Forwarders let you route mail without creating a full mailbox. They’re perfect for role addresses like info@ or support@ that should land in someone’s existing inbox, and for pointing several addresses at one person. Here’s how to set them up.
Forwarding one address to another
- In cPanel, open Forwarders under the Email section.
- Click Add Forwarder.
- Enter the address to forward from (e.g.
info) and pick the domain. - Choose Forward to email address and type the destination.
- Click Add Forwarder.
From now on, any mail to that address arrives in the destination inbox. No extra mailbox, no extra password, no extra disk usage.
Forwarder vs mailbox: which do you need?
Use a forwarder when you just want mail to arrive somewhere you already check. Use a full mailbox when you need to send from that address, keep a separate archive, or give someone their own login. You can even do both — create the mailbox and add a forwarder so a copy lands elsewhere too.
Fanning out to a whole team
Want sales@ to reach three people? Create three forwarders, all from sales, each pointing to a different team member. Every incoming message copies to all three. This is the simplest form of a shared address, though for busy queues a proper helpdesk is worth considering.
Domain-wide catch-all
Under Forwarders you’ll also see Default Address. This catches mail sent to any address that doesn’t exist on your domain. Handy in theory, but a catch-all attracts a lot of spam, so most people set it to Discard rather than forwarding everything.
A word on forwarded mail and spam
When you forward mail to Gmail or Outlook, the forwarded message still carries the original sender’s details, which can occasionally trip spam filters at the destination. If forwarded mail lands in spam, adding the forwarding domain to the destination’s safe-senders list usually fixes it.
Forwarders are one of the most underused features in cPanel. Set them up thoughtfully and you can run a tidy set of role addresses without managing a dozen separate inboxes.
