How to Get a Free Email Domain Name: Top 12 Hosting Services

Need a new email address for your brand? With free email domain hosting, your brand name is in the address.

It’s hard to get started with an online small business if your optics are bad. When you send and receive emails from a generic, popular email provider like Gmail, it’s not a good look.

So how do you get free email accounts under your own brand name? Let’s examine the best free ways to get a domain registrar email service.

How to Get a Free Email Domain

To get a free email domain, sign up with any hosting service that offers free email hosting with their service package. If you already have a website domain name, you can transfer that over to your new host. 

If you don’t have a domain name, choose one that reflects your brand. You can check for availability by entering your preferred domain name into a web browser. If you need help choosing one, try an online domain name generator.

Once you’ve signed up with a webhost, go to their advanced tab to set your email. There will usually be an Email Accounts icon or something similar. This is where you will set your email preferences and select which third-party apps (Outlook, Gmail) you’d like to have synchronized for message-reading, forwarding and sending on your desktop and mobile devices.

12 Best Free Email Hosting Services

1. Bluehost – Best email service for businesses

• Free email w/ web hosting

• %99.9 uptime

• Outlook compatible

Bluehost is a favorite among web proprietors who need their own email domain. If you plan to start a website, bluehost will host your domain and give you a free email domain as part of the deal.

However, you will have to pay for the website domain. If the only thing you want is an email host, it will come with a price.

Then again, if you need to have your business name in your email address, you should get a dot com if you don’t have one already. Bluehost offers affordable deals on web-hosting at the following rates:

• Basic = $2.95 per month

• Plus = $4.95 per month

• Choice Plus = $5.45 per month

Bluehosts guarantees 99.9% uptime on its servers. You access your Bluehost email account by logging into the site. More preferably (for most users) you can also integrate your Bluehost email through Outlook, Thunderbird or Gmail to access your emails through those programs.

2. HostGator – Best free email domain for professionals

• Professional email address

• One-click WordPress installation

• Unlimited domains (Baby Plan and up)

HostGator offers free email domains with their paid web-hosting service plans. Once you register a site domain for your business, you can also have a free @yourcompanyname email address to send and receive business emails on your PC or mobile device. HostGator works with WordPress.

You can get your WordPress web-hosting plan, complete with free email hosting service, at the following rates:

• Hatchling Plan = $2.64 per month

• Baby Plan = $3.78 per month

• Business Plan = $5.68 per month

HostGator offers free domain registration for 365 days on select plans. The Hatchling Plan gives you a professional email address along with free WordPress installs and website transfer. On the Baby and Business plans, you’ll get unlimited domains.

3. DreamHost – Best free email domains for WP sites

• 47% WPBeginner discount 
• Free SSL certificate
• Fast SSD Storage

DreamHost offers a free email hosting service with their Shared Unlimited hosting package. The Shared Unlimited Plan is usually sold at 47%-67% discounts, bringing the monthly price down as low as $3.95 per month.

With Shared Unlimited, you’ll get unlimited websites, pre-installed WordPress with WP site builder and unlimited @domain email. They also offer free WordPress migration, in case you already have a website on another domain.

DreamHost provides a Webmail interface that works if you add webmail. before your domainname.com. You can also access your email by logging into your DreamHost account. Alternatively, you can route your @domainname emails through a third-party client to send and receive messages from your desktop or smartphone.

4. Mail.com – Best email server with easy features

• Free (no website hosting bundle)
• 200 industry-specific domains
• Send attachments up to 30mb

If you want a free email domain without a website hosting service, Mail.com could be your easiest option. Their service is free, but it won’t give you a custom email domain. If you have an established business, this might not suffice. If you’re new to your trade and don’t care about generic dot com names, Mail.com might suffice.

Mail.com has a quick and easy signup process where you can choose from 200 industry-specific domains, such as @geologist.com, @graduate.org, @hairdresser.net, @fireman.net and @programmer.net. You can use the service to send attachments as large as 30 mb.

The Mail.com service is a simple and basic option for new businesses. To access your emails, you’ll need to sign into your Mail.com account. The service does not integrate with third-party email readers.

5. A2Hosting – Best email hosting with unlimited storage

• Unlimited storage and transfer 
• Unlimited inboxes, forwarding, autoresponders
• Secure POP3, IMAP, SMTP messaging

A2 Hosting offers free email domains on its high-performance website hosting service. Their service runs on solid state drives, which offer loading speeds up to 300% faster than normal servers. The independently owned company promises at least 99.9% uptime.

They offer customer service around the clock. Their website hosting plans, complete with a free email domain, start as low as $2.00 per month.

A2 Hosting supports multiple languages. Their powerful infrastructure makes it possible to build a business with your email correspondences via site features like OpenCart, PrestaShop and various other features. They also offer one-click WordPress management installs and firewall protection.

6. iPage.com – Best email domain with virus protection

• Unlimited POP3, IMAP email 
• Spam protection
• Automatic virus scans

You can get a new email with your own domain, all for free, when you sign up for the iPage web-hosting platform. The iPage service is optimized for first-time site creators. It comes with simple drop-and-drag site-building features, daily malware scans and $200 of marketing credits for Google and Bing exposure.

The iPage web-hosting Go Plan starts at $1.99 per month if you buy three months up front (total: $71.64).

