How to get a professional email address with your own domain

By the Olvane team · Updated November 12, 2026

An address like you@yourcompany.com tells people who they're dealing with before they open your message. It also stays yours: if you change email providers, the address comes with you, which a Gmail or Outlook.com address never can.

Getting one takes three things: a domain, an email provider, and a few DNS records that connect them. This guide covers each step.

Step 1: Get a domain

If you already have a website, you probably already own a domain, and you can use it for email too. If not, register one at any domain registrar. A few tips:

• Short and easy to spell out loud. You'll say it on the phone more often than you think.
• Prefer .com or your country's extension. Some cheap extensions are popular with spammers, and mail from them starts with a worse reputation in spam filters.
• Turn on auto-renew. If the domain expires, your email stops working and someone else can register it.

Step 2: Choose an email provider

Your registrar or web host may include basic email. It can work, but it's often limited and slow. Dedicated providers fall into two groups:

• Office suites such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 bundle email with documents, storage and video calls, priced per user per month.
• Email-focused services such as Olvane, Zoho Mail or Fastmail concentrate on email. They're usually cheaper, especially for teams or when you need several addresses.

Whichever you choose, make sure it offers IMAP and SMTP (so it works in any mail app), handles SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and lets you export your mail if you ever leave. We compare the options in Google Workspace alternatives for email.

Step 3: Decide which addresses you need

You don't need a separate mailbox for every address. Most providers support:

• Mailboxes, each with its own password and storage, one per person.
• Aliases, extra addresses such as info@ or sales@ that deliver into an existing mailbox.
• Forwarding, which copies incoming mail to another address.
• Catch-all, which receives mail sent to any address on your domain that doesn't exist.

On per-user plans, aliases are the way to keep costs down. On per-account plans such as Olvane's, you can simply create a mailbox for each role.

Step 4: Add the DNS records

Your provider gives you a list of records to add where your domain's DNS is managed. There are usually five:

Copy each value exactly. Most changes take effect within minutes. Confirm everything with the email DNS checker, and see the SPF, DKIM and DMARC guide for what each record means.

Already using email on this domain?

Changing the MX record moves all incoming mail to the new provider at once. To switch without losing anything: create the new mailboxes first, lower the MX record's TTL a day ahead, switch the MX record, and keep the old mailboxes running for a few days. If you want to try a new provider without touching your current email, use a subdomain such as mail.yourcompany.com instead.

Step 5: Connect your apps

Webmail works straight away. To use Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird or your phone, add an account with the IMAP and SMTP settings from your provider. Typically:

Incoming (IMAP): mail.provider.com, port 993, SSL/TLS
Outgoing (SMTP): mail.provider.com, port 465 (SSL/TLS) or 587 (STARTTLS)
Username: your full email address

Step 6: Bring your old email with you

If you're moving from another provider, export your old mailbox and import it into the new one, so your history stays in one place. Our guide on moving old emails to a new provider covers PST, OLM and MBOX files.

Doing it with Olvane

With Olvane, you add your domain, copy the records it generates, and create mailboxes once the DNS check passes. The free plan includes one domain and three mailboxes sharing 2 GB, and paid plans are priced per account rather than per person. See pricing.