Business email with your own domain: how to set it up step by step

A business email is an address on the company's own domain, for example [email protected] instead of [email protected]. To create one you need three things: a domain registered to the company, an email service such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or your web host's email, and a few records in the domain's DNS settings that say where the emails should go and that they really come from you. A domain costs SEK 100–200 a year and the email service from about SEK 40 a month per account. If you already have the domain, the setup itself is usually done in an afternoon.

Why your own domain instead of Gmail or Hotmail?

• Trust. A quote from [email protected] looks like it comes from a business, one from [email protected] looks like it comes from a private person.
• The address belongs to the company. When an employee leaves, you close the account and pass the address on, instead of customers' emails continuing to a private inbox.
• Emails get through. With your own domain you can add the records that recipients' email services check, which lowers the risk of quotes and invoices being filtered out.
• Everything connects. The same domain on the website, in the Google profile and in emails makes it clear to customers and search engines that it is the same company.

Set up business email in five steps

1. Get or check the domain. It should be registered to the company, not to an employee or a former web agency. If you already have a website, you usually already have a domain.
2. Choose an email service. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 suit you if you want calendar, documents and shared folders in the same package. Your web host's email is enough if you only need inboxes.
3. Add the MX records at your domain provider. They tell the internet which service receives your email. The service shows exactly which values to enter.
4. Add SPF, DKIM and DMARC. They prove the emails come from you and are the difference between inbox and spam, see the next section.
5. Connect phone and computer and test. Send an email to a Gmail and an Outlook address, reply back and check that nothing ends up in spam.

How long does it take to get business email?

Do the switch on a day with little email traffic and keep the old account open until the new records have taken effect, so nothing gets lost in between.

Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or web host email: prices 2026

The prices were taken from the providers' own pages on 17 September 2026 and change over time, so check them before you decide. Microsoft 365 is cheapest on an annual plan; on monthly billing Business Basic costs SEK 80.29. Count per account: Google and Microsoft charge per user, while web hosts usually charge per package with a set number of addresses. A common way to keep costs down is to make info@ and invoice@ aliases that land in an existing inbox instead of separate accounts.

SPF, DKIM and DMARC: why emails end up in spam

Recipients' email services check whether an email really comes from the domain it claims. Since 2024 Gmail requires everyone sending to Gmail addresses to have SPF or DKIM, and bulk senders must also have DMARC. Microsoft has introduced similar requirements for Outlook.com. Without the records, perfectly ordinary quotes and invoices can be sorted as spam without the sender noticing.

You can check whether the records exist with a free tool such as MXToolbox: enter the domain and run the SPF and DMARC checks. For DKIM you also need to enter the selector, a short name the email service shows when you enable DKIM. A quicker test is to send an email to a Gmail address, open it and choose Show original. It says there whether SPF, DKIM and DMARC passed.

What we see when we set up business email for clients

We set up business email for every company we work with, so we have fixed the mistakes below more than once. The technical part is rarely the hard part. What takes time is working out who owns the domain and where the emails actually end up today.

• The domain is in the wrong name. It was registered by a former web agency or on an employee's private account, and nobody has the login. The domain then has to be transferred to the company first, which can take from a day to several weeks if the previous owner is hard to reach.
• Emails still go to the old web host. The website has moved but the MX records still point to the old provider, so the day the old subscription is cancelled, emails stop arriving.
• Two SPF records. Every new service that sends email, such as a newsletter or invoicing tool, was added as its own SPF record. Two records count as an error, and then every email from the domain can fail the check.
• The contact form sends in the domain's name without permission. Website forms often send email from a completely different server. If that server is not in SPF and the emails are not signed with DKIM, enquiries land in spam, and those are exactly the emails that turn into business.
• DMARC is missing. It is the record most often absent, even on domains where email otherwise works. We start with a mode that only collects reports and tighten it once we have seen that all legitimate senders pass the check.

Secure the accounts from day one

• Turn on two-step verification for all accounts. A hijacked business email is often used to send fake invoices to your customers.
• Keep the domain and the admin account in the company's name, with a login that does not belong to a single employee.
• Set the domain to renew automatically with a card that does not expire. A domain that lapses takes down both website and email.
• Do not share passwords. Use aliases or a shared inbox when several people read the same emails, so one person can be removed without everyone changing passwords.
• Close the account or turn it into an alias when someone leaves, so customers' emails are not left unread.

Switching from Gmail or Hotmail without losing email

1. Keep the old account for at least six months and set up forwarding to the new address.
2. Move the old emails. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 have built-in tools that import mail from another account, so the history follows you to the new inbox.
3. Change the address on the website, in the Google profile, on the invoice template, in the email signature and with suppliers and authorities.
4. Send a short message to returning customers about the new address.
5. Reply from the new address even to emails arriving at the old one, so customers learn it over time.

Further reading

What domain, hosting and maintenance cost per year in the full budget for a site is covered in How much does a website cost?. If you are thinking of building the site yourselves, we compare website builders and what happens to domain and email when you switch in Build a website yourself or hire a web agency?. And if the site should be built for you, it starts with a Start website for SEK 9,900 or a subscription from SEK 1,495/month on pricing, and larger business sites are on the business website page.