What is email forwarding?

Email & Webmail | Updated 2026

Email forwarding automatically sends a copy of incoming messages from one address to another. You can use it to consolidate multiple addresses into one inbox, forward business email to your personal account, or create simple aliases that do not need their own mailbox.

01. How to Create a Forwarder

  1. Log into cPanel at my.ultrawebhosting.com
  2. Go to Email > Forwarders
  3. Click "Add Forwarder"
  4. Enter the address to forward (the local part before the @). Select your domain from the dropdown.
  5. Enter the destination - Where the forwarded email should go. This can be any email address.
  6. Click "Add Forwarder"

02. Forwarding With or Without a Mailbox

There are two approaches:

Mailbox + Forwarder

Create both an email account AND a forwarder for the same address. Messages are delivered to the local mailbox AND forwarded to the destination. Useful if you want a copy on the server (accessible via webmail) plus a copy in Gmail or another inbox. Uses disk space for the local copy.

03. Common Uses

  • Business aliases - Forward info@yourdomain.com, sales@yourdomain.com, and support@yourdomain.com all to your main inbox
  • Team distribution - Forward team@yourdomain.com to multiple team members' personal addresses
  • Gmail integration - Forward your hosting email to Gmail for reading, and configure Gmail to send from your domain address via SMTP. See setting up Google email for a more robust approach.
  • Catch-all alternative - Instead of a catch-all that accepts email for any address, create specific forwarders for the addresses you actually need
Forwarding to Gmail or Outlook.com

Large email providers use strict spam filtering. If forwarded messages are flagged as spam by the receiving provider, your server's IP may be penalized, which can affect all email from your domain. To avoid this, make sure your domain has proper SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. See Understanding Email Authentication.

04. Domain-Level Forwarding

You can also forward all email for an entire domain to another domain. In cPanel > Forwarders, look for "Add Domain Forwarder." This sends every message addressed to anything@yourdomain.com to the same address at the destination domain.

This is useful during domain migrations when you want all email for the old domain to arrive at the new one.

Need Help With Email Configuration?

For more on creating email accounts and aliases, see our email accounts guide or open a support ticket.

Open a Support Ticket

Quick Recap

  1. Set up in cPanel > Email > Forwarders
  2. Forwarder-only uses no disk space - Good for simple aliases
  3. Mailbox + forwarder keeps a local copy - Good if you also need webmail access
  4. Verify SPF/DKIM when forwarding to Gmail - Prevents deliverability issues
  5. Domain-level forwarding - Useful during domain migrations

Email forwarding made simple · Last updated March 2026 · Browse all Email articles

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