Is it bad practice to send email from a domain without an MX record?
Summary
What email marketers say9Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Reddit explains that sending email without MX records is generally a bad idea. It can negatively impact deliverability as many email providers use MX records as a trust signal.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares they don't recommend sending from a 5322 domain that doesn't have MX, but have customers who do. He is sure it's not ideal, but haven't seen any outsized negative impact.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares it is not mandatory for sending an email from the domain, BUT they don't see how you can honor and manage the role addresses such as abuse@ or postmaster@ if you don't have a MX record properly set for it. He would really prefer to see a MX record there.
Email marketer from SocketLabs shares the importance of using MX records, it is crucial to have these set up to enable proper mail flow, if it isn't set up your email deliverability will be harmed.
Email marketer from DNS Made Easy explains that sending mail from domains without MX records is not recommended, and will cause you deliverability issues. They also note this can be used by malicious parties.
Email marketer from StackOverflow explains that while technically you *can* send from a domain with no MX record, it is a terrible idea. Many spam filters will automatically flag your mail as spam, because it's a common tactic for spammers. It also means that bounce messages can't be processed effectively.
Email marketer from Mailhardener shares that MX records need to be present to receive email, if they aren't present then mail servers will likely refuse to deliver email to the specific domain.
Email marketer from Webmaster World shares that not having an MX record can lead to deliverability issues. Many ISPs use the absence of an MX record as a spam indicator. Also it indicates to some degree that the domain is just for spam so should be avoided.
Email marketer from EmailVendorSelection shares that while sending email from a domain without MX records is possible, it's highly discouraged. It affects deliverability, sender reputation, and makes your email look suspicious.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks states the only reason folks will stop doing bad things is that their spam doesn’t get through and ESPs just don’t do enough to make their customers actually be good netizens. “We don’t allow you to send mail without a valid MX for both the 5321 and the 5322 from address” is a perfectly valid policy for an ESP to have.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that sending email from a domain without a valid MX record is a bad practice. They highlight that this practice can lead to deliverability issues and damage the sender's reputation, as many mail servers use MX records as a trust signal.
Expert from Email Geeks explains it’s bad practice to send mail with no active MX for the 5321 and the 5322 from domain, because some places will block or downgrade reputation for that. There is no good reason to do it and makes the sender look either incompetent or malicious.
Expert from Word to the Wise discusses how email authentication relies heavily on DNS records, including MX records, to establish domain reputation and ensure legitimate email delivery. Sending without a properly configured MX record can harm your reputation.
What the documentation says3Technical articles
Documentation from Google explains that MX records are required for receiving emails. Without MX records, others can't send emails to your domain. While technically related to *receiving* email, this highlights the expectation that a valid email domain *should* have MX records.
Documentation from RFC Editor explains that if a domain has no MX records, the address is resolved as if it had an MX record pointing to that host with a preference of 0, but this is not recommended and real hosts should have MX records.
Documentation from Microsoft explains that MX records are required to receive emails. If you do not have any MX records, people will not be able to send you email, and it will not get delivered.