The email was invented in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson. That was 50 years ago and we still use it today as a formal way to communicate online, especially among businesses.

You can create email inboxes for free. The most popular ones are Gmail and Outlook. But sending [email protected] to your business partner seems a bit unprofessional. That’s why you might want to have a business email like [email protected].

There are a few ways to get business emails. One way is to use services like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. But they are pricey if you don’t utilize all their tools. Another is to rent an email hosting. However, I find this method unreliable and requires some maintenance.

When I was running the agency, our team used Google Workspace and all the tools it provides. But now that I’m a solopreneur, I can’t afford to pay for premium tools anymore.

Therefore, I have been searching for a solid way to get business emails at the lowest cost possible and require little to no maintenance. And I want to share my preferred methods.

Keep reading if you are still using @gmail.com or @outlook.com for your business.

For big teams

If you are not a technical person, you will need to sign up for a kind of service. This is the only way so that you don’t have to maintain the server, etc. Luckily, some services are offering free tier for business emails.

My preferred one is Lark. Lark is a collaboration platform developed by ByteDance (It’s basically a translated version of Feishu).

Lark is pretty much like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. It has all the similar tools like Docs, Sheets, Messenger, and most importantly in our case, business emails. Their free plan is very generous too, with up to 50 users.

Google Workspace costs $12 per user. If you run a team of 50 people, that will cost you $600 per month. So Lark can potentially save you a lot of money.

For small teams

If you are a technical person and don’t mind getting your hands dirty, you can set up an email routing.

Instead of creating a separate inbox for business, we will be utilizing our personal Gmail inbox to send and receive business emails using Cloudflare Email Routing .

What it does is that it forwards emails coming into the business address to the personal Gmail inbox. We then set up Gmail inbox to be able to send emails using the business address. This way we can send and receive both ways.

It’s very convenient as I will have one inbox for everything. And I get to use the same Gmail interface over learning to use a new platform. However, there are limitations.

It’s a bit complex to set up. And you need to set up each email individually. You cannot set policies for other users. If you work with other people, business emails will land in their personal inbox which is a huge security risk. In the end, it’s just a Gmail masked with your business address.

I’m currently using this method as I’m running solo. If you are running a small team, say up to 5 people, this method is still manageable. However, if you are working with a bigger team, I recommend going with Lark.

Your turn

Depending on your preference, all the options above will give you professional business email addresses.

Lark gives you a professional suite of tools to work with, not just emails. However, there are some risks involved as you don’t know how long it will stay free. If one day Lark decides to reduce the number of free users, you may end up paying or be in a big migration mess.

Cloudflare Email Routing simply gives a professional email address to your personal inbox. But it comes with security risks and complexity to set up.

Either way, you are using free services. And there will always be trade-offs.