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Get started with Mailnitio

Create your workspace, connect a support mailbox, invite your team and work through the getting-started checklist.

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Mailnitio Helpdesk reads the support mailbox your customers already write to. Mailnitio Autopilot sorts each email into a category, sends it to the right team and, where you allow it, acknowledges or answers it. Your team works the tickets in Helpdesk and replies from your own address.

This guide takes you from sign-up to your first emails arriving. Most teams finish it in under an hour.

Create your workspace

  1. Select Start free on the website, or go to Create your workspace, and enter your full name, work email and a password. Personal addresses such as Gmail are not accepted. You can also choose Continue with Google. If you picked a plan on the pricing page, the sign-up page shows it, with a Change plan link.
  2. Open the confirmation link we email you. If it is not there, check your spam or junk folder.
  3. Under Tell us about your workspace, enter the workspace name (usually your company or team), country, industry and timezone. Dates, SLAs and reports use this timezone. The industry helps us tailor categories and examples to your business.
  4. Under What brings you here?, choose Helpdesk, Reach or Both, then select Go to my workspace.

You can change the workspace name, country, industry and timezone later in Settings then General.

Connect a mailbox

Connect the shared mailbox customers already email, such as support@ or hello@. Only owners and admins can connect mailboxes.

  1. Go to Settings then Mailboxes and select Connect a mailbox.
  2. Choose where your mailboxes live: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or Gmail, or Other provider (IMAP/SMTP).
  3. Choose how to connect and enter your details. Each option is described below.
  4. Pick the mailboxes Mailnitio should read.

Every new mailbox starts in shadow mode: Mailnitio records what it would do and sends nothing to customers. You decide when to go live (see Autopilot replies).

Microsoft 365

  • Sign in once: your Microsoft 365 admin signs in and approves Mailnitio. There are no keys to manage. If it shows "Not available yet", use the next option.
  • Set it up on your end: your admin creates an app for Mailnitio in your own Microsoft Entra and pastes three values: the Directory (tenant) ID, the Application (client) ID and a client secret. It takes about 10 minutes, and the drawer shows each step. The secret is stored encrypted and never shown again.

Google Workspace or Gmail

  • Sign in with Google connects one Gmail or Google Workspace mailbox.
  • Authorise for your whole domain: a Google Workspace admin authorises Mailnitio once, then you pick any mailbox in the domain.
  • Use your own service account (advanced): upload the JSON key of a service account that has domain-wide delegation.

Other provider (IMAP/SMTP)

Use this for cPanel hosting, Zoho, Titan, Gmail, Yahoo or any mailbox with IMAP and SMTP access. It connects this one mailbox only, so no other mailbox or user on your domain is affected.

  1. Under Email provider, pick your provider. Presets are grouped into web hosting (including cPanel or web hosting (mail.yourdomain), Titan Email and others), Zoho Mail, and personal mail services such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail and iCloud Mail. A preset fills in the server details; for cPanel hosting they are filled in from your email address. Choose Other provider (enter the servers yourself) to type the IMAP and SMTP host, port and security.
  2. Enter the Email address. Leave Username empty if it is the same as the address.
  3. Enter the password. If the account uses two-factor authentication, create an app password for Mailnitio and use that instead. The drawer shows how to set up the provider you picked.
  4. Select Test and connect. Mailnitio checks the details before saving them.

Microsoft 365 and Outlook mailboxes cannot connect this way, because Microsoft has turned off password sign-in for IMAP. Use the Microsoft 365 option instead.

Mailnitio reads mail without marking it as read and never moves or deletes anything. New mail appears within about a minute.

After you connect

Each mailbox has its own card in Settings then Mailboxes:

  • Mode: Live, Shadow for all categories or Paused. Shadow overrides every category and only records decisions. Paused stops processing until you resume.
  • Default category: used when Autopilot cannot classify an email.
  • Also receives mail for: other addresses that deliver into this mailbox, such as aliases. Replies to them are sent from the same address.
  • Send acknowledgements: a master switch for this mailbox. When it is off, nothing is acknowledged from it.
  • Test connection checks that Mailnitio can still reach the mailbox.

Invite your team

  1. Go to Settings then Members and roles and select Invite member.
  2. Enter their email address and choose a role. See Roles and permissions for what each role can do.
  3. Select Send invitation. They get an email with a link to join. Invitations expire after 7 days.

Invitations that have not been accepted yet appear under Pending invitations. Only owners and admins can invite or remove members. Anyone you invite as an owner or admin must also set up two-factor authentication.

The getting-started checklist

Until your first mailbox is connected, the Helpdesk Home page shows a Get started card with your progress, for example "2 of 4 done". Each task has a Start link that takes you to the right page:

  • Create your workspace: done when you sign up.
  • Turn on two-factor authentication: opens Settings then Security.
  • Invite a colleague: done once someone else has joined the workspace.
  • Set up a support mailbox: opens Settings then Mailboxes.
  • Plan your first campaign: shown only if your workspace uses Reach.

Once a mailbox is connected, Home shows today's emails, tickets and Autopilot activity instead.

What to do next

  • Check the categories Autopilot sorts email into, and which team each one routes to, in Settings then Autopilot then Categories.
  • Watch decisions arrive in the Inbox log while the mailbox is in shadow mode. Each email shows its category, confidence and where it would go. See How auto-routing works.
  • Owners and admins can send test emails through the same pipeline with Settings then Email simulator.
  • When you are happy with the decisions, set categories live one at a time. See Autopilot replies.

Still stuck? Contact us and tell us what you are trying to do. We reply within one working day.