Can Cloudflare break email DNS setups?

Myth: Using Cloudflare will break your email setup.

Reality: Cloudflare works perfectly for email DNS when configured correctly.

Key setting: Email-related records must use DNS-only mode (gray cloud), not proxied (orange cloud).

What to proxy (orange cloud):

Web traffic (A records for website)

What NOT to proxy (gray cloud):

MX records (cannot be proxied anyway)

A records for mail servers

TXT records (authentication)

Common mistake:

Proxying mail server hostname A record

Connections route through Cloudflare, which does not handle SMTP

Mail fails

Cloudflare itself does not cause problems. Incorrect proxy settings do.

Using the shipping service correctly requires understanding which routes it handles.