The same question comes up with almost every new client who's just gone independent: "can I keep using my Gmail for work?" Technically, yes. In practice, once you've sent a quote from johnsmith847@gmail.com, it's hard to walk that back without looking a bit amateur. An address at name@company.com changes the perception before the client even reads the message, and it unlocks tools a personal Gmail doesn't have: shared calendars, per-department aliases, business-grade spam filtering, centralised backup. This guide covers the three common options, real 2026 Paris pricing, and above all the DNS settings that decide whether an email actually lands in the inbox or quietly disappears into spam.
Why name@company.com changes the equation
An email with a proper domain reassures on three points in a split second: the business exists, it has a website, it takes the matter seriously. It isn't just about image. I've seen invoices sent from a free Yahoo address end up in spam because the client's filter associated that domain with too much unsolicited mail in the past — a personal domain has no reputation of its own, it inherits whatever reputation, often poor, the free provider has built up. A dedicated domain starts with a clean slate that you build up yourself.
There's also a less obvious practical point: the day someone leaves the business, you keep the mailbox, forward it, or hand it to whoever replaces them. With a personal Gmail used for work, business conversations leave with the person. For a small practice, a tradesperson, or a small team in Paris, that continuity matters more than it seems when you're setting things up.
Three options, three budgets
Microsoft 365 Business Basic runs around €5.60 excl. VAT per user per month in 2026, including Outlook, Teams and 1TB of OneDrive storage. It's the option I recommend most often for small teams already on Windows or using Word and Excel day to day — the full setup for a five-person team is covered in my Microsoft 365 small-business guide, so I won't repeat it here.
Google Workspace Business Starter starts at a comparable price, around €5.75 excl. VAT per user per month, with Gmail, 30GB of Drive and Google Meet. It's the right choice for a team already used to the Google ecosystem, or one that wants a simple interface without worrying about Office licences. The drawback: Docs and Sheets don't always replace Word and Excel for complex documents or files clients send in heavy Office formats.
A third option that gets overlooked: a mail-only plan with a host like IONOS or OVH, without collaboration tools. Budget €1-3 excl. VAT per mailbox per month for a proper address with webmail and IMAP sync. That's enough for a freelancer or a very small shop that doesn't need Teams, Meet or shared cloud storage, and already uses Outlook or Mail locally. The classic trap: these plans sometimes cap storage low, at 2 or 5GB, which fills up fast with attachments.
The DNS records that decide whether mail arrives at all
This is the part most people skip, and it's exactly the part that decides between an email that arrives and one that lands in spam without anyone noticing for weeks. Four record types matter in the domain's DNS zone.
MX (Mail Exchange) tells the internet which server receives mail for the domain. Without it, or with it wrongly set, nobody can write to name@company.com at all. The chosen provider (Microsoft, Google, IONOS) gives the exact value to enter.
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) lists which servers are allowed to send mail on the domain's behalf. Without SPF, anyone can technically spoof name@company.com for phishing, and serious receiving servers (Gmail, Outlook, major ISPs) treat a missing SPF record as a trust signal against you.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a cryptographic signature to every outgoing email, proving it wasn't altered in transit and genuinely came from the authorised server. This is the one most often missing when a client tells me their emails "send fine but never arrive" at certain recipients.
DMARC tells receiving servers what to do if an email claims to come from the domain but fails SPF or DKIM checks: accept it anyway, quarantine it, or reject it. It's also the one that sends a weekly report showing who's attempting to spoof the domain, useful information even for a small business.
Without all four records correctly set, two scenarios keep coming up: either the mail doesn't arrive at all, or it lands in spam consistently at the big providers. Since early 2024, Gmail and Yahoo enforce these checks strictly even for low sending volumes, which has made SPF, DKIM and DMARC effectively mandatory rather than optional.
Migrating from a free mailbox without losing mail
The good news: nothing gets lost if the order is respected. First step, create the new mailbox with the chosen provider and confirm test emails arrive before touching the existing DNS. Second step, import the history: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and most hosts offer an IMAP import tool that pulls emails and sometimes contacts from the old Gmail or Yahoo mailbox, several years back if needed.
Third step, switching the MX record: this is the delicate moment, expect up to 24-48 hours of DNS propagation during which some emails may still route through the old mailbox. I set up an automatic forward on the old Gmail address to the new one during that window, so nothing gets lost. Last step, keep the old mailbox active in read-only mode for two to three months: old contacts, service sign-ups and some clients will keep writing to the old address for a while, better to catch it than discover it too late.
Syncing on phone and laptop without duplicates
Once the mailbox is migrated, setting it up on devices takes a few minutes if you use the modern protocol (Exchange for Microsoft 365, or the native Google account for Workspace) rather than an older manual IMAP setup. The advantage of the native account: folders, read status, drafts and the calendar stay identical across phone, laptop and webmail, with no lag.
The trap I see most often: someone configures the same mailbox twice on the same phone, once as a "classic" IMAP account and once as a native account, which creates two mail apps with duplicate messages, and worse, two different places to reply from. I always check that only one account is active per device before considering the migration finished.
The mistakes that keep coming up
Setting up the business address but carrying on using the personal Gmail "in parallel" to save time, until six months later nobody remembers which address is the real one. Forgetting to update the signature, the website, invoices and Google Business Profile with the new address, which leaves the old one circulating indefinitely. Setting up SPF without DKIM or DMARC, which fixes part of the deliverability problem but not all of it. And the most common one: switching mail providers (say, from IONOS to Microsoft 365) without updating the DNS records to match, which breaks incoming mail overnight with no clear error message, just emails that never arrive.
FAQ
Should I keep Gmail alongside the business address?
No, that always ends up with two inboxes to watch. The simplest approach is to forward the old address to the new one and keep it active in read-only mode for a few months while contacts catch up.
How much does a professional business email cost per month?
Budget roughly €4-7 excl. VAT per mailbox per month for entry-level Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and €1-3 for a mail-only plan with IONOS or OVH without the office apps.
Why do my emails land in spam even though the address is correct?
Usually because SPF, DKIM or DMARC are not configured in the domain's DNS zone, or the mail provider changed without those records being updated. Receiving servers then cannot verify the email genuinely comes from you.
How long does migrating a Gmail inbox to a business address take?
For a single mailbox with a few years of history, budget half a day including DNS propagation, importing existing emails, and setting it up on phone and computer.
If you're starting from scratch, a website and a professional email address are usually set up within the same week, domain included. For a team already on Microsoft 365 who wants everything checked (licences, shared mailboxes, Teams), I also provide small-business IT support including a full DNS and mail review.
Related reading: a business mailbox is only worth as much as its uptime — see also how to back up important data and securing the network it runs on.