3 options for your own professional [email protected] email address

“What’s your email address?”

That question may be even more important than, “What’s your website address?”

Your email address is how potential customers, business partners or employers will communicate with you. What will they think if your email is [email protected] or [email protected]?

No! You need a professional [email protected] email address. In this article, we’ll tell you the 3 options for your own personalized, professional email address.

Option 1: Self-hosted email

Web hosting companies typically include email hosting in their packages. If you already host your own website on Bluehost, SiteGround, etc, you can also host your email there at no extra cost.

When you host your own email, the web server for example.com also accepts emails to [email protected]. The user would then retrieve the email from the server.

This option allows you to create as many email accounts as you need, so self-hosted email is a good option if you need more than one address. You can either send and receive your email through an application like Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, or through a simple webmail interface.

I would advise using a desktop email client with the IMAP protocol for best results. You should also regularly backup your email, just like you need to backup your website.

Important note: Most managed hosting companies like WP Engine or Kinsta don’t provide email hosting. If your web host doesn’t offer email hosting, skip to Option 3.

Option 2: Redirect to webmail

The 2nd option is to use your web hosting only as a forwarder to redirect emails to your webmail service (e.g. Gmail / Yahoo / Outlook.com). This diagram explains how this works.

Emails to [email protected] are received by the server which then forwards them to the user’s webmail account. The user then retrieves the email from his webmail account. The user can configure his webmail to send emails as [email protected] – yes, even for Yahoo and Outlook.com!

This is a great option if you only need a small number of email addresses. You also wouldn’t need separate logins for your webmail and professional email. You can also redirect general email addresses (e.g. [email protected]) to your webmail.

Update: We have published 2 KB articles on how to use Option #2 with Gmail and Yahoo:

1. Setup Gmail to send email from a different address
2. Setup Yahoo! Mail to send email from a different address

Option 3: 3rd-party email provider

The final option is to use a dedicated email provider for your email like Google Workspace or postale.io. Dedicated email services can provide better features and support compared to free webmail services. Many also offer collaboration features like calendars and full-blown office suites.

With a setup like this, emails to [email protected] do not even land on the web server. MX records at the DNS level tell the emails that they should be routed directly to the email provider’s servers. This option can serve a single mailbox for yourself, or for your entire organization.

Personally, this is the option I recommend even for those who only need a single email address. This option also allows you to send and receive from multiple domains into a single inbox, so with one account you can be [email protected] and [email protected].

The biggest benefit: Unlike the other options, your email is not a secondary or free product. If your email is mission-critical, you need a dedicated email host that is accountable and responsible for your email.

Choosing an email provider

There are lots of options for email hosting. Fastmail and postale.io provide email-centric offering which is easy to set up and use. Domain registrars like Hover and Namecheap allow you to add on email services when buying a domain. On the other end of the scale are full-blown office suites like Google Workspce and Microsoft 365.

Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are more complicated to administer because they are designed to be used by companies with lots of users. Support for small (single user) accounts is also really bad – you have to use their ticket system and you never know when they’ll get back to you. 

I also find that many people get confused with Google Workspace. They end up with multiple Google Accounts (personal and work) and get their logins mixed up – “Did I upload that video to my personal YouTube or the work YouTube. I didn’t even know there was a difference!”

If you’re a small business who wants dedicated email hosting, the two stand out options are postale.io and Fastmail.

postale.io advertises itself as domain emails made easy. Signing up takes seconds and their clear instructions and friendly support will help you get set up in no time. You can access your email through the basic webmail interface, or configure your mobile phone or laptop to work with your mailbox. With lots of great reviews, pricing that starts at $1/mo, you have to check them out. 

Fastmail is what I personally use (for over 10 years now). Their product is user-friendly but full-featured. They include features like undo send, email snoozing, send later, calendar, great mobile app – everything that you’re used to from Gmail. What sets Fastmail apart is their strong focus on privacy and security. Fastmail has been in business for more than 20 years, and it’s easy to see why.

Finally, keep in mind that you can mix and match the 3 options above. So you could have 1 mailbox with Fastmail for the really important stuff, and forward the less important emails to Gmail. (I do this as well).

If email is important to you, you owe yourself to find a reliable and professional email solution.

And finally, I leave you with this comic from The Oatmeal: What your email address says about your computer skills. Know a friend with an email address like [email protected]? Maybe you should send them a link to this article.