12 Best: Free Domain With Email Hosting (Oct. 2023)

Finding that free domain with email hosting plans is a boon for those looking to make a strong first impression. Sure, a Gmail account is free and easy to set up, but 75% of consumers think having a custom email address that matches your website domain is an important factor for building confidence.

A strong handshake goes a long way toward giving an impression of confidence and competence, just like a matching domain name and email addresses.

Luckily for small businesses, finding a free domain with an email hosting plan is common. Learn which hosts make uniting your inbox and website enjoyable for both you and your email recipients.

Simply put, customers flat-out expect your business to have a domain name and a website. Even if you run a brick-and-mortar shop, customers will turn to your online presence to learn about your brand’s location, hours, products, and prices.

Registering a domain name typically costs about $10 to $15 per year. However, the vast majority of hosts will include the first year of your custom domain as a free perk for signing up for a long-term plan. When shopping for a new email hosting provider, be sure to keep an eye out for this feature.

Our clear favorite company that provides the perfect balance between email hosting service and free domain management tools is Bluehost.

Read through and click on our review of the web hosting company below for more information:

See other top email hosts »

In addition to boosting your credibility with a custom domain name and professional-grade email hosting, Bluehost is a trusted partner to help your business grow online.

The well-known provider has long built a reputation as a WordPress host, but any company powering more than 2 million websites has to know what it’s doing across the hosting spectrum.

For an affordable rate, Bluehost gives customers unlimited email and mail forwarding accounts and three webmail solutions, plus supports POP3 and IMAP secure protocols for retrieving and accessing incoming emails.

Whichever mail client you’d like to use, Bluehost will surely integrate its services with ease. When in doubt, check in with the web host’s 24/7 support staff.

Of course, starting up a new business means there will be some lean times as you establish a customer base and steady profits. But just because you need to save money doesn’t mean you have to accept shoddy and unreliable products.

Because fast and secure email services are so critical to your business, don’t sacrifice features or performance when selecting a host.

Whether you’re communicating directly with customers about individual orders or using it to power ambitious email marketing campaigns, look for a professional email host that emphasizes performance, security, and reliability.

What’s more, many top and affordable providers combine email and web hosting into one plan, further streamlining your investment into your online presence.

For us, no one checks all the boxes for a more affordable price than 1&1 IONOS. By seamlessly pairing custom domain names and robust email hosting features — along with scalable and high-performance web hosting — 1&1 IONOS is a great full-service option for those on a budget.

You’ll want to measure hosts based on their virus and spam filters, number of accounts, amount of email storage space, and the ability to create aliases and a forwarding address.

Free migrations are always helpful, and IMAP support means you’ll be able to access your messages from any device. As a bonus, look for compatibility with familiar programs such as Office 365, G Suite, or Zoho Workplace; incorporating your custom email domain with familiar software will help you work and communicate more effectively.

Of course, the final cherry on top of the email hosting sundae is friendly, personal support. Look for a company that provides a thorough and helpful knowledgebase, as well as 24/7 support via live chat, phone, and email tickets.

As a relative newcomer to the affordable hosting industry, Hostinger has gained significant traction since its 2011 launch. The full-service provider covers the gamut of hosting solutions, but we specifically recommend Hostinger for beginners. The pricing is competive, the feature set is comprehensive but not overwhelming, and the customer experience is exceptional.

The hosting company takes a refreshing approach to building an infrastructure driven by open-source solutions and friendly, personable customer support. In addition to the up to 100 email accounts and free domain registration included with the company’s upgraded packages, customers can leverage performance-minded technologies, including LiteSpeed and CloudFlare.

Compare Hostinger’s email and domain hosting options by clicking on our review below:

Hostinger’s self-stated mission is to make life easier for its customers. From our perspective, this mission is realized through an intuitive yet powerful control panel — a make-or-break feature of easy email and domain management. If you’re a first-time hosting customer, explore the suite of services available with Hostinger. You’re likely to find a plan that suits your unique personal or professional needs.

