6 Legit Ways to Get a Free Email Domain

If you’re looking to get a free email domain, you’ve come to the right place. But first, a disclaimer: very few platforms provide a 100% free domain for email addresses with no strings attached. They’ll mostly come as freebies with your email host, website builder, or even your domain registrar, so there will likely still be an upfront cost—but nothing too outlandish. That said, is having a custom email domain worth it? Absolutely.

In fact, rather than being a drawback, a custom email domain coming as part of your other online fronts is actually a bonus, as you’ll get many valuable products for one price—like an email platform or even a website. Below, I’ve compiled the six best ways to get an email domain for free and how to get the most out of them.

• IONOS: Overall best way to get a free email domain
• Hostinger: Best for getting a free email domain with a new website
• InMotion Hosting: Best for secure email hosting with a free domain
• Scala Hosting: Best for unlimited email accounts with a free domain
• Bluehost: Best for a free email domain with a WordPress website
• Neo Mail: Best way to get a free email domain for beginners

Best Ways to Get a Free Email Domain at a Glance

	Starting Cost per Month	How to Get a Free Email Domain	Web-based Email Platform	Our Score out of 5
	$1	Included in all email plans	✓	4.92
	Visit IONOS
	$2.49	Included in Website Builder plans	✓	4.62
	Visit Hostinger
	$2.99	Included in Shared Web Hosting plans	✓	4.57
	Visit InMotion Hosting
	$6.95	Included in the Cloud Email Hosting plan	✓	4.03
	Visit Scala Hosting
	$2.95	Included in Email Hosting plans after you get a Web Hosting plan	✓	3.90
	Visit Bluehost
	$1.86	Included in all plans	✓	3.74
	Visit Neo Mail

IONOS: Overall Best Way to Get a Free Email Domain

If you’re looking for the absolute best and most reliable way to get a free business email domain, my top recommendation is IONOS. IONOS is an email and website host that’s one of the most used by small businesses after Google and Microsoft, and it’s appeared in many of our best web host guides. IONOS offers a secure host for your business emails, with spam filters and no ads, all with a starting price of $1 a month—plus a custom domain as a freebie.

Meanwhile, for its higher plans worth $4 and $5 a month, you get bigger storage for your inboxes, spam filters, and even team collaboration tools on the highest plan like shared calendars and tasks.

You’ll be able to access your emails through any browser, as you would with any Gmail or Microsoft Outlook account. Unfortunately, IONOS still doesn’t have an email app, which is a minor drawback, although the interface is still very easy to use. Its team collaboration features on the highest plan are also a plus—just don’t expect anything like Google Workspace’s or Outlook’s.

Our Expert Opinion

Overall, IONOS is the most straightforward way to get a free email domain name and a secure host for your emails. While it isn’t technically free, it’s definitely one of the most cost-efficient ways to get a free business email address at just $1 a month. If you don’t have any specific requirements and just need a secure place for your emails (and a custom email address), IONOS has always been a reliable and worthy platform.

Hostinger: Best for Getting a Free Email Domain With a New Website

If you’re looking specifically to create a new website and want free email domain hosting (along with a custom domain) to go along with it, consider Hostinger, which is my top recommendation for that particular use case. Hostinger has been one of our best website builders for small businesses for a while now, and one of its best features is its value-packed plans, which bundle websites with free business email with a custom domain.

Aside from its plans, Hostinger’s website builder platform is also one of my favorites thanks to its easy navigation—and the fact that you can build using a template or Hostinger’s AI site builder. I’ve detailed more about that process in my guide to building a Hostinger website.

Hostinger’s plans start at $2.49/month (on a two-year contract), although for $3.49/month you can also build an online store and access all of Hostinger’s AI tools, including its AI content writer and image generator.

On the email side, Hostinger also has antivirus and antispam built-in, so it’s not bad security-wise. Another plus is you can have an email domain that matches your website, which is convenient and a cost-saver rather than having your email and website on two separate platforms.

Our Expert Opinion

There aren’t many platforms that offer the same value as Hostinger at similar price points, especially considering you can get an email host with a custom domain and up to 100 websites for just $2.49 a month. However, a caveat is that these prices are only applicable to a two-year contract—month-to-month contracts (or even yearly contracts) aren’t available, which can be a drawback.

But apart from that, I’ve used Hostinger many times before, and it’s always been very easy and reliable, with all the necessary functions. If you need an all-in-one place to build your business website and host your business emails, Hostinger is my top pick.

InMotion Hosting: Best for Secure Email Hosting With a Free Domain

One of the best ways to learn how to create your own email domain for free is to turn to hosting services. One particular service I recommend is InMotion Hosting, especially if you already have a website and don’t need a website builder—you just need a secure, reliable host. InMotion Hosting does just that, and I particularly recommend it because it includes advanced security and backups for your websites and emails.

And of course, InMotion Hosting also includes a free domain. This makes it a suitable option if you already have a website from a free website builder like Wix or GoDaddy. With this service, you can upgrade your site to have a custom domain and email address using that same domain.

InMotion Hosting can do that, with the added security of hacking and malware protection, DDoS protection, and automatic backups (although automatic backups are only available as an add-on for the first two plans).

