Business Email on Your Own Domain: 9 Providers Compared (2026)

Once you have your own domain, the next step is usually wanting an address like hello@你的網域 . You'll often read online that "Cloudflare is free, takes ten minutes to set up, and forwards to Gmail," which makes paying for anything sound pointless.

But these comparisons often miss one thing:forwarding and a mailbox are two different things.Forwarding only delivers mail to your Gmail. If you want to reply from hello@ , it can't help you.

Our own company email runs on Migadu, and we took the chance to review several common setups. All prices and limits come from official websites or our own tests in November 2026.

Two categories first: forwarding only vs. a real mailbox

Forwarding only (Cloudflare Email Routing, ImprovMX, Forward Email)

Mail sent to hello@你的網域 → is automatically forwarded to the Gmail account you choose. There's no inbox, and you can't send from this address.

Real mailbox (Purelymail, Migadu, Zoho, iCloud+, mailbox.org, Fastmail, Google Workspace)

You get your own inbox, receive mail over IMAP (the standard way phone and desktop mail apps sync your inbox), and send over SMTP (the server used to send mail). Messages you send show your domain as the sender.

There's only one question to ask:Will you use this address to reply to clients?If yes, you need a real mailbox.

9 business email options: price comparison

A "—" in the table means we couldn't find an official figure, not that there's no limit.

Each provider in plain terms

Cloudflare Email Routing: receive only, the least hassle

It's free, quick to set up, and applies SRS when forwarding (rewriting the sender's "envelope address" so the receiving server's checks don't fail). In plain terms: forwarded mail is less likely to land in Gmail's spam folder.

The catch is that your domain's DNS must be on Cloudflare, and it can only receive. It suits cases like "just for receiving verification emails" or "an address on my business card, and I reply from Gmail when needed."

Purelymail: about US$10 a year, with generous sending limits

One account costs about US$10 a year. The site says there are no hard caps on accounts, domains or storage; only if your usage clearly exceeds that cost will they ask you to switch to usage-based pricing. You can send roughly 3,000 emails a day.

You can forward to Gmail, or set up "Send mail as" in Gmail using smtp.purelymail.com(port 465), and your replies will go out from your domain.

Things to watch out for:

• Its forwarding rules move the entire message, and Purelymail keeps no copy. If you want copies on both sides, you'll need to write a separate filter rule.
• The docs don't say whether it applies SRS when forwarding, so mail forwarded to Gmail may land in spam more often than with Cloudflare. We haven't tested this.
• The site lists no service level agreement (SLA, a commitment to compensate you for downtime), and openly says its development team is small.
• The built-in iPhone Mail app doesn't get real-time push notifications.

Migadu: convenient for multiple domains, but very tight sending limits

The Micro plan costs about US$19 a year, and one account can host several domains. Our own company email runs here, and it's been reliable.

The biggest limitation is thatthe entire account can send only 20 emails a day. Bounces begin once you exceed it by 25%, and the limit is shared across all domains. It's enough for people replying by hand, but any automated sending (order notifications, form replies) will burn through it fast.

Zoho Mail: the free plan's catch is IMAP

The free plan offers 5 users with 5GB each, which looks generous. But itdoesn't support IMAP, meaning you can't read mail in Gmail, Outlook or your phone's built-in mail app, only on Zoho's website or app. The paid Lite plan, about US$1 per user per month, removes that limit.

iCloud+: if you already pay for it, it's effectively free

If you subscribe to iCloud+ (the lowest plan is US$0.99 a month), you can connect your own domain to iCloud Mail. It works well for personal brands and freelancers, but not for a whole team or for clients.

mailbox.org: a long-standing, privacy-focused German provider

A paid German email service that promises not to read your mail and shows no ads. The Standard plan costs about €3 per user per month and supports custom domains. Note that the cheapest Light plan (about €1/month) can't use a custom domain on its own; it has to sit under a team account on Standard or higher.

Fastmail: the best experience among paid email services

An Australian provider with more than 20 years in email. Its web interface, search speed and mobile apps are more polished than the others above, and setting up domains and aliases is intuitive. The personal plan costs about US$5 a month billed annually; Business Standard is about US$5 per user per month. There's a 30-day free trial.

If you want something "as easy as Gmail, but not Google," it's the most commonly recommended choice.

Google Workspace: expensive, but you pay so you don't have to manage it

Business Starter costs about US$7 per user per month billed annually, or about US$8.40 billed monthly. In Taiwan it's priced in USD and charged at the card's exchange rate at the time, so the actual amount fluctuates.

