How to get an address on your own domain, which service to pick, and the setup mistakes that send quotes to spam.
Most tradies need one paid mailbox service (Google Workspace or Microsoft 365) connected to a domain registered in their own name, with the email records on that domain set up correctly. That gets you an address like [email protected], keeps customer emails in an account the business controls, and stops quotes landing in spam.
A quote sent from a personal Gmail or Hotmail address works, but it looks like a side job. An address on your own domain looks like a business, and it matches the name on your website, your vehicle and your invoices. Customers who are about to let you into their home or spend a few thousand dollars notice small things like this.
There's a practical side too. If every customer email lives in one person's personal inbox, it goes with them when they leave, and nobody else can find an old quote or photo. A business mailbox keeps that history with the business.
Both give you a mailbox on your own domain, a calendar, and cloud storage for quotes, photos and certificates. Both charge per person per month, so check current pricing on each provider's site before you decide, as it changes.
A simple way to choose: if you or your office manager already live in Gmail and Google Calendar, Google Workspace feels familiar. If your accountant, bookkeeper or main customers work in Outlook and Word, Microsoft 365 will be less friction. Either way, the email will work the same from the customer's side.
There are three steps, and none of them are difficult, but the order matters.
1. Own your domain. The domain should be registered in your business's name, with your login. If someone else holds it, you can't connect email to it without them.
2. Create the mailboxes. Sign up for the service and add the addresses you need. Many tradies start with one for the owner and one shared address such as info@ or quotes@ that the office, a partner or an apprentice can also read.
3. Add the email records to the domain. These are DNS records (MX, SPF and DKIM, and ideally DMARC) that tell the internet your email is genuine and where to deliver it. This is the step that gets missed, and it's the main reason quotes end up in spam.
Quotes going to spam. If the email records are missing or wrong, a customer's mail provider can't confirm the email came from you. Your quote sits in their junk folder, and they assume you never replied.
Email stopping after a website change. The email records live on the domain, the same place the website points. If a website move changes or deletes them, email can stop arriving. Always test sending and receiving after any change, and ask whoever handles your domain to leave the email records alone.
Setting it up on a phone and forgetting the rest. Check that email works on your phone, your computer and any tablet in the ute, and that old personal accounts aren't still being used for customers.
If it's just you and you're comfortable with settings, setting up one mailbox yourself is an afternoon's job. It's worth paying someone once if you have several staff, you're moving existing email across from another provider, or your quotes are already landing in spam and you can't see why. A local IT support provider can usually do the setup and migration in a single visit or remote session, which is often cheaper than losing a week of customer emails.
Whoever does it, ask them to confirm three things when they finish: that you own the domain, that the email records are in place, and that you've tested sending to and receiving from a different provider, such as a personal Gmail account.
Before you call it done: the domain is registered in your name; each mailbox sends and receives; a test message to a Gmail and an Outlook address lands in the inbox, not spam; email works on your phone; and you know who to call if it stops. See our guide on what's included in a website package if you're also comparing website quotes, as hosting and domain ownership overlap with email.
We don't sell mailboxes. We build and look after your website for $199 a month, and your domain is registered in your name from day one. As part of looking after the site, we keep the domain's DNS records pointing where they should, including your email records, so a website change never knocks your email out. The build itself is free, and nothing's charged until you've seen and approved the finished site.
Free to build, no lock-in, and you see the whole thing before you pay a cent.