While InMotion Hosting offers a website builder, it’s not as user-friendly as Hostinger’s or IONOS’s, so I don’t recommend it for beginners. However, because of its robust security measures, I highly recommend InMotion Hosting for website and email hosting. You won’t find comparable security at the same price point. Plus, you can also have unlimited email addresses on the higher plans.

Our Expert Opinion

If you don’t need to build a website and just need a host that can provide you with a custom domain and emails, InMotion Hosting can do the job. And even if you need a website, it has the tools too (as long as you know your way around a website builder). While it’s not the most beginner-friendly platform, it offers a lot of value, providing websites, emails, domains—and some of the most advanced online security you can find.

Scala Hosting: Best for Unlimited Email Accounts With a Free Domain

Like Bluehost and InMotion Hosting, Scala Hosting is also an email host. However, while Scala Hosting’s Cloud plan offers unlimited email accounts and email domains, it’s important to note that only one domain is included for free. Unfortunately, this is only offered on its Cloud plan at $19.95/month (annual billing), not on any other plan. Therefore, it won’t help if you don’t need unlimited emails or domains to get just one free domain for a year.

On the flip side, if you need a large volume of email accounts, say for an organization, Scala Hosting offers plenty of value—more than most other email hosts. With unlimited email accounts, you’re set for life (it’s also why Scala Hosting’s a good option for domain reselling). Your email accounts will also come with a web-based email platform, spam and malware protection, and expandable storage starting at 50GB.

As mentioned, the primary drawback with Scala Hosting is that your custom domain is only free for the first year. For the following years, you’ll need to pay the standard rate, which costs anywhere from $12.95 to $69.95 a year depending on your chosen domain.

Our Expert Opinion

If you don’t need that many email accounts, Scala Hosting may not be your best choice for getting an email domain for free. But if you need many email addresses, it’s hard to beat its value, and you’ll even get email security and an email platform. And of course, you’ll also get to create your own email domain for free, which is completely yours for one year.

Bluehost: Best for a Free Email Domain With a WordPress Website

Bluehost, like InMotion Hosting, is a web hosting service with a built-in website builder. However, with Bluehost, you get a WordPress website builder—the best-in-industry platform for building websites (especially with a lot of content). However, WordPress can be tricky to navigate if you’re a beginner, and Bluehost’s drag-and-drop website builder and hundreds of templates make it much easier.

Bluehost even has an AI WordPress website generator that can build a full WordPress website from just a few prompts. However, Bluehost’s pathway to creating a free email domain is a little more complicated than the others on this list. After getting a website hosting plan with a custom domain, you’ll also have to purchase the email hosting plan after your email trial period ends, giving you an email address with the same domain as your website.

It’s a much higher upfront spend to get your free domain, and it’ll only be free for one year. In contrast, Hostinger gives you a free email domain with a new website starting at just $2.99 a month, although your website won’t be a WordPress one. While Bluehost can provide you with an email domain, it’s not my top recommendation unless your primary need is a WordPress website.

Our Expert Opinion

Bluehost is better evaluated as a WordPress website builder than anything else, and it’s even my top recommendation for building a WordPress website outside of WordPress. It’s still possible to get a free email domain through it, although it’s not the most straightforward or cost-efficient.

However, if your primary need is a WordPress website—if you require an advanced content management system (CMS) for your blogs, for instance—then Bluehost may be a worthwhile option despite the extra steps to set up your custom website and email domain.

Neo Mail: Best Way to Get a Free Email Domain for Beginners

One of the best lesser-known email platforms offering free domains is Neo Mail. While not as established as the other platforms on this list (it’s relatively young, having launched in March 2023), Neo Mail offers some features worthy of note. First, it has a free email domain for one year on its annual plans—although it’ll only come with a .co.site extension. So for example, if your business is Dunder Mifflin, your domain will be dundermifflin.co.site.

Unfortunately, Neo Mail does not offer any other domains yet. However, what truly sets Neo Mail apart is its exceptional ease of navigation. It’s far more user-friendly than any other platform on this list. To get your email domain, you’ll only need to check if your desired domain is available, and if it is, then it’s yours to use, 100% free for your first contract length.

Neo Mail also offers some handy features that others don’t, like an AI email writer, email signature generator, email templates, and my personal favorite: the email tracker that lets you know when someone’s opened and interacted with your email. This is particularly helpful if you send a lot of sales emails. Its interface is also very user-friendly: there are no complicated cPanels or coding you’ll need to learn. You’ll simply sign up for an account and start emailing.

The flip side is that Neo Email doesn’t offer the same level of security as more established email hosts like Scala Hosting or Bluehost. While Neo Mail offers antispam and antivirus protection, it lacks automated backups and DDoS protection. Therefore, I wouldn’t recommend it if security is a major concern or you handle large amounts of sensitive information.

Our Expert Opinion

There’s a lot to like about Neo Mail’s features. They can be helpful for any business owner wanting to get off the ground and start using a professional email address, as long as you’re fine using a .co.site domain extension. If you have absolutely zero experience with business email hosting and want a free and easy way to get a custom email domain, Neo Email is worth checking out.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Bottom Line

Getting a free email domain can be tricky, but there are ways to go around it—and the services above are some of the best routes. While there is no way (so far) to get an email domain 100% free, investing in an email or website host that includes a custom email domain for free is more than worth it. Depending on the platform, you’ll also get an email platform, a website, and advanced security. It all comes down to what you need most for your business.