Help · Tracking · 10 minutes

Set up a custom tracking domain

Open and click tracking works out of the box on MailFleet's shared tracking domain. A custom tracking domain puts those links on your domain instead — better for deliverability and for how the links look. One DNS record and one field in MailFleet.

Before you start

You need access to the DNS settings of a domain you own (Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, your IT team…). Pick a subdomain to use for tracking — for example trk.yourdomain.com or link.yourdomain.com. Never use the bare domain or a hostname that already does something (your website, your mail).

The procedure

Save the hostname in MailFleet first. Open Settings → Tracking, type your hostname (e.g. trk.yourdomain.com) into Custom tracking domain, and click Save. The order matters: MailFleet's tracking servers only issue a security certificate for hostnames they've been told about, so the record below won't work until this is saved.

Add one DNS record at your DNS provider, on the domain you chose:

Type	`CNAME`
Host / Name	`trk` (or whatever subdomain you chose — some providers want the full `trk.yourdomain.com`)
Value / Target	`fltrk.com`
TTL	Default (or 3600)
Proxy	Off — on Cloudflare, set the cloud to grey (DNS only), not orange

It must be a CNAME, not an A record.

Wait for DNS to propagate — usually a few minutes, occasionally up to an hour.
Check it. Open https://trk.yourdomain.com in a browser. It should load a plain page with no certificate warning (the first visit creates the certificate automatically — give it a few seconds). If you see a warning, wait ten minutes and try again.
Turn tracking on where you want it. The domain by itself changes nothing. Tracking is per campaign: open the campaign's Settings → Delivery and switch on Track opens and/or Track clicks, with Send as plain text off (a plain-text email cannot carry an open pixel). Settings → Tracking also sets the default for new campaigns.

From then onEvery new email uses https://trk.yourdomain.com/… for its open pixel and tracked links. Emails already sent keep the links they went out with. Nothing else about sending changes.

Questions

The browser says "certificate error" or "internal error".: Almost always step 1 was skipped or the hostname was typed differently in MailFleet than in DNS. Check the two match exactly (no https://, no trailing slash), save again, then reload after a minute.
Can I use my main sending domain?: Use a subdomain of it (trk.), not the domain itself. Many teams use a separate domain for tracking so their primary domain's reputation stays independent — either works.
Does each mailbox need its own tracking domain?: No. One per workspace covers every sender. If you import mailboxes from a CSV, the optional custom_tracking_domain column sets a per-mailbox override that wins over the workspace setting.
Do I have to track opens and clicks?: No. Open tracking is a good default; click tracking rewrites your links, which some inbox providers dislike — keep it off unless you need the data.
Can I change or remove it later?: Yes — edit or clear the field in Settings → Tracking. Emails go back to the shared tracking domain from the next send.

← All help articles