Set Up Business Email Accounts
A business email account is necessary for effective, professional and convenient communication with customers, clients and business contacts.
A business email account is distinct from a personal email account in that it offers you a branded email address. A branded email address uses your company’s registered domain in the email address: @yourcompanyname.com. A non- branded email address is any email address that does not use your personal domain name, such as @gmail.com. @me.com, @outlook.com, @aol.com, etc. Before you set up business email accounts, you should Name Your Business and Register a Domain Name.
Note: You will want to name your business so that you can select a domain name that matches your business name. Registering your domain name is a necessary step in order to set up your email account using any of the following options.
Google Workspace
Formerly known as Google Apps and then G Suite, Google Workspace is our recommended choice for setting up your business email address. There are a few advantages of getting your business email address from Google Workspace rather than from the company that hosts your website, such as:
You won’t be tied to a hosting provider or domain provider and can switch registrars or hosts whenever you like with minimal disruption to your email account
In addition to Gmail, Google Workspace gives you access to a variety of other online tools, such as Google Drive, Google Calendars, Google Hangouts, and others.
Also available is the extensive list of Gmail add-ons and extensions that transform your Gmail account into a far more powerful productivity and marketing tool. These add-ons range from e-signatures services to calendar magement to mail merge tools.
Drawbacks: The only downside to using Google Workspace is that it is typically more expensive than getting an email address from your webhost or your domain registrar. However, you’ll get a lot of functionality and office tools for your money. You can start a 14-day free trial by visiting this page (discount code offer below!).
The Starter service is still a great value at only $6/user/month.
ChooseWhat is now an official referral partner for Google Workspace, therefore we can provide our visitors with a single-use discount code that gives you 10% off your first year of Google Workspace plans Business Starter or Business Standard service. Fill out the form below, if you would like us to send you the code - but please note that it only works once and has an expiration date, so don't request it if you don't plan to use it soon. :
For instructions on how to set up your business email account with Google, read our STARTicle:
4 Easy Steps to Getting a Branded Business Email Address with Google Workspace
Request 10% off Google Workspace Starter/Standard code
Submit the following information to receive a discount code for 10% off your first year of your Google Workspace Starter or Standard account. Each code can be used only one time and has an expiration date, so please only request if you plan to sign up for a new account soon.
*We will only use your email to send the code, we promise.
Code is emailed manually by us, so please allow us some time to get back to you with one.
Microsoft Exchange Online
or Office 365 Business Premium
If want to use Microsoft Outlook to manage your email and calendar, Microsoft's email soution through Microsoft Exchange Online is going to be a better fit than G Suite. Also, at $4/ user/ month, it's slightly cheaper than G Suite, but it does require an annual commitment. If you're an Office 365 Business subscriber or plan to become one, you can upgrade to Office 365 Business Premium for an additional $4.25/ user/ month (total of $12.50/ user/ month) to add Microsoft's email functionality as well as Skype HD video conferencing and Microsoft Teams to your existing account.
Microsoft Exchange is preferred to G Suite for Outlook users, because the two companies stopped playing nice with each other several years ago. Managing Google email through Outlook is simple enough, but synchronizing a Google calendar with Outlook requires a third party tool and limits the calendar's capability. Rather than fight an uphill battle, it's smarter to just pick the path of least resistance here.
Use the following links to sign up for a business email account from Microsoft:
Email Account with Your Hosting Service
If you are ready to subscribe to a hosting service in order to build a website, it will be convenient and inexpensive to set up your business email account with your hosting service. The main advantage of this option is that it can be cheaper than using a service like G Suite or Office 365. In many cases, when you sign up for hosting service you'll get a specific number of email addresses included with your account. However, email provided by hosting services will not include any of the additional productivity and collaboration features offered by G Suite and Office 365 and your email account will be tied to your hosting service, so switching domain service providers may be a hassle.
Our web hosting service of choice is Host Gator. HostGator gives you unlimited email addresses with your web hosting plan.
Setting up and accessing your email account with your hosting provider is easy. Usually, they provide you with an admin interface (like cPanel or Plesk 10), where you can create and manage your email accounts. You can also access this email with an email client like Outlook, Thunderbird or Apple Mail.
Instruction for setting up your email accounts in HostGator
You also have the option of setting up email forwarding with your web hosting provider, so you can check your email in an account that you currently use more frequently.
Instruction for setting up your email forwarding with HostGator
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Friendly Tips
Choose a consistent structure for your business email accounts (e.g. firstname.lastinitial@companyname.com), so if someone from outside the company has to guess your co-worker’s email address they will be likely correct.
Create general email address accounts that forward to certain departments of your company. For example, office@companyname.com could forward to your entire front-desk staff and a manager. Or team@companyname.com could forward to every employee at your office.
Set up Google Hangouts (G Suite) or Skype (Office 365) for your office. You can use G Suite's or Office 365's included IM services for intra-office communications and video-conferencing. Communicating to employees and colleages through Google Hangounts or Skype is convenient and helps increase productivity. If your're not using G Suite or Office 365, you can set up intra-office IM through any of a number of third-party chat programs or aggregators, such as Trillian or Adium.
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Fair Warnings
If you decide to set up your email with the company hosting your website, it may be difficult to change your web hosting company without disrupting your email service. Using a web-based email service like G Suite or Office 365 could help you avoid this problem. You could also make sure not to close your old hosting account before signing up for a new service and setting up your email.
If you decide to switch email providers or web hosting providers, you might experience some downtime. Make sure you plan ahead for the switch to a different provider, and try not to make any sudden changes during peak business hours.