- Custom @yourdomain email
- 30 GB cloud storage per user
- Video meetings and shared docs
Professional Email Service
Email from yourbrand lands with weight.
A pro address like you@yourbrand.com signals trust the moment it lands in someone's inbox.
Your domain, your email
you@yourbrand.com - instant credibility.
Familiar inbox
Gmail or Outlook, exactly as you know.
Reliable delivery
Enterprise-grade spam protection and uptime.
More options to consider
Hand-picked alternatives. Pricing and terms set by each partner.
- Custom @yourdomain email
- 1 TB OneDrive per user
- Desktop Office apps included
Independent third-party services. NextBrand may earn a referral fee at no extra cost to you.
Business Services
The setup guide -The Complete Guide
Set up you@yourbrand.com in under 30 minutes. Compare Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 on price, calendar, drive, deliverability, and what to pick at your stage.
A professional email address on your own domain - you@yourbrand.com - is the single cheapest credibility upgrade in business. It costs about the price of a coffee per month, takes under 30 minutes to set up, and quietly raises the trust level of every quote, contract, and cold message you send.
Using a free address like yourbrand@gmail.com signals "side project". A domain-matched address signals "real business". In 2026 there are two serious choices: Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. This guide explains what each one is best at and how to set it up cleanly.
At a Glance
- Professional email costs 6 to 14 USD per user per month - effectively nothing for the trust boost it provides.
- Google Workspace is the default for most modern small businesses and tech-leaning teams.
- Microsoft 365 is the default if you already live in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
- Both include calendar, cloud drive, video meetings, and admin controls.
- Setup takes 20 to 40 minutes once you own the domain - mostly DNS records.
- A free webmail-on-your-domain (forwarding to Gmail) works for a few months but breaks at scale - replies go from your personal address, deliverability suffers, and you cannot use Calendar invites from the brand.
- Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are the only two serious choices. Both start around 6 USD per user per month. Pick by which productivity suite your team already lives in.
- You need SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records configured the same week you start sending. Without them, half your replies land in spam and you will not know until customers complain.
Why this is the highest-ROI 14 USD you will spend
Email is still the primary way businesses communicate. A free Gmail or Yahoo address with your brand name in front gets quietly filtered by spam systems, ignored by procurement teams, and treated as a hobby project by larger clients. None of those things are reversed by sending better content.
Owning your email on your domain solves five problems at once: deliverability (better inbox placement), credibility (no "we use Gmail" tax), portability (you keep the inbox even if you switch providers), team scaling (you can create sales@, billing@, support@), and search (your messages stay together in one professional system).
For under the cost of a second streaming subscription per month, you get all of that. It is the most under-priced upgrade in a brand owner toolkit.
What you actually get with a professional email plan
1
Custom domain email
you@yourbrand.com, plus team addresses like sales@, support@, hello@. Add as many aliases as you want - usually free at the user level.
2
Calendar and scheduling
Shared calendars, booking pages, conference-room scheduling, time-zone smart invites. Calendar alone is often worth the subscription price.
3
Cloud drive
30 GB to unlimited storage per user for documents, spreadsheets, presentations. Real-time co-editing across the team.
4
Video meetings
Google Meet or Microsoft Teams built in. No separate Zoom subscription required for most small businesses.
5
Admin and security controls
Two-factor authentication, single sign-on, mobile device management, security logs, data residency. The boring stuff that matters the moment you hire your first employee.
Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365
Google Workspace
Gmail + Calendar + Drive + Docs + Sheets + Slides + Meet. Web-first, fast, and the default for most modern small businesses. Starts around 6 USD per user per month for Business Starter (30 GB), 12 USD for Standard (2 TB).
Best for: Tech-leaning teams, agencies, startups, anyone who already lives in Gmail.
Microsoft 365
Outlook + Calendar + OneDrive + Word + Excel + PowerPoint + Teams. Deep desktop apps with full features even offline. Starts around 6 USD per user per month for Business Basic, 12.50 USD for Standard (which adds the desktop apps).
Best for: Teams that already use Office heavily, organizations dealing with complex Excel, anyone in industries where docx and xlsx are the lingua franca.
Side by side
| Feature | Google Workspace | Microsoft 365 |
|---|---|---|
| Email client | Gmail (web-first) | Outlook (web + powerful desktop) |
| Office apps | Docs, Sheets, Slides (web-native) | Word, Excel, PowerPoint (desktop + web) |
| Storage (entry plan) | 30 GB per user | 1 TB per user |
| Video meetings | Google Meet | Microsoft Teams |
| Best at | Real-time collaboration, speed | Heavy Office documents, offline work |
| Entry price | ~6 USD per user per month | ~6 USD per user per month |
Setting up your email in 6 steps
- 1
Own the domain first
Register or transfer your brand domain. You cannot set up professional email on a domain you do not control.
- 2
Pick the plan that fits today
Default to Google Workspace Business Starter or Microsoft 365 Business Basic. You can upgrade later without changing your address.
- 3
Create your primary user
Usually you@yourbrand.com or firstname@yourbrand.com. Keep it simple and short.