Although social media and texting have surpassed email in terms of popularity and staying in touch with friends, email remains an essential top choice for communicating about business and transactions. business email address

Well-crafted emails are a great way to communicate with your customers or potential clients, all around the world. Phone calls can be daunting, labor-intensive, and tough to schedule, while social media is often too fleeting and unprofessional.

Email messages introduce a level of sophistication and importance and allow recipients time to absorb and act upon the information when it’s convenient for them.

As your brand becomes more established and your messaging starts to resonate with your customer base, you’ll need larger storage capacities, more email addresses, and more tools for collaboration and productivity.

Fortunately, several top-tier email hosts remove these restrictions for customers from the get-go. No matter which plan you choose with our favorite business email hosting provider, InMotion Hosting, you’ll receive unlimited email accounts and storage — and, of course, a free email domain name.

Learn more about InMotion in our review:

The company’s helpful support teams will seamlessly transfer your contacts and messages to its email server for free, and InMotion’s proprietary SpamSafe filtering service saves customers time and money by weeding out junk mail.

Although email may seem outdated when compared with newer communication strategies, technologies, and platforms, entrepreneurs can act more efficiently and see much greater success using a free business email.

Numerous studies tout the effectiveness of the email marketing channel in building sales and customer engagement.

According to the Direct Marketing Association and Demand Metric, email carries an average return on investment of 122% — more than four times higher than other marketing formats, including social media, direct mail, paid search, and online display ads.

Another study discovered that, while many businesses designate about 16% of their marketing budget to email campaigns, the messages contributed to 23% of total sales.

Your business only has one name, so it’s completely natural to register one domain when you decide to move your brand online.

That short-sighted approach, however, can majorly affect your company’s future growth and effectiveness as it expands.

Instead of just yourname.com, consider the .org, .net, and other domain extensions; you’ll be able to redirect any web traffic to your main site and business email address, ensuring no potential customers will slip through the cracks.

Most email hosting providers only hand out one free domain registration with their services. That said, domain names are an easy investment to make: At the cost of roughly $1 per month per domain, you’ll be protecting and boosting your brand presence.

Some hosts, however, limit customers to the number of domains that can be hosted on one account. Instead of throwing in the towel, sign up with a provider like 1&1 IONOS that gives you unlimited disk space, scalable bandwidth, and the freedom to host as many domains and email addresses as you want.

In addition to webmail, forwarding services, and autoresponders, 1&1 IONOS provides customizable spam filters and virus scans at a surprisingly low rate. The company streamlines the hosting experience by offering high-class comprehensive services at low rates.

Effective online marketing means consumers will find your website or subscribe to your email lists from all over the world. Be ready to take advantage of the new revenue opportunities by developing a strong, forward-thinking domain portfolio.

With more than 1,000 top-level domains on the market, be sure to cover all your bases.

Perhaps you chose a domain name based on your localized business — but what happens when you grow beyond your town to serve a statewide or even national audience?

Also, look for common misspellings or domain names similar to your brand to make sure competitors don’t give you any headaches. The stronger your domain portfolio, the stronger your business’s overall brand.

A custom email address that uses your domain name instead of the generic Hotmail, Yahoo, or — gasp — Gmail account domain echoes your branding and oozes professionalism.

A custom domain shows you’re serious about your company and that it’s not just some part-time hobby in which you’re unwilling to invest modest amounts of time or money.

Related, don’t automatically rule out a web hosting company if the provider doesn’t provide a free domain name. Many top-notch hosts, including the likes of A2 Hosting, DreamHost, SiteGround, and Rackspace, offer incredibly modern and affordable email and web hosting without a free domain.

We’ve described the best email hosting providers that include a free domain name in four categories, covering price, scale, and functionality, but there are countless other options to explore. Which company is the best for, say, WordPress? Windows hosting? Scalability?

Because the free plan for domain registration tends to be the first included perk of signing up for an annual email or web hosting package, we’re covering all the bases below by giving you nine more options to compare.

These hosts represent the cream of the crop when it comes to domain management, email performance, marketing tools, productivity add-ons, and security features.

With more than 77 million domains under management, GoDaddy is a clear first choice for all things domain name registrations.

