Business email address: how to set one up on your own domain, what it costs, and how to keep it out of spam

TL;DR: A business email address uses your own domain, such as hello@yourbusiness.co.uk, instead of a free Gmail or Hotmail address. You need a domain, an email provider and a few DNS records. Google Workspace Business Starter costs £5.90 per user a month on a one-year plan, plus VAT, and Zoho Mail has a free plan for up to 5 users. Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC so your email is trusted and harder to fake.

Key takeaways

• A business email address uses your own domain, such as hello@yourbusiness.co.uk, rather than a free Gmail, Outlook or Hotmail address.
• You need three things: a domain name, an email provider and a few DNS records that point your domain’s email to that provider.
• Google Workspace Business Starter costs £5.90 per user a month on a one-year plan, plus VAT. Zoho Mail’s free plan covers up to 5 users on one domain.
• Gmail asks everyone who sends to its users to set up SPF or DKIM, and bulk senders to add DMARC too.
• Phishing hit 38% of UK businesses in the past year, and 12% saw someone impersonating their organisation in emails or online, according to the government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey.
• Keep the domain and the email account in the business’s name, so the address stays with the business when people come and go.

When a customer gets a quote from yourbusiness@gmail.com and another from hello@yourbusiness.co.uk, the second one looks like a real company before they read a word. A business email address is one of the cheapest upgrades a small business can make, and it does more than look professional: it gives you control of the address, makes your email harder to fake and helps it land in the inbox.

This guide covers what a business email address is, what you need, what it costs in the UK, how to set one up in six steps, and the three records, SPF, DKIM and DMARC, that keep your email out of spam folders.

What is a business email address?

A business email address is an email address on your own domain name, such as hello@yourbusiness.co.uk or jo@yourbusiness.com, instead of an address at a free service such as Gmail or Hotmail. It matches your website, tells people at a glance who the email is from, and belongs to the business rather than to one person.

The part after the @ is your domain, the same name as your website. The part before it can be a person, such as jo@, or a role, such as hello@, bookings@ or accounts@. If you change email provider later, you keep the same address, because the domain is yours.

Why use a business email address instead of Gmail?

A business email address looks more trustworthy, keeps your brand consistent, and stays with the business when staff leave. It also lets you protect your name: with the right records in place, it is much harder for someone to send email pretending to be you, and your genuine emails are more likely to reach the inbox.

Fake emails are a real problem for UK businesses. The government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/2026 found that phishing attacks were by far the most common breach or attack, experienced by 38% of businesses in the past 12 months. Next came people impersonating organisations in emails or online, at 12% of businesses.

A free address cannot be protected in the same way, because you do not control the domain. A professional email address on your own domain can, and the steps below show how.

Ownership matters too. If the business runs on one person’s free account, years of customer emails can leave with that person. With your own domain you add and remove people as the team changes, and the address customers know carries on.

What do you need for a business email address?

You need three things: a domain name, such as yourbusiness.co.uk, an email provider that hosts your mailboxes, and access to your domain’s DNS settings, where you add the records that send email for your domain to that provider. Most small businesses already have the domain, because it came with their website.

If you do not have a domain yet, pick one that matches your business name and is easy to spell out over the phone. Register it in the business’s name, with an account the business controls, and set it to renew automatically. Our guide to how much a website costs in the UK covers what domains and hosting usually cost.

Should your email domain be .co.uk or .com?

Either works. Use the domain your website already uses, so your email and your site match. If both versions are available, it is worth registering both and pointing the spare one at your main site, so nobody else can take it. What matters more is that the name is short, easy to spell and clearly yours.

How much does a business email address cost in the UK?

A business email address can cost nothing or a few pounds a month per person. Google Workspace Business Starter is £5.90 per user a month on a one-year plan, plus VAT. Zoho Mail has a free plan for up to 5 users on one domain. Many web hosts include basic email with their hosting plans.

Google Workspace

Google Workspace Business Starter costs £5.90 per user a month on a one-year commitment, and the price does not include tax. It includes custom business email in the Gmail app your team probably already knows, and 30 GB of pooled storage per person. Google was also running a discount of 20% for the first three months when we checked.

Zoho Mail

Zoho Mail has a Forever Free plan with email hosting for one domain and up to 5 users, with 5 GB of mail storage per user. The free plan does not include IMAP, POP or ActiveSync, so you use Zoho’s own app and website rather than Outlook or the iPhone Mail app. From the sixth user, everyone moves to a paid plan.

Email from your web host or Microsoft 365

Many hosting plans include email accounts on your domain. They can be fine for a one-person business, but check the storage, the spam filtering and how easy the mail app is to use before you rely on them. Microsoft 365’s business plans, built around Outlook, are the other big paid option; check Microsoft’s current UK prices before you choose.

Email forwarding only

Some domain providers offer email forwarding, which passes mail sent to hello@yourbusiness.co.uk on to an inbox you already have. It is a cheap way to start receiving mail at your domain, but replying from the business address needs extra setup, and messages sent from the old inbox still show the old address.

