Cheapest & easiest way to get a custom domain email address?

[anonymous-user]

Hi all,

As per title, after 25 years of using an old AOL email address for pretty much everything, including handing out to people I meet via work/business I realise I probably need something more professional, and I may have to abandon my AOL account anyway as it is just becoming more and more riddled with spam and junk, to the point at which I get about 20 emails every day of just scams and junk. I seem to spend my life deleting emails. My email address must be on every single spammers list in the whole world.

I would like to have my own [e-mail] type email address.

Can someone explain in very simple terms, how this works please, and who offers this service.

I don't need or want a website, or any kind of website holding page.
I don't want to arse about finding, buying, renting, or registering domains, or having to understand what any of that means.
I want a site to do it all for me. I just type in what email address and password I want, and they sort everything else out.
I don't want to be hassled by emails telling me to build website or that my domain is expiring next month.
I don't want to pay £14.99 a month just to have an email address.

I just want a custom email address and want to spend as little as possible.

Any ideas?

Does anyone even care about this sort of thing? Would you consider it just fine to have [e-mail] on business cards you hand out to potential clients or employers?

Thank you kindly!

[Mammasaid]

Go Daddy is always cheap and nowadays there's loads of choice of domains

https://uk.godaddy.com/domainsearch/find?domainToC...

[nebpor]

I'd go with Google Domains. It's easy to then use gmail as well, so you can have a nice business address and the wonder of gmail as your email client - can all forward easily as well.

[Captain_Morgan]

nebpor said:

I'd go with Google Domains. It's easy to then use gmail as well, so you can have a nice business address and the wonder of gmail as your email client - can all forward easily as well.

I believe you need to have a google workspace account (at cost) now to use gmail with a personal domain, I understand there is a work around if you use a cheaper pop email vendor but this might not suit the op’s needs as I believe he wants simple as.


OP I resently had cause to register a domain with godaddy & they offered a discount on the first year of ms exchange, you could also take a office 365 package that includes all the office suit, onedrive storage (1TB) & exchange, this could be a option worth considering.

Alternatively if a Mac iOS user I believe iCloud Mail allows you to use a personal domain foc.

& as said there are cheaper Mail options from some hosting vendors but I haven’t used them for quite some years so can’t advise on there functionality with things like calendar integration etc.


Whatever you choose don’t forget to set up 2fa to keep it secure & a 2nd backup email such as gmail & keep it active & monitored

[jardinec]

Register your domain somewhere (like GoDaddy, 123Reg etc) - cost approx £15/year.

Edit the DNS record and point the MX records to your chosen mail supplier.

Zoho mail have a 'forever free' plan, and low cost paid options - https://www.zoho.com/mail/zohomail-pricing.html - not used it but have seen it recommended for years.

[Harpoon]

I'd look at Cloudflare for the domain registration / DNS - I pay $4.71 per year for a .me.uk. Really should move the .co.uk over to them as well.

[anonymous-user]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I will have a look into them!

Captain_Morgan said:

Alternatively if a Mac iOS user I believe iCloud Mail allows you to use a personal domain foc.

With regards to this, I am an iOS user and have all iOS/OSX devices.

[Captain_Morgan]

Lord Marylebone said:

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I will have a look into them!

Captain_Morgan said:

Alternatively if a Mac iOS user I believe iCloud Mail allows you to use a personal domain foc.

With regards to this, I am an iOS user and have all iOS/OSX devices.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT212514

Edit: my error you need to be a iCloud+ subscriber

Edited by Captain_Morgan on Tuesday 30th May 12:18

[nebpor]

Captain_Morgan said:

I believe you need to have a google workspace account (at cost) now to use gmail with a personal domain, I understand there is a work around if you use a cheaper pop email vendor but this might not suit the op’s needs as I believe he wants simple as.

Good call - I didn't realise this

[GuyW]

Get the domain of your choice, I'd personally do all I could to avoid GoDaddy! names.co.uk I've used in the past and are reasonable.

If you want to utilise Microsoft 365, you could opt for the cheapest Exchange Online package. £3.30 + VAT every month for a 50GB mailbox. Note this does not include a license for the MS Desktop Office apps. So it'd be via webmail or iPhone/iPad or Android Outlook app.

I'd also typically avoid any of the providers that offer a 'hosted' MS 365 setup and just go direct.

Edited by GuyW on Tuesday 30th May 15:13

[Colonel Cupcake]

I registered all the kids names as domains for email purposes with IONOS. £1 a year for the first year and £10 a year after that. That was for .co.uk domains.

https://www.ionos.co.uk/

[OutInTheShed]

I already had a .co.uk domain, but having retired, I don't use it, just the email.

I transferred the domain to google domains and now forward all the @shed_domain.co.uk to another account.

It seems to cost $10 a year, but no charge until next year.

I don't like google, but I can't fault the way this worked.
I had some issues with someone trying to hack my domain, that's all in the past since going to google.

[julian64]

I registered a domain with go-daddy.

Then bought a synology NAS drive. Installed a synology SMTP server on it and plonked it on the broadband

I've been using it as my email server for the last five years with no problems. I can make as may email addresses as I like and download truly massive email attachments with no problem

Simples

No monthly fee, and only a few quid every three years to keep the domain going,

Edited by julian64 on Tuesday 30th May 15:25

[grumbas]

If you don't mind paying a bit, the best 'it just works' option would be to set up MS365, it will come out circa £5/month for a single mailbox. You'll be looking at another £10 or so per year for a domain.

MS seem to have a tie up with GoDaddy for auto-setup if you buy the domain through them, so possibly the best option if you're less techy.

[Jinx]

nebpor said:

I'd go with Google Domains. It's easy to then use gmail as well, so you can have a nice business address and the wonder of gmail as your email client - can all forward easily as well.

I have done the same recently - registered the domain with google domains (£10 a year) and alias'd my gmail account with an email with the domain name in it. Took about 10 mins.
Admittedly mine is just for testing purposes (needed a .co.uk email address to test from).

[anonymous-user]

Thanks all.

I'm leaning towards using the GoDaddy solution. I looked into it and it seems very simple. I gave up attempting anything remotely IT-ish many years ago... These days I just want to press one button, pay some money, and have something work seamlessly for me

[eeLee]

GoDaddy is horrible.

My go-to registrar is: https://www.infomaniak.com/en/domains

With each domain you get one hosted email address included. They do .co.uk domains.

[Newc]

Google is selling its domain business to Squarespace.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/squarespa...

[Alickadoo]

M'Lord

A year or two back I decided that I needed some 'spare' email addresses. Let us say my real name is John Smith. I did some rummaging.

I have
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail] (couldn't get it without the number)
[e-mail](as above)

I am not an expert, but I suggest you visit the various sites, register to be a new user and see what they will let you have.

[robsa]

Loads of places offer domain name email forwarding. I have a domain registered and just set up a forwarding email address on that and it's cheap and easy.