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Reviewed
Reviewed
Updated: Jun 13, 2024, 6:51am
When you start a business, you need a way for people to get in touch with you. A professional-looking email is crucial to make sure that you are accessible to people who want to buy your products or employ your services. A business email address also helps you keep track of your business communication versus your personal communication. It also helps you keep track of expenses. In this article, we’ll go over the ways to hit the ground running and get a free business email address.
If you already have a domain website address for your business, you can get up to five free email addresses from Zoho Mail.
The Forever Free plan on Zoho Mail stores up to 5 GB per user, and the file size attachment limit is 25 MB. This is a great place to start building your small business with a small team, but you won’t be able to use IMAP/POP syncing or the entire library of mobile applications on the free plan. The good news is that if you decide to migrate to a paid plan as your business grows, you’ll easily be able to do so.
If you still need a domain, you can easily buy one directly from a domain name registrar, such as Domain.com or NameCheap for under $10. Learn more about the best domain registrars.
Many web hosting services offer email hosting for small businesses as well. This is an easy way to keep track of your websites and business emails in one place.
Google Workspace is such a popular business service because of its many applications and integrations that are easy to use for most customers. Since you can connect Google Meet and Chat with your Gmail as well, it’s a good service for a small team that needs to have more communication options.
While Google Workspace does not offer free plans, it offers a free trial period for 14 days. This is good for businesses to get started and work to scale themselves up. It’s also possible to get a free business email from Google Workspace through some third-party providers. For example, if you need a business website, you can choose a Squarespace plan that includes Google Workspace. However, these offerings are usually only free for a limited time period.
Although you can create a free Gmail account with your business name (such as businessname@gmail.com instead of yourname@yourdomain.com), this looks less professional. Especially if you’re starting a consulting business or any business where you’re courting clients, you want to have a professional business email.
Personal email should keep your personal business. It’s also important to have a business email so you can keep track of expenses to simplify your taxes. Separating your communications also makes it easier to organize your business processes in general.
Once you have a business email created, you should create a professionally formatted email signature that is easy to replicate across addresses (if you have multiple users).
As you’re setting up your business email, you should ensure that your email domain name matches your custom website domain name as well. Have a friend double-check your work—it’s always helpful to have someone else proofread.
Before deciding on your email service, you should also reach out to customer service to see if they can answer questions about software compatibility. They should be able to explain how the email integrates with the services you already have, such as CRM software or a VoIP platform.
When you start using your business emails regularly, you should also build a database of canned responses for customer service purposes. This will be helpful for tracking common questions and creating a historical repository of your business operations.
Depending on the needs of your business, a free email address just might not be enough. Paying for an email service may be the best way to ensure you’re equipped with the tools that will help grow your business. If a free service doesn’t strike the right balance of security, scalability and features, consider subscribing to an email hosting service.
It depends on your business needs. If you only need one account, many of the free email services, such as Zoho Mail will work for you. If you need more users, consider switching to a web hosting provider that includes unlimited business email, such as Bluehost or DreamHost.
You absolutely can. Your free business email address is a great way to start professionalizing your business and tracking your company’s operations. If you own a web domain, get a free business email address through a provider such as Zoho Mail. If you already have a web hosting plan–or will soon purchase one, check with your web hosting provider as many include free business email.
The best business email name formats feature some variation of your name plus your domain name. These include your full first and last name, first initial of your first name and full last name, first name only, last name only or full first name and first initial of your last name. All of this depends on how many people work at your business and if there is any change of name repetition. You can also use department names to go with domain name, such as customerservice@domainname.com or sales@domainname.com.
You don’t have to pay someone to host your email for you. You can host email on your own servers. However, that means you have to purchase, configure and maintain an email server and register your domain on your own. Using an email hosting provider will save companies a lot of time, money and frustration.
Julia is a writer in New York and started covering tech and business during the pandemic. She also covers books and the publishing industry.
Cassie is a deputy editor collaborating with teams around the world while living in the beautiful hills of Kentucky. Focusing on bringing growth to small businesses, she is passionate about economic development and has held positions on the boards of directors of two non-profit organizations seeking to revitalize her former railroad town. Prior to joining the team at Forbes Advisor, Cassie was a content operations manager and copywriting manager.
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