Business email on your own domain: Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, what it costs and how to start

Business email is an address like info@yourname.co.il, instead of a private Gmail address. It looks more professional, but the reason that really matters is control: when an employee leaves, the mailbox stays with the business. In this article we compare the two common options, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, with the prices shown today on their official Hebrew sites. We explain when the mailbox that comes with your hosting package is enough, what matters about SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and finish with a checklist for moving a small office across without losing a single email.

What business email is, and why a private Gmail address no longer does the job

On its page about business email addresses, Microsoft defines such an address as "an email address that includes your company's domain name". So the first condition is a domain. If you don't have one yet, or it is registered in a supplier's name, start with our domain and hosting guide.

Why is it worth the monthly subscription? Three practical reasons:

• Ownership sits with the business. An administrator opens and closes mailboxes. An employee who leaves does not take the correspondence with your customers with them.
• Addresses by role. Microsoft recommends aliases for departments, such as sales or support. That way a customer writes to the role's address rather than to an employee's name, and the address survives when the employee changes.
• Trust. A quote from an address carrying the business name reads differently from one arriving from a private address.

What doesn't change: business email still needs a strong password and two-step verification. A compromised mailbox with the business name on it does more damage than a compromised private one.

Google Workspace versus Microsoft 365: prices and what you get

These are the figures that appeared on the Google Workspace price list and on the Microsoft 365 for business price list in their Hebrew versions when we checked on 17 September 2026. Note the currency: Google shows euros, Microsoft shows dollars, and in both cases the price excludes tax.

A few more details from the same pages. At Google, the annual plan is presented as a 16% saving against the flexible one, and Business Plus costs € 21.10 on the annual plan. At Microsoft there is also a version of Business Basic without Teams, at $ 5.40. Google's price list that day also carried a discount on the first three months for new customers, so check what the price is once the promotion ends.

Here is an illustration. An office of three people. On Google Business Starter with an annual plan that is € 20.40 a month before tax. On Microsoft Business Basic it is $ 21 a month before tax. Either way it is a small expense next to the cost of one important email going missing. Which is why the decision is almost never made on the price of the entry plan, but on the tools.

How to choose: 4 questions that settle it

1. Where is the team already working? An office that lives in Excel and Word on the desktop will feel at home in Microsoft. A business working in Gmail, Drive and Docs on a phone will feel at home in Google.
2. Do you need office software installed on the computer? According to Microsoft, Business Basic includes only web and mobile versions. Anyone who needs the full Excel on their desktop needs a higher plan.
3. How many files do you store? Google's Starter gives 30GB per user, from a shared pool. Microsoft's Basic gives 1TB in OneDrive per user.
4. Monthly or annual? Microsoft offers a monthly commitment that can be cancelled with no penalty, and an annual commitment where cancelling early may cost you money. Google has a flexible plan and an annual plan.

Our rule of thumb: if you have no clear preference, pick the platform where the team already keeps its calendar and its files. Moving calendars and documents is more complicated than moving email.

And the mailbox from your hosting company? When it is enough

Some website hosting packages include mailboxes. For one person with light correspondence that can be enough. Even so, check three things before you skip the subscription: how much storage each mailbox gets, how the spam filtering works, and whether syncing with your phone and calendar is comfortable.

The common "free" route is a mailbox at the hosting company that forwards everything to a private Gmail account. It works, but automatic forwarding can undermine message authentication. Google's email sender guidelines point to separate guidance on forwarding email, and ask anyone who forwards email regularly to make sure those messages are authenticated. So if you choose that route, check from time to time that important emails are not landing in spam.

SPF, DKIM and DMARC in brief: three layers of authentication

These three records tell mail servers around the world that the email really was sent by you. Where DNS records are configured we explained in our domain and hosting guide. Here, only what matters to a business owner:

• Every sender. According to Gmail's guidelines, anyone sending to Gmail mailboxes must set up SPF or DKIM for the domain they send from.
• Large senders. Anyone sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts also needs DMARC, alignment between the domain in the From field and the authenticated domain, and one-click unsubscribe in marketing messages.
• DMARC. According to Google Workspace's guide, DMARC tells receiving servers what to do with messages from your domain that do not pass SPF or DKIM. SPF or DKIM has to be switched on first, and Google recommends starting with a policy of none and watching the reports.

The forms on your website send email too, which means they also need to go out through an authenticated sender. A form that doesn't arrive is a lead that disappears quietly; in website maintenance and security we explained how to test forms on a regular basis.

Moving to business email: a checklist for a small office

1. Make sure the domain is registered in the business's name.
2. Open the admin account in the business's name, with two-step verification. Not in the name of the freelancer setting it up.
3. Create users and role-based addresses, such as info@ and office@.
4. Migrate the old email. Microsoft writes that mail, contacts and calendars can be moved over from another platform. Either way, check in advance which migration tool is available on the plan you chose.
5. Switch the MX records at a quiet hour, and leave the old mailbox live for a few days, to catch anything delayed.
6. Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC immediately after the move.
7. Update the address everywhere: website forms, your Google business profile, advertising accounts, invoices and signatures.
8. Send a test email to a Gmail account and to an Outlook account, and check it does not land in spam.

What Simple Web does about it

Simple Web is an AI-first marketing agency from Bnei Brak, certified Meta partners and Google advertising experts, working with 200+ businesses and holding 28 five-star Google reviews. Business email meets our work at one important point: leads. A brand website we build includes a CRM integration, so an enquiry from the site is saved in a system and not only in a mailbox. On the Studio 51 digital business cards, form enquiries arrive by email, which makes a working address part of the deal. What else a card like that includes is in our guide to digital business cards.

A brand website starts with us at ₪5,000, within a range of ₪5,000–15,000+ depending on scope, and is ready in about 3 weeks (14 business days). It includes SSL, accessibility under Israeli law, training so you can manage it yourself and 6 months of SEO content free (a value of ₪4,500). And on the same principle we work by in advertising, where the account always stays yours, we recommend that the email admin account be in the business's name too.

Summary

Business email starts with a domain in the business's name, and continues with a choice between Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. The entry plans are close in price, so choose according to the tools your team already uses. A mailbox from your hosting package can be enough for one person, but forwarding to a private Gmail account needs watching. And in every case, set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and check that your website forms really do arrive. Want to make sure the leads from your site are not getting lost? Get in touch for a free diagnostic call.

Sources

• Google Workspace: plans and pricing: the prices of Business Starter, Standard and Plus in euros, the annual versus flexible plan and the storage volumes (checked 17 September 2026)
• Microsoft 365 for business: plans and pricing: the prices of Business Basic and of Business Standard with Copilot in dollars, storage, and the monthly versus annual commitment (checked 17 September 2026)
• Microsoft 365: business email address: the definition of a business address, department aliases and migrating data from another platform
• Gmail Help: Email sender guidelines: the authentication requirements for every sender and for senders of more than 5,000 messages a day, and the guidance on forwarding email
• Google Workspace Help: Set up DMARC: what DMARC does and the recommendation to start with a policy of none