How Much Does Business Email Cost? Free vs Paid, With Real Numbers

Business email has two costs: the domain, which everyone pays, and the mailboxes, which most people assume they must pay for per person per month. The second assumption is what makes a five-person company spend several hundred a year on email it barely uses. This guide puts the numbers side by side, as they stand at the time of writing, and shows which businesses genuinely benefit from the paid options and which are paying for a logo.

Quick answer

A domain costs roughly 10 to 20 dollars a year for a .com at a normal registrar, often less for a country ending. Mailboxes cost from nothing, on OquMail's free plan, to around 7 dollars per person per month on Google Workspace or 6 on Microsoft 365, with Zoho Mail at about 1 dollar. For five people that is a range from about 15 dollars a year to over 400. Pay when you need the suite that comes with the mailbox, or more than 15 mailboxes, or more than 5 GB each; otherwise the domain is the only bill.

The domain

Every option needs one, so it is the baseline cost. A .com is typically 10 to 20 dollars a year; watch for registrars that sell the first year cheaply and renew at two or three times the price. Country endings vary from a few dollars to around 30. Pay for the registration, turn on auto-renew, and nothing else: the "email forwarding", "privacy protection" and "website builder" add-ons at checkout are mostly unnecessary, and the email you will set up yourself.

The mailboxes, per person per month

• Google Workspace Business Starter: about 7 dollars per user on an annual plan, more month to month. Includes Gmail on your domain, Drive, Docs and Meet, 30 GB per user.
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic: about 6 dollars per user on an annual plan. Includes Outlook on your domain, Teams and the web versions of Office, 50 GB mailbox.
• Zoho Mail Lite: about 1 dollar per user on an annual plan, with 5 GB and a web client; the suite costs more.
• Proton, Fastmail and similar privacy-focused hosts: roughly 5 to 7 dollars per user.
• OquMail: free, with 15 mailboxes on up to 3 domains, 5 GB per mailbox, 250 sends a day per mailbox, groups, webmail, IMAP and an API. No card and no trial period.

Worked example: five people

A five-person business on Google Workspace pays around 420 dollars a year for mailboxes plus the domain; on Microsoft 365 around 360; on Zoho around 60; on OquMail the domain only, around 15. Add a sixth person and every paid line goes up by one seat; on the free plan nothing changes until the sixteenth. Over three years the gap between the free option and the suites is over a thousand dollars, which for a five-person business is a real line in the accounts.

The costs that are not on the price page

• Annual commitment. The quoted price is usually the annual-plan price; leaving early costs the rest of the year.
• Price rises. The suites have raised prices more than once in recent years, and a per-user price rise multiplies by your headcount.
• Role addresses. If your provider charges per mailbox and you want hello@, accounts@ and support@ as separate inboxes, that is three more seats. Groups on OquMail are free and deliver to everyone who should see them.
• Storage. Mailboxes fill up; archiving add-ons and larger tiers are where the suites earn their margin.
• Migration time. Moving is a day of work whichever direction you go; the migration guide shows how to do it once.

When paying is worth it

• You live in Google Docs or Microsoft Teams all day and want the calendar, the shared drives and the chat tied to the same login. You are paying for the suite; the email is a bonus.
• You need more than 15 mailboxes, or more than 5 GB in some of them, and you have checked that archiving old mail would not solve it.
• A regulator or a client contract requires a specific compliance feature, such as legal hold or a certified archive, that the free plan does not offer.
• You send more than 250 messages a day from one mailbox as part of normal business, and it is not newsletters, which belong in a newsletter tool anyway.

When free is the right answer

A business of one to fifteen people that uses email for customers, suppliers and the bank, keeps documents elsewhere, and does not have a regulator asking for an archive. That is most small businesses. The when to upgrade guide is the honest list of signs that you have outgrown it, and the provider guide covers the rest of the decision.

Common questions

Why is OquMail free? What is the catch?

The free plan is the product for small teams; larger limits are what cost money. There is no advertising in the mailbox, no trial clock, and no card at sign-up. The limits are the limits: 15 mailboxes, 3 domains, 5 GB each, 250 sends a day per mailbox.

Is the cheapest paid option better than free?

Only if its extra features are ones you will use. A 1-dollar mailbox with the same storage and no groups is not better than a free one with groups; a 7-dollar mailbox that comes with the document suite your team already pays for might be.

Can I mix: some people on a paid suite, some on the free plan?

On one domain, mail goes to one provider, so no. On two domains, yes, and the free plan's three domains make that possible if you really need it, but one provider for one business is simpler for everyone.