A professional email address for business in the UK is one that ends in your own domain, such as hello@yourbusiness.co.uk, instead of a free Gmail, Hotmail or BT address. It costs a few pounds a month per person and takes an afternoon to set up. The part most guides skip is the DNS records that prove your mail is genuine, and those now decide whether your quotes and invoices reach the inbox at all.
This guide covers what it costs, which provider suits which kind of business, the setup order, and the mistakes that cause problems months later.
What is a professional email address, and why does a UK business need one?
Three practical reasons matter more than image. First, ownership: a free Gmail account belongs to whoever set it up, and if that person leaves, the customer history leaves with them. With your own domain, the business owns every mailbox and can reset or reassign any of them.
Second, trust at the point of payment. Invoice fraud usually works by sending a convincing email from a lookalike address. When every genuine message comes from one domain that you have authenticated, customers and suppliers have a simple rule to check against.
Third, consistency. The address matches your website, your Google Business Profile and your van signage. If your site is the hub of how customers find you, the email address should point back to the same name. A properly built small business website and a matching domain mailbox are two halves of the same setup.
How much does a professional email address cost in the UK?
The Google figure comes from a Google Workspace price list published on the UK government's G-Cloud 15 Digital Marketplace in January 2026, which also lists Business Standard at £11.80 and Business Plus at £18.40 per user per month. The Microsoft figure comes from Syntax's guide to Microsoft 365 business plans, which notes the same plan costs more on a monthly term and that its prices exclude VAT. Public sector lists and reseller quotes can differ from the price you see when buying direct, and both vendors revise prices, so confirm the figure on the day you sign up.
Two points change the real bill. Annual commitments are cheaper but lock you in for the year, so a seasonal business that hires temporary staff may prefer monthly licences for those seats. And you pay for people, not addresses: aliases and shared group addresses are normally included.
Which provider should a small business choose?
Google Workspace is the simpler admin experience for most owner-run businesses. The interface is the Gmail most people already know, the mobile apps are good, and spam filtering is strong. The entry plan relies on web and mobile apps rather than installed desktop software.
Microsoft 365 Business Basic includes Exchange email and Teams, along with web and mobile versions of the Office apps, according to Syntax's plan guide. It suits firms that live in Word and Excel, deal with larger corporate clients on Teams, or work with an IT provider who already manages Microsoft accounts.
Email bundled with web hosting or a domain is the budget option. It works, but storage is often small, filtering is weaker and there is no shared calendar or file storage. If the business would struggle for a day without email, it is worth paying for one of the two main platforms.
Do you need to buy a domain before setting up email?
For a UK audience, a .co.uk or .uk domain signals a local business clearly, and a .com is fine if you also trade abroad. Keep it short, easy to spell over the phone and free of hyphens that people forget.
The biggest risk is not choosing the wrong extension. It is losing control. Domains registered years ago by a web designer or a former partner cause real trouble when renewal reminders go to an inbox nobody reads. If the domain lapses, your email can stop working almost immediately.
How do you set up email on your own domain, step by step?
- Sign up and verify. The provider gives you a TXT record to add at your domain's DNS host. This proves you own the domain.
- Point the MX records. These tell the internet where to deliver mail for your domain. Remove any old MX records left over from a previous host, or mail will split between two places.
- Add SPF. One TXT record listing every service allowed to send as your domain. Include your email provider plus anything else that sends on your behalf, such as your booking system, invoicing software or newsletter tool.
- Turn on DKIM. The provider generates a key, you publish it as a DNS record, then switch signing on in the admin panel.
- Publish DMARC. Start with a monitoring policy so you receive reports without blocking anything, then tighten it once you are sure every legitimate sender is covered.
- Create mailboxes and aliases. One mailbox per person, then role addresses like info@ and accounts@ as aliases or groups.
DNS changes can take a few hours to spread, so do this in the morning on a quiet day, not the afternoon before a big send.
What are SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and why do they matter now?
Google's email sender guidelines set the baseline. Since 1 February 2024, anyone sending to Gmail accounts must use SPF or DKIM, have valid DNS records, use TLS encryption and keep the spam rate reported in Google Postmaster Tools below 0.1%, never reaching 0.3%. Senders of 5,000 or more messages a day to Gmail must also publish DMARC, align their From: domain with SPF or DKIM, and offer one-click unsubscribe on marketing mail.
