Gmail is still the best option when it comes to email. Many professionals use it on a daily basis, including me. And for that reason, I recommend you to use Gmail as well.
As I mentioned, you need to setup a professional email account for a professional purpose. Instead of you@gmail.com, you can use you@yourdomain.com as the primary email account for your professional errands.
Setting up a custom domain email in Gmail is super easy. It’s even easier as you already know how to add a record when connecting your domain.
You can get a custom domain email in Gmail for only $3.60/month per user. This price includes a 30GB of Google Drive storage.
Setting Up a Custom Domain Email in Gmail
In case you didn’t know it yet, Gmail is a part of Google Workspace, a software suite from Google. In addition to Gmail, the suite also includes Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Meet, and Google Drive.
Before getting started to set up a custom domain email, make sure you already have a free Gmail account. Once you are ready, visit the Google Workspace website. Click the Pricing menu and select a plan you want to use and click the Start a trial button.
Give your business a name and select your company size. Select your region and click the Next button.
Next, type your first name, your last name, and an existing email address that you have (you can type your free Gmail account for this). Click the Next button to continue.
On the next step, select the No, set up using a domain option.
Since you already have a domain, click the Set up using your existing domain option and click the Continue with this method button.
Type your domain name to the available field and click the Next button.
On the next step, confirm your domain by clicking the Next button.
Enter your username and password. Confirm that you are a human on the reCAPTCHA section and click the Agree and continue button.
💡 the username you typed will be used as your email account. E.g., username@yourdomain.com.
On the next step, you will be asked to login to the admin console. Simply click the Next button to continue.
Enter your password to login. In some cases, you will be asked to enter your phone number. Simply enter your phone number to get the pass code.
Continue the steps until you are asked to enter your card information for payment. On this step, enter your address and card and click the Agree and continue button.
💡 Google gives you a 7-day trial period. So, you will only be charged after day 8 using the service.
On the next step, Google offers you Gemini, its AI service. You don’t need it at the moment so you can click the Skip for now option to login to the admin console.
Connecting Your Domain with Gmail
At this point, you have done setting up your Google Workspace account to use a custom domain Gmail. However, you can’t send and receive emails yet as you haven’t connected your domain yet.
As you can see on the screen, there are only 3 more steps you need to be able to send and receive emails using your custom domain email.
To start connecting your domain, click the PROTECT link on the first step.
On the appearindg popup, click the I’M READY TO PROTECT MY DOMAIN button.
On the next step, you can click the Click to open Hover in a new browser tab link.
Login to Hover with your account. Once logged in, go back to the Google Workspace admin console and click the NEXT: GO TO STEP 2 button.
Copy the provided verification code.
On Hover tab, select the domain you want to connect with Gmail and select EDIT -> EDIT DNS.
Click the ADD A RECORD button to add a new record.
Set the record type to TXT. On the HOSTNAME field, type “@” (without the quotes). Paste the verification code to the CONTENT field and click the ADD RECORD button.
Switch back to Google Workspace tab and click the PROTECT DOMAIN button.
Wait a moment until Google is done verifying your domain. Click the CONTINUE to go to the next step.
On the next step, you will be asked to add a new user for your organization. Please note that for every user you add, you will be charged a $3.60 extra fee per month. So, only add a new user if you really need one.
If you don’t want to add a new user, you can skip step 2 and jump to step 3 instead.
Click the ACTIVATE button on step 3.
On the appearing popup, click the I’M READY TO ACTIVATE GMAIL button.
On the next step, click the NEXT: GO TO STEP 2 button.
Switch to Hover tab to manage the DNS. Delete the existing MX record by clicking the X icon.
Add a new record by clicking the ADD A RECORD button. This time, set the type to MX. Type “@” on the HOSTNAME field. On the PRIORITY field, type “1“. On the MAIL SERVER field, type SMTP.GOOGLE.COM and click the NEW RECORD button.
Switch back to Google Workspace tab and click the ACTIVATE GMAIL button.
That’s it.
You can click the FINISH button to end the set up process.
You can now login to Gmail with your email account on your own domain.
In the future, if you want to add a new account or cancel your Google Workspace subscription, you can simply go to admin console. You can do so by clicking on your profile image at the top-right corner and clicking the Admin console link.
From admin console, you can also do other things such as adding a profile image, create a group, and more. You can play around here to learn more.