A catch-all address receives mail sent to any address at your domain — including addresses that were never created — instead of bouncing it.
What people use it for
With a catch-all on yourdomain.com, mail to anything@yourdomain.com reaches you. That lets you invent a new address on the spot for every shop you sign up with, and it guarantees that a typo in your address still arrives.
Why it is less attractive than it sounds
- Spam. Spammers guess addresses at scale —
info@,admin@,sales@, random strings. A normal domain bounces the guesses; a catch-all accepts every one of them. - You cannot turn one address off. If the address you gave a shop leaks, a catch-all keeps accepting it. The only lever is a filter.
- Deliverability signals. Some address-verification services flag catch-all domains, because they cannot tell a real mailbox from a guess.
The usual alternative: aliases
An email alias gives the same one-address-per-signup habit without accepting everything: each address exists because you created it, and each can be switched off on its own.
Catch-all at Mailotte
Mailotte custom domains are not catch-all. Connecting your domain routes one address on it — your own — and mail to other addresses at that domain is not accepted. For a separate address per signup, Mailotte uses aliases instead, which you can switch off individually.
Questions
Is a catch-all address bad?
Not bad, but costly: it accepts every guessed address, so it collects more spam, and it gives you no way to shut off a single leaked address.
Does Mailotte support catch-all addresses?
No. A connected custom domain routes one address, and mail to other addresses at the domain is not accepted. Aliases give you a separate address per signup instead, and each can be disabled on its own.
What is the difference between a catch-all and an alias?
A catch-all accepts any address at a domain automatically. An alias is one specific address you created on purpose, which you can switch off without affecting anything else.
Related terms
- Email alias — Email alias vs forwarder
- MX record — Mail Exchanger record
- SPF — Sender Policy Framework
- All terms