A small business sending a few dozen emails a day is nowhere near the bulk threshold, but setting up all three records costs a few minutes of DNS work and closes the gap before it becomes a problem.
Which address format should you use?
A café owner might use sam@ for suppliers, bookings@ forwarded to whoever is on shift, and accounts@ for the bookkeeper and HMRC. When someone leaves, you reassign the group instead of hunting through a personal inbox.
Avoid publishing a named address on your website if that person may leave within a year. Put bookings@ or hello@ on the site and keep named addresses for ongoing conversations. If role inboxes get busy, triage tools help, and the guide to AI email sorting for business owners covers when that is worth setting up.
How do you move from a Gmail or BT address without losing mail?
Both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 include import tools for old mail and contacts. The tedious part is the long tail of places the old address lives: your bank, HMRC Government Gateway, domain registrar, social media accounts, Google Business Profile, supplier accounts, payment processors and printed stationery.
Work through them in order of risk. Anything that controls money or account recovery comes first. Marketing listings come last. Keep the old account alive and forwarding for a full year if you send annual renewals or invoices, because some customers only get in touch once a year.
What mistakes cause business email to land in spam?
A domain can only have one SPF record. Adding a second one for a new tool, instead of editing the existing record, causes SPF to fail. Check yours with a free DNS lookup tool after every change.
Keep marketing separate from day-to-day mail. Send newsletters and offers through a proper email platform that handles unsubscribes and consent, and keep your personal mailbox for conversations. That protects your main address's reputation if a campaign draws complaints. If you run an online shop, the same logic applies to automated flows such as abandoned cart emails, which should go through your ecommerce platform's authenticated sending.
Finally, think about data. Business mailboxes hold customer details, so turn on two-step verification for every user and remove access the day someone leaves. The AI and data protection checklist for UK businesses covers the wider UK GDPR basics.
Professional Email Address on Your Own Domain — FAQ
How much does a professional email address cost for a UK small business?
Expect two costs: the domain name, paid yearly to a registrar, and a mailbox subscription paid per person. A Google Workspace price list filed on the UK government's G-Cloud 15 Digital Marketplace in January 2026 shows Business Starter at £5.90 per user per month. UK reseller Syntax listed Microsoft 365 Business Basic at about £4.60 per user per month on an annual commitment, excluding VAT, in its October 2025 guide prices. Microsoft and Google both revise prices, and public sector or reseller rates can differ from what you pay directly, so check the current figure on the day you sign up. A sole trader with one mailbox and a couple of free aliases such as info@ and accounts@ will usually pay for one licence only.
Can I get a professional email address for free?
Some domain registrars and web hosts bundle basic mailboxes with a domain or hosting plan, so the email itself costs nothing extra. The trade-off is usually smaller storage, weaker spam filtering, fewer mobile app features and no shared calendar. That is fine for a side business that sends a handful of emails a week. If email is how customers book, pay or complain, a paid Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 mailbox is the safer choice, because the filtering, uptime and admin tools are far better and you can add staff later without migrating again.
Should I use info@ or my own name for business email?
Use both. Give each person a named mailbox, such as sarah@yourbusiness.co.uk, for one-to-one conversations, and set up role addresses like info@, bookings@ or accounts@ as aliases or groups that forward to the right people. Customers tend to reply to a named person, while role addresses survive staff changes and keep supplier and HMRC correspondence in one place. Aliases and groups do not usually need their own paid licence on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, so this structure costs no more than one mailbox per person.
Will setting up SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop my emails going to spam?
It removes the most common technical reason for business mail being filtered, but it is not a guarantee. Google's email sender guidelines have required every sender to Gmail accounts to use SPF or DKIM since 1 February 2024, and senders of 5,000 or more messages a day must also publish DMARC. Google also asks senders to keep their reported spam rate below 0.1% and never let it reach 0.3%. Authentication proves the mail came from your domain. Content, sending volume, list quality and how recipients react still decide whether it reaches the inbox.
Can I keep my old Gmail or BT email address after switching?
Yes. Keep the old account open for at least a few months, set an auto-reply pointing people to the new address, and add a forwarding rule so nothing is missed. Both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 include import tools that copy old mail and contacts into the new mailbox. Update the address on your website, Google Business Profile, invoices, email signature and any accounts that send password resets, starting with your bank, HMRC and domain registrar, before you stop checking the old inbox.
