + buttons.
5. Confirm your account information is correct (select Edit to update it if not). Check the box confirming you've read and agree to the terms of service, then select Submit order.
6. Select Manage my domain to continue creating your email address.

Create your email address

Once you've purchased a mailbox, you need to create the email address associated with it.

1. Select Emails from the navigation bar.
2. Select the green link that indicates the mailbox type you've purchased.
3. If you're creating a mail forward, enter your desired forward name and the address you want mail forwarded to, then select Create forward. You can change the forward name at any time.
4. If you're creating a small or big mailbox, enter your desired mailbox name and password, then select Create mailbox. You can optionally enable forwarding to also send copies of messages to an existing email address, and you can change the mailbox name at any time.

Note: Passwords must be at least 10 characters long and include at least one number, one special symbol, and one capital letter. We recommend using a different password than your Hover account login. Allowed characters are: a–z, 0–9, and !@$^,.~|=-+_{}#.

Manage your email

Once your mailbox and email address are set up, you're ready to start using and managing them.

To send and receive email in a browser, go to Hover's webmail platform. You can also use Hover's mail servers to set up your account in a third-party mail client — see Mail Server Settings for Email Clients.

You can manage most aspects of your mailbox from the Hover control panel.

1. Sign in to your Hover control panel.
2. Select Emails from the navigation menu, then select Edit. From here you can update your email password (see Updating Your Email Password), edit the mailbox name, and enable or disable forwarding.

Delete your email address

Deleting your email address does not remove the mailbox — the mailbox remains available for use unless it's removed separately.

1. Select Emails from the navigation bar.
2. Select the green X next to the email address to delete it.
3. Select Delete to confirm.

Once deleted, the email address is removed but the mailbox remains available.

Remove a mailbox entirely

There are two ways to fully remove a mailbox you no longer want: disable auto-renew so it doesn't renew, or manually renew your domain and remove the mailbox from the cart.

Warning: If you want to keep your email messages, back up the mailbox content using a mail client before deletion — there's no guarantee messages can be restored once a mailbox is deleted.

Disable mailbox auto-renewal

1. Select Emails from the navigation bar.
2. Select the auto-renewal icon next to the mailbox.
3. Select Proceed to confirm.

The mailbox's auto-renew icon will turn grey to show it's disabled.

Remove a mailbox during manual domain renewal

1. Go to the domain's overview page and select Renew.
2. Select the - button to remove the unused mailbox from the domain renewal cart, then select Secure checkout.
3. Complete checkout to renew the domain without the mailbox. Select Edit if changes are needed. Check the box confirming you've read and agree to the terms of service, then select Submit order.

Troubleshoot common email issues

If your email doesn't work right after you've created it, the cause is usually one of the two issues below.

Confirm you're using Hover's nameservers

Your domain's nameservers determine which company manages your DNS records. If your nameservers aren't set to Hover's (ns1.hover.com and ns2.hover.com), another company is likely managing your DNS, and you'll need to add Hover's MX record wherever your DNS is managed.

1. Sign in to your Hover control panel using your chosen 2FA method.
2. On the domain's overview page, scroll to the Nameservers section and confirm the nameservers are set to the Hover defaults: ns1.hover.com and ns2.hover.com.
3. If your nameservers point elsewhere, add the following MX record wherever your DNS is managed:

Confirm you're using Hover's MX record

A mail exchange (MX) record tells other mail servers where to deliver incoming mail for your domain. Hover adds this record automatically when you register a new domain with us. If you transferred in a domain, registered an aftermarket domain, or use a third-party DNS management service, your MX record may not be set correctly.

Note: You can only have one mail provider — and therefore one MX record — per domain. If you see an MX record other than Hover's, make sure you don't also have email service active with another provider; you may need to choose between the two.

1. Sign in to your Hover control panel using your chosen 2FA method.
2. Select Domains from the navigation bar, select the domain in question, then select the DNS tab.
3. Confirm the following record appears in your DNS record list:

1. If the Hover MX record is missing or incorrect, select Add a record and enter:

Former VistaPrint customers are on Hover's Enhanced Email cluster B server and should use this record instead:

Next steps

• Set up your email in a mail client: see Mail Server Settings for Email Clients for IMAP/POP server settings and setup links.
• Update your mailbox password: see Updating Your Email Password.
• Learn about the Forward Opt-In feature: if you plan to set up mail forwarding, see Forward Opt-In Feature for Hover Email.

Questions? Contact Hover Support.