How to set up a business email address in 6 steps

Setting up a business email address takes most small businesses an afternoon. The order matters, because the email provider needs to know you own the domain before mail can start arriving:

1. Get your domain. Use the one your website runs on, or register a new one in the business’s name.
2. Choose your email provider. Pick Google Workspace, Zoho Mail, Microsoft 365 or your host’s email, and create the account in the business’s name.
3. Verify your domain. The provider gives you a record to add in your domain’s DNS settings, to prove you own it.
4. Add the MX records. These tell the internet where to deliver email for your domain. Your provider lists the exact values to copy in.
5. Add SPF, DKIM and DMARC. These records tell other mail servers which services may send email for your domain, and what to do with fakes.
6. Set up your devices and test. Add the account to phones and computers, add an email signature, then send and reply to a test message from a free address.

If your domain’s email currently goes somewhere else, plan the switch for a quiet time and keep the old mailbox open for a few weeks, so nothing gets lost while the change spreads.

What are SPF, DKIM and DMARC?

SPF, DKIM and DMARC are email authentication records that you add to your domain’s DNS. SPF lists the services allowed to send email for your domain, DKIM adds a digital signature to each message, and DMARC tells receiving mail servers what to do with email that fails those checks, and where to send reports.

They matter for delivery. Gmail’s email sender guidelines say everyone who sends to Gmail accounts must set up SPF or DKIM. Since 1 February 2024, anyone sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts must set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC, keep spam rates reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%, and offer one-click unsubscribe on marketing email.

They also protect your name. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre guide to email security and anti-spoofing recommends starting with a DMARC policy of none, so you get reports without blocking anything, then building and checking your SPF and DKIM records before you tighten the policy.

Most email providers walk you through SPF and DKIM when you set up the domain. DMARC is the one people forget: add it with a policy of none, read the reports for a few weeks, then move to quarantine once you know every service that sends email for you, such as your website’s contact form or your booking system.

Which email addresses should a small business set up?

Most small businesses need one mailbox per person who sends email, plus a few shared addresses. A role address, such as hello@ or bookings@, can be an alias or a group that delivers to one or more people, so you do not pay for a separate user. Common choices include:

• hello@ or info@ for general enquiries, shown on your website and Google profile.
• bookings@ or orders@ for confirmations from your booking system or online shop.
• accounts@ for invoices and supplier mail.
• firstname@ for each person, so customers can reply to someone they know.

Keep the list short. Every extra address is one more inbox to watch, and an address nobody checks is worse than no address at all.

What should your business email signature include?

Keep your signature short: your name, your role, the business name, a phone number and a link to your website. Add your address if customers visit you, and leave out quotes, big logos and long disclaimers that push the useful details down.

If you run a limited company, gov.uk says you must show the company’s name on all company documents, publicity and letters, and its registered number, registered office address and where it is registered on business letters, order forms and websites. Adding the same details to your email signature is a simple way to cover your emails too.

How do you move from Gmail to a business email address?

Moving from a free address to a business email address takes a little planning, so no customer email gets lost:

1. Set up the new address and test it first.
2. Change the address on your website, Google profile, social profiles, invoices and booking system.
3. Tell regular customers and suppliers, and update the address with your bank, HMRC and other accounts.
4. Set up forwarding or an automatic reply on the old address that gives the new one.
5. Keep the old account open for a few months, and check it now and then, before you stop using it.

Most providers can import old messages from another account. Check your provider’s help pages for the steps before you start.

Common mistakes with business email

• Registering the domain in a former employee’s or web designer’s name. If they leave, you can lose control of your email. Keep it in the business’s name.
• Letting the domain expire. When the domain lapses, your email stops working. Turn on auto-renew and keep the payment card up to date.
• Skipping DMARC. Without it, anyone can send email that claims to be from your domain with less chance of it being stopped.
• Sharing one login between several people. Use separate users, or aliases and groups, so you can remove access when someone leaves.
• Forgetting the website. Contact forms and booking systems send email too. Make sure they are included in your SPF record, or use your provider’s sending settings.

What to do this week

1. Check who owns your domain and that it is set to renew automatically.
2. Choose your email provider and create the account in the business’s name.
3. Verify the domain, add the MX records and send a test email.
4. Add SPF and DKIM, then a DMARC record with a policy of none.
5. Update your website, Google profile, invoices and social profiles with the new address.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get a business email address?

Get a domain name, choose an email provider such as Google Workspace or Zoho Mail, verify the domain with the provider, then add the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records it gives you in your domain’s DNS settings. Then set up the account on your devices and send a test.

Can I get a free business email address?

Yes. Zoho Mail’s Forever Free plan hosts email for one domain and up to 5 users, with 5 GB per user, though it does not include IMAP, POP or ActiveSync. You still need your own domain, which you pay for separately.

How much is Google Workspace in the UK?

Google Workspace Business Starter costs £5.90 per user a month on a one-year plan, and the price does not include VAT. It includes custom business email and 30 GB of pooled storage per person.

Can I use Gmail with my own domain?

Yes. With Google Workspace you use the Gmail app with an address on your own domain, such as hello@yourbusiness.co.uk. Your mail is hosted by Google, and you add Google’s MX records to your domain.

Is a business email address worth it for a sole trader?

Yes, for most. It costs little or nothing, it makes quotes and invoices look more professional, and the address stays the same if you later take on staff or change provider. A free plan or a single Google Workspace user is enough for one person.

Why are my business emails going to spam?

The most common reason is missing or wrong email authentication. Gmail asks every sender to set up SPF or DKIM, and bulk senders need DMARC too. Check all three records, and make sure your website and booking system are allowed to send for your domain.

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