Distribution Groups
A distribution group is one address at your domain that fans out to several people, so mail to an address like team@ or billing@ reaches everyone on the list without anybody having to remember who is on it.
Distribution groups sit between an alias, which lands in one inbox, and a shared inbox, which the team works together. Use a group when you want an address that broadcasts: everyone on the list gets their own copy in their own mailbox, and each person deals with it independently.
When to Use a Group
The Email console has four fan-out features and they solve different problems. Picking the wrong one is the most common cause of "the address works but the wrong people are getting mail".
| Use | When |
|---|---|
| Distribution group | A fixed set of internal people should each get a copy, for example everyone@ or directors@ |
| Shared inbox | The team works one queue together and needs shared read state |
| Forwarder | You need to route an address to one or two destinations, including external ones |
| Mailing list | People need to subscribe and unsubscribe themselves |
Distribution groups deliver to mailboxes on your own domains and to addresses anywhere else. A member outside your account is marked with an external badge, which is a statement of fact rather than a warning: mail to the group is passed on to them like any other member. So a personal address, an accountant, or a colleague at another company can all be members.
There is one address we will not add: one that belongs to another Kapsule customer. Mail to such an address is delivered straight into their mailbox, so accepting it would be a way to push mail into somebody else's inbox. Ask that person to forward their mail to an address you control, and add that instead.
Creating a Group
Group creation is a three-step wizard: Domain, Address, then Create.
- Sign in to KPanel and click Email in the left sidebar.
- Open the Distribution groups tab.
- Click the create button to start the wizard.
Step 1: Domain
Pick the domain the group address will live at. The list contains the domains on your account. If it is empty you will see "No domains on this account yet" and a Go to domains link: register or transfer a domain first.
You also need at least one mailbox on that domain. If you have none, the group creation is refused with "You don't have any mailboxes on that domain."
Step 2: Address
Type the part before the @, for example team. Three live checks run as you type and each has to go green:
- Only letters, numbers, and
._%+-characters - Between 1 and 64 characters
- Not already used by one of your groups
That last check compares against your existing groups only. It does not check whether a mailbox, alias or forwarder already uses the same address. If mail behaves oddly after creating a group, check the Mailboxes and Forwarders tabs for a clash on the same address.
Step 3: Create
Review the address and click Create group.
Managing Members
Each group card shows a status pill, the address, and a member count. Expand the card to see the member list and the add row.
To add a member, type their address into the field (the placeholder shows the two shapes, member@yourdomain.com or external@gmail.com) and click Add member. Members outside your account get an external badge in the list. They receive group mail exactly as internal members do.
To remove someone, use the remove control on their row.
Changes take effect as soon as they are saved. There is no publish step and no propagation delay to wait out on our side.
Roles and Permissions
Creating a group, deleting one, and adding or removing members all require the Owner or Admin role on the account. Members of the account with lower roles can see the groups but the controls are locked, with a tooltip naming the permission required.
Being a member of a distribution group grants no permissions at all. It just means mail sent to the group address is delivered to that mailbox.
Plan Entitlements
Distribution groups are part of the Email Team and Email Business plans. Email Solo, which is a single-mailbox plan, does not include them. The panel returns the entitlement for your plan alongside the group list, so if you are on a plan without groups and the create wizard is unavailable, that is why. See Upgrading Your Plan to move up.
Groups are cheap to create and free to change, so resist the temptation to build one giant everyone@ and route everything through it. Small, specific groups (accounts@, dispatch@, oncall@) are much easier to keep accurate, and they stop people tuning out mail that is usually not for them.
Deleting a Group
Expand the group card and use Delete group. The confirmation reads "Delete group {address} and all its members?" and the action removes the group and its member records.
After deletion, mail sent to the address is no longer fanned out. Set up a forwarder on the same address if people are likely to keep writing to it, or leave it to bounce so senders learn to use the new address.
Troubleshooting
A member is not receiving group mail and their address is external. External members are delivered to, so this is an ordinary deliverability question rather than a limitation. Check their spam folder first. Mail to the group is passed on with the envelope sender set to the group address, so bounces come back to the group rather than to whoever wrote the message: if their provider is rejecting it, that rejection lands at the group address.
Mail to the group only reaches some members. Expand the group and confirm the member list is what you expect, then check that each member's mailbox is Active on the Mailboxes tab. A mailbox that is Suspended, Paused or over quota will not accept new mail. See My Mailbox Is Full.
The address I want is rejected. The three live checks tell you which rule you broke. The most common cause is a capital letter or a space: addresses are lowercase and cannot contain spaces.
Group mail is landing in members' spam folders. Fan-out mail is authenticated the same way as any other mail at your domain, so this is a domain authentication issue. Run the Deliverability check on any mailbox at that domain and read Why Are My Emails Going to Spam?.
Replies from members go to the original sender, not the group. That is normal fan-out behaviour: each member received a copy addressed to them, so Reply goes to the sender and Reply All includes the group address. If you want every reply to stay visible to the whole team, use a shared inbox instead.
I need the group address to also keep a copy. Create a mailbox on the address and add that mailbox as a member of a differently named group, or use a shared inbox, which stores the mail by design.
Related reading: Shared Inboxes, Mailing Lists, Email Forwarding, and Email Sending Limits.