The beginner-friendly host and domain registrar offers a growing number of advanced features to usher customers and their brands across the full spectrum of hosting needs.

Affordability is a top perk with GoDaddy, which has been trusted since 1997 to deliver well-supported hosting, design, and productivity services.

While GoDaddy is a popular all-around host, its email service options are lighter than competitors. The company focuses more on website builders and design tools, opting to give web hosting customers a free domain name and one year of free email hosting via Microsoft Office 365, which is hosted on a Microsoft Exchange server.

The perk enables site owners to get a sneak peek into a premium email experience, for sure, but they will need to renew and pay for the service annually.

A leading host founded in Florida in 2002, HostGator has expanded beyond the southeast to serve millions of customers worldwide.

The company’s 24/7 support teams have answered more than 5 million chat messages, suggesting they’ll quickly help you resolve any issues you manage to uncover.

For less than $5 per month, HostGator represents a one-stop shop for building a comprehensive web presence that incorporates strong design, reliable email, and secure domain tools.

The company’s proprietary site builder pairs well with personalized, professional email and calendar systems. Customers can create unlimited accounts, all with built-in spam filters and virus scanners.

Perfect for slightly more knowledgeable site owners or developers looking for a bit more nuance and performance, Hostwinds is a newer company launched in 2010 to provide modern infrastructure and top-notch customer support.

The standard web hosting plan merges the best of email, web, and domain hosting into affordable packages that emphasize usability with one-click software installations, the cPanel control panel, and the Weebly website builder.

Upgrading to the business-level shared hosting plan, however, introduces high-speed SSDs and LiteSpeed web servers that load pages up to 500% faster.

Hostwinds boasts an impressive 99.999% uptime guarantee at this level, as well, making the company a strong partner for your online success.

As WordPress and shared hosting specialists, DreamHost specializes in serving small business owners, individual developers, and first-time site owners with scalable and affordable services.

The company’s plans emphasize WordPress functionality and user-friendly interfaces, but DreamHost will serve a wide range of needs for domain name registration and email hosting.

The company gives customers unlimited storage, bandwidth, and email accounts and an unheard 97-day money-back guarantee.

Along with ultra-fast SSDs, DreamHost supports POP3 and IMAP email protocols and includes both email forwarding tools and spam protection.

On the domain name front, customers can enjoy free and secure domain privacy protection and automatic renewals.

By offering customers a one-on-one consultation and training session with a hosting expert, HostPapa ensures new customers will feel comfortable with the various domain and email hosting tools.

More advanced users can discover new ways to work more effectively and efficiently with a HostPapa email hosting plan.

Customers can host unlimited domains and email accounts with HostPapa’s Business and Business Pro packages, with the latter also including domain privacy to protect the personal information attached to your registration.

For an upgraded email experience, the company offers integrations with Microsoft Office 365 and G Suite, as well as basic and advanced email packages.

We particularly appreciate HostPapa’s larger-than-average 5GB of email storage and generous attachment size limits. Advanced email customers also have access to a file-sharing system to deliver files that exceed limits with most other services.

For those website owners focused on saving the world, GreenGeeks is an excellent route to explore.

The hosting company returns to the power grid more than three times the energy its datacenters consume in terms of renewable energy credits.

GreenGeeks removes seemingly all restrictions on customers’ computing resources, giving them unlimited SSD storage, email accounts, bandwidth, and domain names, and includes a free website builder, domain registration, and SSL certificate for free.

GreenGeeks offers complete scalability and security at all levels of service, making notoriously difficult PCI compliance available with a simple add-on. The company does enforce sent email quotas, but they’re in line with industry standards.

Equally serving high-performance Windows and Linux hosting plans, AccuWebHosting‘s offerings will particularly resonate with Windows aficionados with ultra-fast SSD storage, the latest ASP.NET core, Windows Server 2016, and SQL Server 2017.

Linux customers will appreciate the CloudLinux operating system and LiteSpeed servers; in addition to the relevant cPanel or Plesk control panel, site owners can enjoy daily backups, free migrations, and several other perks.

