Comparison · Email
yourbiz2019@gmail.com
you@yourbusiness.com
Email at your own domain is the cheapest credibility upgrade in business — customers trust it, and it survives you switching providers. It costs between about CA$1.40 and CA$9.50 a month (US$1–7) depending on how much you need beyond the inbox. What it should never cost: the marked-up "professional email" upsell your registrar offered at checkout.
The real options
| Provider | Per user / mo | Storage | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho Mail Mail Lite Scout's pick | ≈CA$1.40US$1 | 5 GB/user | Solo owners and small teams who just need professional email The budget pick — a real you@yourbusiness.com inbox for a dollar a month. |
| Spaceship Spacemail Pro | CA$1.10US$0.98 | 10 GB | Keeping domain + email in one place, dirt cheap Convenient if your domain is already at Spaceship — one dashboard. Bills in CAD or USD. ⚠ Billed as multi-year terms (e.g. two years upfront); intro term is discounted below this renewal rate. |
| Google Workspace Business Starter | CA$9.20US$7 | 30 GB/user | Teams living in Google tools who want zero learning curve Gmail interface, Drive, Docs, Meet. USD price is the annual-commitment rate; the CAD price is Google Canada's monthly rate (a 1-year commitment takes ~16% off). |
| Microsoft 365 Business Basic | CA$9.50US$6 | 1 TB OneDrive + 50 GB mail | Businesses whose clients and workflows live in Outlook/Office Web/mobile Office apps included (not desktop). Canadian list price is notably higher than a straight USD conversion. |
How to choose in 30 seconds
- →Just need a professional address? Zoho Mail Lite at US$1/user/month (billed in USD — about CA$1.40). It's a real inbox with apps and IMAP; the free tier even covers up to 5 users if you're OK with web-and-mobile-only access.
- →Domain already at Spaceship? Spacemail keeps everything in one dashboard for about the same dollar.
- →Your team lives in Docs/Sheets or you want the Gmail interface? Google Workspace Business Starter. You're paying for the ecosystem, not just the inbox.
- →Clients expect Word/Excel files and Teams calls? Microsoft 365 Business Basic. Cheapest path into the Office world.
The free-ish option nobody mentions
If you only need to receive mail at your domain, many registrars (including Spaceship) and Cloudflare offer free email forwarding: hello@yourbusiness.com quietly lands in your existing personal inbox. You can often pair it with your mail app's "send as" feature. It's a duct-tape solution with deliverability caveats — but for a brand-new business watching every dollar, it works on day one for $0.