Should your business email use your own domain instead of a free address?
Usually, yes. An address at your own domain, the same name as your website, tends to look more established than a free address, and it belongs to the business rather than to one person. When someone leaves, their mailbox can be handed over and customer mail keeps arriving. If you change email providers, the address can stay the same. The main condition is that the business controls the domain and keeps it renewed.
Free address or your own domain
| Free address | Your own domain | |
|---|---|---|
| What a customer sees | A personal-looking address that anyone could set up | An address that matches your website |
| When someone leaves | The account, and the customer history in it, can leave with them | The business can reset the login or redirect the mail |
| If you change provider | The address usually changes | The address can stay the same |
| Cost | Free | Usually a charge per mailbox |
Why it can matter to customers
A customer comparing a few businesses often has only small clues to go on. An email address that matches the website is one of them, and it can make a quote or an invoice look less like it could have come from anyone. It also gives customers one thing to check when they wonder whether a message really came from you.
Keeping control when people leave
- Set up the mailboxes in an account the business owns, with the owner as an administrator.
- Use shared role addresses, such as office@ or quotes@, for anything customers write to, so the address outlives any one person.
- When someone leaves, change their password the same day and redirect their mail to whoever takes over their customers.
- Avoid running customer conversations through anyone's personal free account, where the business cannot reach the history.
Keeping customer mail reachable
Your email works only while your domain does. If the domain lapses or is held by someone else, your mail can stop with it, which the related answer on who should own your domain name covers.
When you switch from a free address, keep the old one open for a while and check it, or set an automatic reply that gives the new address. Update the address everywhere you printed the old one: the website, quotes, invoices, business cards and vehicles. Customers who saved the old address can take months to notice the change.
Related answers
- Who should own your business's domain name?
- How do you choose a domain name for a small business?
- How do you make a website trustworthy to a new visitor?
Websites, upgraded or built
Most businesses do not need a new website. They need the one they have to load fast, say clearly what they do and ask the visitor to take one step.