How To Purchase An Email Domain

If you pay attention to the contact emails for the sites you visit, you’ll notice that most of them have custom email addresses. They don’t use Gmail accounts but emails with their own domain name. If you want to project a professional image, you’ll need to do the same thing for your business.

Setting up a custom email address is a lot easier than you might imagine. If you have an existing domain name and a hosting plan (that supports email), you should be able to set up business email addresses in minutes.

In this article, we’ll explain what is an email domain and how it works. We’ll also talk about web and email hosting, and show you how to purchase an email domain. Let’s get to it!

What Is An Email Domain?

An email domain is what you use to set up a custom email address. For example, you can buy a domain name like mynewwebsite.me and use it to create a @mynewebsite.me email account.

In practice, there’s no difference between a traditional domain and a custom email domain. You can use a domain for a website and to set up one or more email accounts.

It only makes sense to purchase dedicated email domains (not for use with websites) if you don’t have a site or don’t need one. An example of this would be an influencer with a large following on social media but no website. In that scenario, it makes sense to set up a professional email address and pay for a domain to use it.

Keep in mind that registering a new domain name is only half of the equation. If you want a functional custom domain email address, you’ll also need hosting.

What Are the Types of Email Domains Available?

Every email account uses a domain. However, there are multiple types of email accounts you can use, depending on your needs.

The different types of email domains are:

1. Personal email domains. These are your gmail.com and yahoo.com email addresses. They’re the most common types of email domains since they enable you to register an address and use it for free. You can use this type of email for business purposes but many people choose not to for the sake of professionalism.
2. Business or professional email domains. This type of address requires you to purchase email domain services, get email hosting, and set up accounts manually. You can then create email addresses with custom domains (as long as you own them). A lot of businesses choose to do this because it looks more professional than using a personal email address.
3. Organizational email domains. This type of address includes domain options such as .gov or .edu. Typically, these email domains are not available to all users. You can only access them if you’re part of an organization and they’re meant to serve as validation of that membership.

It’s important to understand that every email address works similarly, even if you’re using a custom domain. You’ll still need an email client to access an account and manage messages:

The most significant difference is that if you want to use a custom domain for an email address, you’ll need to pay for registration and hosting. Anyone can do this, but typically it’s mostly businesses or professionals that can justify the expense.

Do You Need Web Hosting for an Email Domain?

The short answer to this question is yes, you need web hosting for an email domain. A lot of providers market this service as email hosting.

Registering a domain only serves as a record that you own it. Until you point that domain name toward a web host’s nameservers, the URL itself won’t be of use. You can save it for later or resell it, but without hosting, the domain will be parked.

Some providers, like SirsteveHQ, will offer web and email hosting separately. That way, you can have both of these services consolidated under one roof.

You also have the option of purchasing just web hosting and using the very basic cPanel mail option. This will enable you to use the web host’s control panel to set up new email accounts and monitor them:

How the process works will depend on what type of email hosting you buy and what control panel the web host uses.

Thirdly, you can also setup GSuite (which you can do through SirsteveHQ). This will give you access to Gmail for your own email domain.

Long story short, you have few options for which email platform to use but all of them require web hosting.

How to Purchase an Email Domain

In this tutorial, we’re going to use SirsteveHQ to show you how to purchase an email domain and set up email hosting for it. This process should be similar regardless of the web host you use – as long as they offer email hosting.

Step 1: Select A Domain

Registering a domain is simple, at least from a technical standpoint. Most people spend more time finding the perfect domain name than they do registering it.

To get started, you can use the SirsteveHQ domain checker to find out if the name you want is available or simply add any hosting package to your cart and you’ll start with selecting a domain. You can also use a domain that you already purchased with another registrar or with SirsteveHQ previously if you wish.

You might have to try a few different names and Top Level Domains (TLDs) until you find an option that you like. Note that you can use the same domain for both a website and setting up emails.

Step 2: Set Your Login Credentials & Billing Term

Next, you’ll set some login credentials that will be used to access your email. Be careful to remember / save what you used as you’ll need this information to access your email upon purchase.

Step 3: Purchase & Finalize Setup Of Your Email

Immediately upon purchase, you’ll receive an email with information about how to access your Webmail inbox and setup email on your various devices. You may need to update an MX record setting to connect your domain to your email hosting plan, depending on where and when your domain was purchased as well.

Conclusion

You can use any domain name for both web and email hosting. If you have one ready to go, all you need is a hosting plan that includes email support. Every SirsteveHQ plan fits that criteria and you get support for an unlimited number of email addresses.

Overall, it makes sense to use a web host that bundles both web and email hosting. Paying for email hosting separately makes little sense if you also plan on setting up a website. Even if you don’t, it’s nice to have that option available and you won’t have to pay extra for it.

Do you have any questions about purchasing an email domain? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!