Hi,

looking for advice on a free business email. I am trying to start as lean as possible and would rather not pay

thanks

Hello!

I am struggling to find what I need, and I am thinking that actually the service I am looking for does not exist for free.

I am setting up a business and am looking for a free email and calendar hosting service that allow me to also use my custom domain.

Above that, it would be nice to have the ability to use third-party apps like Gmail, Outlook or Mail (iOS), but mainly Gmail because that's where my personal email is.

I think this is a lot to ask for free and couldn't find a service yet that has all these things together. So far I came accross:

Hostinger: free, up to 100 accounts, but it seems to not have the calendar functionality. If anyone knows how to "solve" this, I would appreciate.

Zoho: free, up to 5 accounts, has email and calendar, but I can't connect it to third-party apps (correct me if I'm wrong).

Thanks! Would love to hear your inputs.

I just registered a domain and though I am not doing anything with it right now, I would like to connect a free e-mail service to it that is preferably compatible with MS Outlook. Are there any good ones out there? Recommendations great appreciated!

My .com domain was migrated from Google to Squarespace late 2023, and was recently transferred from Squarespace to porkbun a few days ago (the transfer process was just completely today). But porkbun charges additional fee for customized email hosting. However, porkbun offers free email forwarding, therefore, I have [email protected] with porkbun. Is there a way to connect [email protected] to some website and make it work as a mailbox?

Is there any decent domain registrar offering free email hosting and decent/inexpensive renewable fee?

I mean customized email with my own domain. Hopefully, the email can be added to outlook desktop app, so that I can use outlook to manage its messages.

Thanks.

I run a small digital agency and spent the last few weeks testing almost every free business email provider that supports custom domains — Zoho, Titan, ProtonMail, Migadu, you name it.

Here’s what I found (based on real-world use, not just feature pages):

What I Tested:

• Setup time

• Inbox deliverability

• Custom domain integration

• Mobile + desktop experience

• Storage & spam handling

My Shortlist for 2025:

1. Zoho Mail – Best for small teams, clean UI, free forever
2. Titan Mail – Great if bundled with Hostinger or Namecheap
3. ProtonMail – Secure but limited free plan (no domain support)
4. Migadu – Developer-friendly, generous free tier
5. Gmail Alias Hack – Forwarding works, but looks unprofessional

Full Writeup (with pros/cons & screenshots):

I documented everything in this post for founders and freelancers:
👉 Top 10 Free Business Email Services in 2025

Hope it helps anyone trying to set up professional email without spending ₹500+/mo. Happy to answer any questions or suggest alternatives if needed.

I’m wanting to start my own business and I’m wanting to start at creating a supporting email. Most of the ones I’ve found have cost money And a lot of people are saying zoho, and Gmail, are unprofessional and unreliable options. Any help would be great!:)

I don’t own a domain, and honestly, I don’t feel like I need one either as I am not planning to get a site. But as a solopreneur, I do think it’s important to have a business email because it just looks professional when talking to vendors or partners.

I’ve been using Neo (neo.space) because they offer a free domain with a professional email, but technically it’s still a subdomain with a company.co.site kind of extension.

Is this the best option for setting up a business email without buying a domain? Or are there other alternatives out there?

Hi all, does anyone know how they can get a business email for free. I can't seem to find anything on how to get one.

Or if its not possible to get one for free. Does anyone know to get one cheaply. Thanks

So I have researched about self hosting your own email server such as Mailcow but it seems pretty divided on whether or not you should do it due emails potentially not getting delivered due to spam filters and such. So I'm kinda not interested in self hosting so I'm wondering what is the next best option to get my own email ideally for free but maybe settle for really cheap?

Edit: I have my own domain already.

Edit2: Thank you all! I have my domain with Cloudflare so I have tried their email routing but would like to be able to send from it too. I'll check out some other suggestions.

Edit3: Wow this got a lot of replies. Again thanks all for the recommendations. I haven't had a chance to actually check any out yet (busy weekend) but I will get to it.

Edit4: So I've had a little time to look at some of the options and it looks like maybe Zoho, onepoundemail or PurelyMail. They are both fairly cheap and around the same price. Anyone know how they compare?

Edit5: I ended up paying for Zoho for $12/year. So far it's doing everything I wanted and more. Very happy with it! Thank you all!!!

Hi everyone—just started a small business and want to keep startup costs as low as possible while still looking professional with a domain-based email.​

I’m in the U.S. and open to free or ultra-low-cost options that support a custom domain.​

So far I’m looking at Zoho Mail’s free plan for up to 5 users on a custom domain, Namecheap Private Email at about $1/user/month, or using Cloudflare Email Routing to forward my domain email to an existing inbox.​

I can live with basic features since I am only one to use it now, but I care about deliverability and would like an easy upgrade path if I outgrow the free tier.​

Would you recommend one of these, or is there another budget-friendly provider that’s worked well for your small team in the U.S.?​

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Just curious what people might be using for email hosting for their custom domains. This won't be my main personal email account. Mostly I want to use it for sending outbound notifications from my server so that they actually come from my custom domain rather then sending them out via my personal Gmail account.

Maybe setup a couple inbound addresses for generic stuff as well, but I could handle those via Cloudflare's Email routing beta as well.

Edit: Thanks All, ended up setting up Zoho. One thing that's disappointing with it is that the sender email needs to match the users account. So I needed to create a generic user email account for all my no-reply emails, and in theory those addresses could also receive emails. But not a deal breaker by any means.

Im a recent college graduate and wanting to start my own freelance branding/business in my trade. I was wondering about free email domain hosting, until start taking in more jobs and can afford to pay for one. I feel like it would give a more professional look to my cards and other marketing, does anybody know if anyone offers this sort of thing?

Hey all,

I used to use Zoho mail to have an email inbox for my domain. But it seems like their privacy-invasive practices involve reading my emails and so forth. Same with Gmail ofc.

I need a mailbox that...

• is free

• provides an email for my domain

• can have multiple inboxes, like [email protected] or [email protected]

• is privacy focused, not harvesting my data like Zoho or Gmail

Any ideas? Does such a thing exist?

Anyone know how can i make custom mail domain and is it free f.e i dont want [email protected] i want [email protected]

Hello,

I will like to know if there is any way I could create a free business email for my start up. I've searched a lot through google and have not been able to find one.

I greatly appreciate the help . Thank you!

I have a domain for my website, but the domain host does not have reliable domain-based email. Are there any good free options? I've seen some people talk about mail.com but I haven't seen enough information to make the leap. Any thoughts appreciated.

I am not at all technical person and I am struglling to find an option which will allow me to create a branded email. Please not I do not have a website. I tried multiple options but I am not able to setup something called as DNS.

I'm helping a friend with a small business, every time I look up "How to create a business email" the results show up with services I need to pay for.

Is there a way I can do it for free or use a regular Gmail account?

Any help is appreciated.

(Yes I already have a website being set up)

Hi there

I was wondering what people think is the best way to get domain hosting and a private domain email address together?

Initially Go Daddy is cheap at £21.87 (GBP) for the first year for both products but then it jumps to £90.87 a year thereafter.

Eventually, my website will be with WordPress anyway. Can they provide a private domain email address?

l am still in the business development stages so l don't want to commit too much too early (a common problem l believe). Are there any better ways around this?

Thanks everyone