Business email (custom domain email)
What is a business email (custom domain email)?
A business email is a mailbox on the company’s own domain — [email protected] rather than an address at a free mail service. It rests on a domain you own and on the MX record that names which provider accepts your mail. The mailboxes can sit with the hosting provider or with a separate mail service; either way the address stays yours and moves with you.
Example
A company takes its enquiries at an address on a free mail service. Three things follow. The site’s form sends messages “from” that address but out of the site’s own server, so the sender check does not match the mail domain and part of the confirmations land in spam. The mailbox belongs to a person rather than to the company: when they leave, the correspondence leaves with them. And with ten people there is no info@ for anyone to open — everyone writes from their own address and the customer does not know who to reply to.
With a mailbox on the domain the same day looks different. [email protected] is a shared mailbox, or an alias to three people. The form sends from [email protected] and replies come back to info@. When someone leaves, an administrator removes their access in a minute and the mail stays with the company.
Why it matters for a business
Three things separate the options: ownership, deliverability and who administers them.
- A mailbox from the hosting provider comes with the hosting and is managed in the same panel. It is enough for a small team; the limits show up in storage, shared calendars and working on documents together.
- Google Workspace adds mail, calendar and documents with its own admin console, group addresses and fast removal of access.
- Microsoft 365 does the same around Outlook and Teams, with the desktop applications many companies already use.
Whichever you pick, the domain has to be in your name. Changing the MX record takes minutes, and a few hours to spread, when the domain is yours; when it is not, it becomes a negotiation. Deliverability does not come from the provider either — it comes from three DNS records, SPF, DKIM and DMARC, which tell a receiving server who may send on your behalf. If you also send campaigns, keep email marketing on a separate subdomain so its reputation stays apart from everyday mail.
Choosing the domain, and the hosting the mail rests on, is part of website development; the mail service itself you order yourself, in your own name.
What to ask
- Whose name is the domain in, and who can change its DNS records?
- Who administers the mail, and can they revoke a person’s access in minutes?
- Are SPF, DKIM and DMARC in place, and which address does the site’s form send from?
- Is info@ a shared mailbox or an alias, and who is responsible for answering it?
- What are the storage, archive and retention rules?
- How is the mail exported if you change provider?