What you pay for isn't the mailbox itself, but 30GB per user, integration with Google Drive and Calendar, admins being able to reclaim accounts directly when staff leave, and support you can contact when something breaks. Five people cost roughly US$420–500 a year.

Two common pitfalls

Pitfall 1: Gmail can no longer "check mail from other accounts"

Gmail on the web used to have a "Check mail from other accounts" feature that used POP3 (an older way of retrieving mail) to periodically pull in messages from another mailbox. Support for it ended in January 2026.

To get domain mail into Gmail now, you need tohave the mailbox forward it to Gmail, or add the account via IMAP in the Gmail mobile app. The good news is that "Send mail as" (sending through an external SMTP server) isn't affected.

Pitfall 2: attachment size limits are about the same everywhere

We queried Purelymail's and Migadu's servers directly, and both reported a per-message limit of about 50MB. Attachments are converted to a text encoding before sending, which inflates them by about a third, sothe largest file you can actually attach is about 36MB. We've actually seen a client's 36MB attachment bounce.

Gmail accepts incoming mail up to 50MB, but only lets you send up to 25MB; Cloudflare accepts up to 25 MiB. The takeaway:always share large files via a cloud link, no matter which provider you use.

How to choose

• Receive only, DNS on Cloudflare → Cloudflare Email Routing。
• One to three people, need to reply from your domain, want to save money → Purelymail. For important addresses, try it on a secondary domain for a month first to see whether forwarded mail lands in spam.
• Already have iCloud+, personal use → Just set up an iCloud custom email domain.
• Want something easy to use, not Google, and willing to pay about US$5 a month → Fastmail. If privacy matters most → mailbox.org.
• A team of five or more, with staff turnover, and someone needs to be accountable → Google Workspace. The admin time you save is usually worth more than the monthly fee.
• Your website or system needs to send automated notifications → Don't use up your mailbox's sending quota; use a dedicated email sending service (such as Resend).

One more principle:Decide upfront whose name the mailbox is under.Mailboxes set up for clients are best created under the client's own account and paid for by the client. Otherwise, if the engagement ends, ownership of the mailbox becomes a headache.

FAQ

What free business email options are there?

There are mainly two that are truly free and work with your own domain: Cloudflare Email Routing (forwards to Gmail only; you can't send from your domain) and Zoho Mail Free (5 users, 5GB each, but mail is only accessible on Zoho's website or app). If you want to send from your domain and connect to Gmail or your phone's built-in mail app, you'll need to pay. The cheapest is Purelymail, at about US$10 a year.

Can Gmail send from my own domain?

Yes, even with free Gmail. In Gmail settings, choose "Add another email address" and enter your domain email provider's SMTP server and login. After that, you can choose hello@你的網域 when sending replies. This requires a real mailbox that can send mail (such as Purelymail or Zoho Lite); Cloudflare forwarding alone won't work.

How much does Google Workspace cost per month?

The basic Business Starter plan costs about US$7 per user per month billed annually, or about US$8.40 billed monthly, with 30GB per user. In Taiwan it's priced in USD, and the actual charge follows the card's exchange rate at the time.

Will domain email forwarded to Gmail end up in spam?

It can. Forwarding breaks the receiving server's sender verification (SPF), making Gmail more likely to treat the message as suspicious. Cloudflare applies SRS rewriting when forwarding to avoid this. For services whose docs don't mention it, we recommend testing on a secondary domain for a while and watching where forwarded mail lands.

Will I lose my old email if I switch providers?

It won't move over automatically, but it won't disappear either. Your old mail stays with the old provider; once you switch your domain's MX records (the DNS setting that decides which provider receives your mail), new mail goes to the new mailbox. To move old mail, most services offer an IMAP import tool: enter your old mailbox's login and it copies everything over in bulk. Don't shut down the old service before switching.

What's the largest attachment I can send?

Most providers cap messages at 25–50MB. After encoding overhead, the largest file you can actually attach is about 18–36MB. Beyond that, any provider will bounce it, so a cloud sharing link is the most reliable option.

When we build websites, we plan the domain, DNS, mailboxes and email sending setup together, and hand everything over under the client's name at delivery. Details are on ourwebsite design and development page, or email us at hello@satsumacreative.tw.

Prices and limits reflect each provider's official website and our tests of server responses in November 2026, and may change at any time. Please check the official website before buying. Prices are shown in USD as listed by each provider (mailbox.org in EUR); actual charges depend on local taxes and currency.