The company limits email accounts to 150, which should still be enough to serve the vast majority of customers. AccuWebHosting supports the POP3, SMTP, and IMAP protocols and provides an AJAX-powered webmail, calendar, and tasklist interface.

An optional, cloud-based SpamExperts add-on further protects your inboxes and time.

Your website’s domain name is the address at which visitors can access your site. For example, typing our domain — “hostingadvice.com” — in the address bar of your favorite web browser will ultimately direct visitors to https://www.hostingadvice.com, our website’s home URL. Domain hosting is essentially the hardware, including storage of website files and content, and maintenance services required to keep that domain and all its URLs’ contents online. Without domain hosting, no one can visit and view your website.

Meanwhile, email hosting is the service required to host email account storage and facilitate email communication from one email domain, e.g., *@hostingadvice.com, to any other address. Without email hosting, no one can send messages to or receive emails from your domain’s email addresses.

Most of the time, domain and email hosting are bundled into a single shared hosting package. But larger organizations may need the additional power and resources of a VPS or dedicated server.

Buyer beware: Most free domain hosting services actually offer a one-year domain name registration. This is a marketing carrot dangled to increase initial sign-ups, not a lifetime customer commitment.

Before signing up for a web hosting service that promises a free domain perk, note the annual domain costs to ensure the yearly renewals are in your business’s or personal budget.

As Robert Frost once wrote, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both.” Such represents the two paths facing your domain and email experience once you’ve signed up for hosting and registered a name.

Are you happy with your host’s webmail interface, or would you rather work with something more familiar? Does your host provide all the calendar, collaboration, and productivity tools you desire?

If your email host checks all the boxes with its in-house services, you’re free to get to work setting up and configuring your accounts and inboxes.

Cheap email hosting and free email domain registration doesn’t mean you need to scrimp on features.

Many customers, however, prefer to use an Outlook or Gmail account because of their well-established reputations. Aside from the iOS and Mac mail programs, Gmail and Microsoft Outlook represent the most popular email client options.

Each program is part of a larger platform of cloud-based software, also known as Software-as-a-Service, which includes additional programs for cloud storage, calendars, and chat, as well as the creation of text documents, spreadsheets, or presentations.

If this might be you, don’t hook up your email hosting through your host quite yet. You should explore all of your email client options to ensure you make the best choice, particularly if you want a professional email address for your business.

Even though it’s somewhat frustrating, these platforms typically aren’t included out-of-the-box with most hosting plans. You’ll need to invest another few dollars per month for these services, but many are willing to make that investment for the powerful tools.

Many providers include G Suite or Microsoft Office 365 as a paid upgrade option, combining it with an easy installation or setup wizard for changing your MX record.

Even if the Google or Microsoft logos aren’t anywhere to be found with your host, you can sign up separately and find several guides instructing you how to connect your domain to your G Suite account.

Running your email through G Suite or Office 365 provides more reliability and stability to your online presence by avoiding server resource issues or blacklisting thanks to a spammy site owner sharing your infrastructure.

There will be other caveats and third-party programs that may be more useful for bulk emailing, marketing campaigns, and transactional messages, but we deeply appreciate that ability to hit the ground running with a familiar, mobile-friendly platform such as G Suite and Office 365.

Hopefully, our recommendation of Bluehost fulfills all your web hosting needs. Starting at just $2.95 per month and rated 4.8 overall, Bluehost gives users plenty of bang for the buck. Among our favorite features:

• FREE domain and unlimited emails
• Secure email with 3 webmail solutions
• $200 in advertising credits with Google and Bing
• Google app integration available
• FREE Office 365 mailbox for your first 30 days
• Get started on Bluehost now.

If you’d like recommendations similar to Bluehost and others in 12 Best: Free Domain With Email Hosting (Oct. 2023), check out these popular guides. You’ll find comparisons of Bluehost to other hosts on pricing, features, support and more:

• Cheap Hosting like Bluehost
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And of course, if Bluehost is your top choice, you can get started now at just $2.95/month. Bluehost is easy to set up and scale, no matter the size of your next project.