- 4
Add DNS records at your registrar
Both providers walk you through adding MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. Add all of them, not just MX - the rest are what keeps your mail out of spam folders.
- 5
Verify and test send
Send a test email from a Gmail and an Outlook address. Check the inbox, not the spam folder.
- 6
Create team aliases
Set up support@, sales@, hello@, billing@ - even if you are a one-person business. You can route them all to your main inbox. They cost nothing and look professional.
Common mistakes to avoid
Skipping SPF, DKIM and DMARC records
Fix: Without them, your mail lands in spam folders. Both providers generate the exact values - copy them into your DNS, including the underscore-prefixed records.
Using your registrar email forwarding instead of a real mailbox
Fix: Forwarding breaks DMARC, drops attachments, and you cannot reply from your branded address. Pay the 6 USD and get a real inbox.
Buying licenses for every alias
Fix: Aliases like sales@ and support@ are free. Only create paid users for actual humans who need their own inbox.
Forgetting to set up the recovery email and 2FA
Fix: Set both during onboarding. Losing access to the admin account on your business email is a nightmare to recover.
Switching providers casually
Fix: Migrating between Workspace and 365 is doable but involves moving years of mail. Pick deliberately the first time and stay unless you have a strong reason.
Pro tips
- Set up DMARC in "p=none" reporting mode first to see who is sending mail as you, then tighten to "p=quarantine" or "p=reject" after 30 days.
- Use Gmail or Outlook send-as to keep replying from you@yourbrand.com even when away from the web client.
- Create a press@ or partnerships@ alias on day one - it pre-positions the brand to look bigger than it is.
- Pin your most-used Calendar and Drive shortcuts. The 10 seconds you save per use compounds.
- For Workspace: turn on "Confidential Mode" for sensitive client emails. For 365: turn on "Sensitivity Labels". Both are free and underused.
- Create role-based aliases (hello@, billing@, support@) that route to one inbox before you create a single named address. It is far easier to hand off support@ to a teammate later than to migrate inbound away from your personal address.
- Set up a sending-domain warmup if you plan to send marketing email. New domains land in spam by default. Sending 20 real conversational replies per day for two weeks builds the reputation that gets your launch email through.
- Turn on two-factor authentication and recovery codes on the admin account the moment you finish setup. The brand inbox is the keys to the kingdom - password resets for every SaaS the business runs flow through it.
Beyond the name
Everything you need after the name is yours
Once your brand name is set, we get you live and running with the partners that handle everything else - fast, professional, and ready for customers.
Business formation
Spin up an LLC, Corporation or similar entity through vetted formation partners - paperwork, EIN and registered agent in one flow.
Form your business
Logo design
Hand the brief to professional designers or run a full design contest, whichever fits your budget and timeline.
Design your logo
Website builders
AI website builders with drag-and-drop editing turn a simple prompt into a live, mobile-ready brand site in minutes - no developer required.
Build a websiteFrequently Asked Questions
About 20 to 40 minutes once the domain is yours. Most of the time is waiting for DNS records to propagate.
Yes. Both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 let you import past mail (POP or IMAP) and forward future mail from your old account.
No. Pick one. Running both for the same team causes calendar conflicts, file fragmentation, and double bills.
Either provider includes email by default at the entry plan. Lighter alternatives exist (Fastmail, Zoho Mail, ProtonMail) and are great for solo operators - but you give up the calendar and drive integration that makes Workspace and 365 worth the price.
Yes. Both providers offer first-party iOS and Android apps. Setup is two clicks once your account is created.
Up to 30 aliases per user on Google Workspace, up to 400 on Microsoft 365. Far more than any small business needs.
Pick the one your team already uses for documents. If everyone lives in Google Docs and Sheets, Workspace is the obvious answer. If you write proposals in Word and your clients send PowerPoints, Microsoft 365 wins. Both have excellent email, calendar, drive, and video meetings. The differentiator is the document stack, not the inbox.
Mostly through your domain registrar or your website builder, yes - but usually as a forwarder, not a real inbox. That means replies go from your personal address (defeating the point) or you live in a clunky webmail UI. For real work, pay the 6 to 12 USD per user per month. The hours saved in the first week pay it back.
They are three DNS records that tell receiving mail servers your domain is authorized to send email. Without them, modern providers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo) increasingly send you straight to spam or reject the message. Workspace and Microsoft 365 both walk you through setting them up - do it the same hour you create the account.
For a one-person brand: one named address (you@yourbrand.com) plus hello@ aliased to it. For a small team: one per person, plus hello@, support@, and billing@ as shared aliases. Do not start a separate paid mailbox for every alias - that costs money and helps no one.
You will lose every reset path for every tool the business runs - bank, payroll, payment processor, ad accounts, social. Recovery is possible but slow and identity-proofing heavy. Add a second admin account on a different recovery email and back up recovery codes offline before the inbox is mission-critical.
Get you@yourbrand.com set up in 30 minutes.
Pick the provider that matches how your team already works. Both are linked below - same accounts and offers we surface inside the workspace.