What is a domain? | Reloop Docs

A domain is the human-readable name for your brand on the internet — for example acme.com or shop.acme.com.

Domain vs website vs email

Concept	Example	Meaning
Domain	`acme.com`	The name you registered
Website	`https://acme.com`	Pages hosted somewhere (Vercel, Netlify, WordPress, …)
Email address	`hello@acme.com`	Mail identity that uses the domain after the `@`

Reloop is email infrastructure, not a website host. Your site can stay on Vercel, Netlify, WordPress, or anywhere else — Reloop only needs permission (via DNS) to authenticate and deliver mail for that domain.

Who “owns” a domain?

Ownership is recorded at a registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, NameSilo, Cloudflare Registrar, Squarespace, etc.). You renew it yearly (or longer). Owning the domain means you can:

Change nameservers (who answers DNS questions)
Create DNS records (or point NS to another DNS host that does)
Prove control to services like Reloop

Root domain vs subdomain

Root (apex): acme.com
Subdomain: mail.acme.com, news.acme.com, send.acme.com

You can connect the root, a subdomain, or both to Reloop.

Pros of a subdomain

Existing MX on the root stays untouched
Easier SPF story if the root already has a long SPF
Separate sending reputation from corporate mail
Clearer mental model: “product mail lives on mail.”

From addresses look like hello@mail.acme.com unless you also configure other identities — plan branding accordingly.

Pros of the root domain

Addresses look like hello@acme.com
Fewer labels to manage
Fine when Reloop is the primary mail platform for that domain

What Reloop needs from you

A domain (or subdomain) you control
Ability to publish DNS records at the host that serves that domain’s nameservers
Verification in the Reloop dashboard