How to set up a professional business email address without breaking the bank

Most people think you need an expensive hosted Exchange server for a professional email address That’s the biggest myth we see on the bench. In reality you can have a custom domain address for the cost of a latte, and you’ll still get spam filtering and mobile sync. What we actually do on the bench: the step‑by‑step walk‑through When a client brings a laptop or desktop to our desk and asks for a business email, we start by asking a few simple questions: do you already own a domain, what email client do you use, and how many accounts do you need? This lets us pick the cheapest, most reliable route. Check the domain status. If the client already has a domain (e.g., yourbusiness.co.uk ), we verify it’s pointing at a registrar we can edit. If not, we register one – .co.uk domains are about £7‑£10 per year via Namecheap or 123 Reg. Choose a low‑cost mail host. For under £5 a month per mailbox we usually recommend Microsoft 365 Business Basic (£4.20/mo) or Google Workspace Business Starter (£4.60/mo). Both give you 30‑50 GB storage, mobile sync, and built‑in spam protection. If the client only needs one address, we can even use Zoho Mail’s free tier and upgrade later. Set up DNS records. At the registrar we add the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records the mail host supplies. We type them into the DNS editor, hit save, and wait up to an hour for propagation. While we wait we test with nslookup to confirm the MX points correctly. Configure the client. On a Windows PC we open Outlook, add