Web Hosting Services like pair.com used to provide free email hosting since 1997 - along with their other services - but in 2025 they moved to their new Pair Platinum Mailbox, which means mailboxes are no longer free at pair.com

Prices are $2.99/month for 1 mailbox, discounts apply when you use more mailboxes. For example, have 10 mailboxes would cost $25.00/month.

I have one high-frequency mailbox and several low-frequency ones - like info@ or hello@. One solution could be to create aliases and routh all the mails to one mailbox.

Another option is to use Custom Domains and iCloud+. iCloud+ allow up to 5 custom domains, with up to 3 email addresses per domain.

Instructions: iCloud

1. Go to your iCloud+ Features page.
2. Click Custom Email Domain → Add a domain you own.
3. iCloud will show instructions and private values to update the custom DNS record of your domain name registrar.

Instructions: pair.com

1. In the pair.com ACC, navigate to domains → your domain → Custom DNS Records.
2. Add the new DNS Entries:

MX

Type: MX
Host: @
Value: mx01.mail.icloud.com.
Priority: 10

What "A" Record is this MX for? → Host
What preference should this MX have? → Priority
What is the full host name of the mailserver? → Value

TXT

Type: TXT
Host: @
Value: apple-domain=12345

Hostname: → Host
Text Record: → Value

SPF

SPF is set as type TXT

Type: TXT
Host: @
Value: "v=spf1 include:icloud.com ~all"

Add the values string as is creates an error on the pair.com side. Remove the quotation marks.

DKIM

SPF is set as type CNAME

Type: CNAME
Host: sig1._domainkey
Value: sig1.dkim.your.domain.at.icloudmailadmin.com.

Hostname: → Host
Address: → Value

Finish

It can take up to 72 hours to propage the DNS settings. Keep checking the iCloud settings, your domain will show up there once it's done.

pair.com's SPF and DKIM can remain inactive.

• Use Custom Email Domain with iCloud Mail
• Set up an existing domain with iCloud Mail

This is mainly used for troubleshooting POP3 connections, to check if the connection/server/password actually works. Also possible to read emails that way, but very ~1995ish. If you really, really want to (re-) experience that experience, check out alpine, the sucessor of pine.

Start connection with OpenSSL:

openssl s_client -connect yourusername.yourmailserver:995

This is non-quiet, resulting in a lot of talkback, most importantly:

    ...
    Start Time: 1693034257
    Timeout   : 7200 (sec)
    Verify return code: 0 (ok)
    Extended master secret: no
    Max Early Data: 0
---
read R BLOCK
+OK Dovecot ready.

+OK Dovecot ready. tells use the mail programme - in this case Dovecot - is ready, waiting for user & password input.

user youremailaddress
+OK
pass yourpassword
+OK Logged in.

The stat command tells you how many message, and how large they are.

stat
+OK 2 9394

Ok, two message, totalling 9394 bytes. To read it, use the retrive command, specifiying the number of the message you want to read.

retr 1

This will display the whole message, including any and all headers.