Each iPage hosting plan comes with a free online store and one-click cart installation. They are considered one of the best website hosts with unlimited email services because most of the features are unlimited. If you build a business with an iPage site, you might grow as fast through Google ranking as you do via email correspondence.

7. InMotionHosting – Best multi-tier email domain hosting service

• Unlimited SPAM Safe™ email
• SSD storage, SSL security

In Motion Hosting is a WordPress-compatible, site-hosting service. They offer free website building tools and free domain email with each of their following plans:

• Lite = $2.49/mo (free email address)
• Launch = $4.99/mo (10 free email addresses)
• Power = $7.99/mo (50 free email addresses)
• Pro = $12.99/mo (unlimited free email addresses)

InMotion offers 24/7 live customer support and free data backups. The Lite package gives you one email and website domain, enough to launch an online business, which you can then promote with their marketing tools.

The Zoho Office Suite is compatible with MS Office documents. Their program includes spreadsheets, databases, note-taking, project management and other applications to help you run a business.

8. Zoho Mail – Best MS Office alternative email service 

• 50 free mailboxes
• Five inboxes per domain

Zoho offers a web-based office suite much like Microsoft Office, only more optimized for today’s online business culture. They also offer email domain hosting with features like folder sharing, offline access, domain aliases and email recall.

For just $1 per month (Mail Lite), you can send attachments as large as 250 mb via Zoho mail. At $4 per month (Mail Premium) they raise the limit to 50 gb.

To initiate a free email domain on Zoho, scroll to the bottom of their pricing page for the Forever Free Plan (less prominent on their site than the paid plan). You can use your own customized email domain or Zoho’s generic email.

For as little as $1 per month, you can get added features like calendar synchronization and offline-reading options. With their free version, you’ll only be able to access your email through their website.

9. Hostinger.com – Best custom email host with extra features

• Import contacts, messages
• Collaborative polls
• Shared to-do lists

Hostinger is a web hosting provider based in Lithuania. Its service plans are optimized for website developers who wish to maximize their online presence. With their annual plan, you’ll get a free domain name for one year, complete with a custom email inbox.

Hostinger offers between 10 GB SSD and 30 GB SSD, depending on your service plan. Their plans are priced as follows:

• Single Plan = $0.80/mo
• Premium Plan = $2.15/mo
• Business Plan = $3.45/mo

As a Hostinger subscriber, you’ll have access to technical support via live chat, 24/7. Users of Hostinger like the host for its sleek interface, organized custom-control panel and simple website-building tools.

10. Google Workspace – Best domain email service for Google apps

• Google apps compatible
• 30+ gb storage space

Google Workspace, formerly known as G Suite, is an applications suite designed for upstart businesses. The suite is compatible with all of Google’s pre-existing apps, such as Drive, Docs, Calendar and Gmail. The difference here is that you can use them with a customized domain name.

Workspace includes security features and spam filters designed to protect your business email account. Companies that use G Suite especially like it for the calendar, data-retention and file-management features.

To get the service, choose your plan and submit your contact info. You will then be asked to choose your domain. This can be a pre-existing domain, such as a business website (if you have one) or a new domain that you plan to use. G Suite plans are priced as follows:

• Basic = $6/mo
• Business = $12/mo
• Enterprise = $25/mo

Each plan facilitates business email through Gmail. The Basic plan gives you 30 gb of storage. The Business and Enterprise plans contain unlimited storage.

11. GMX Mail – Best file storage email program

• 10 inboxes
• 65 gb per account

On GMX Mail, you can register as many as 10 email accounts. The program comes with features such as file storage, an address book and mail collector.

With an ample storage of 65 gb in a single account, you can store at least 500,000 emails. GMX is equipped with filters that let you organize emails by subject, date, sender and topic. It also features spam filters, anti-malware protection and IMAP access for your mobile device. GMX is a free program but it does show pop-up ads.

12. ImprovMX – Best free domain email routing service

• Unlimited users
• Configures w/ top domain registrars

ImprovMX makes it possible to route your custom domain name through third-party email readers like Gmail. If you don’t want G Suite, yet would still like to have your business emails forwarded to Gmail, ImprovMX makes it possible, though it does involve some tricky steps.

For domain hosts that don’t offer forwarding addresses on emails, ImprovMX offers the needed DNS records. Therefore, your messages would be stored on Gmail yet sent and received via ImprovMX.

If your domain hosting doesn’t cover an email forwarding address, ImprovMX steps in to provide the necessary DNS records. Gmail still stores your messages, but ImprovMX’s servers handle the sending and receiving.

FAQs

What Is an Email Domain?

An email domain is the part that comes after the @ symbol in an email address. If you have a Gmail account, your email will say [email protected], just like everyone else.

A custom domain email is somewhat different, because you get to choose the domain name. If you set up a business email domain for your business, the address would read [email protected].

Why Get an Email Domain?

Custom domain email addresses are good for brand recognition. If you have a plumbing business named Portland Plumbers, your email address should read [email protected], as that will let your customers know where the message is from. If they’ve booked an appointment, they’re far likelier to notice the message in their inbox.

A custom domain name is also better from an optics standpoint. When you send and receive messages from this custom domain email address, people will know that they’re dealing with the representative of a business and not just some random individual. This could be a boon for your brand as people are likely to take you more seriously as a business owner.

Conclusion

If you run a business online, your brand should be in the domain name of your email address. Generic domains look unprofessional. Get a domain registrar in the name of your brand and use the free email host for your correspondence and marketing.