I recently switched my primary email to be hosted under my own domain, instead of using Outlook.com mail. It turns out there both advantages and disadvantages to doing so. I’ll try to fairly address both sides, but (spoiler alert) I think that the pros heavily outweigh the cons.

Before we begin, I’d like to note that I personally am using Purelymail’s hosting, as it is cheap ($10/yr) and has glowing reviews from its customers. However, I am not affiliated with Purelymail, nor will I discourage you from using some other service.

Also, I will refer to all the well-known free email providers as Big Email for the remainder of this article.

Reasons to use a custom domain

My biggest reason for moving to my own domain was to assert ownership over my online accounts. It’s not uncommon to read stories of people whose Big Email accounts were inexplicably permabanned with no chance of recovering them. With a custom domain, even if my mail provider goes dark or bans my account, I can just point my DNS records at another mail service and maintain access to all my accounts that rely on sending authentication emails.

Switching to a custom domain is obviously cool because you can control the entire email address, not just the username.

If you want to get some real hands-on experience, you can run your own mail server! All you need is a cheap VPS and a willingness to get your hands dirty.

A VPS (virtual private server) is required here because residential ISPs typically block email servers being run from your home.

On the other hand, services like Purelymail will run the mail server for you for very cheap, taking most of the burden off your shoulders without

Reasons to avoid a custom domain

Setting up a custom domain can be a bit tricky if you aren’t a technically inclined person (although if you’re reading my blog, you likely are savvy enough). On the other hand, Big Email provides a pain-free solution that anybody can use. A counterpoint to this argument: when you buy a domain from Porkbun, you are offered turnkey email hosting for $2/inbox/mo. Porkbun handles all the DNS records for you.

While custom domains do save you from Big Email lockouts, the onus is still on you to make sure that you don’t fall victim to domain hijacking.

Big Email typically provides much more robust spam detection and reporting features than smaller providers will.

Conclusion

There are certainly valid reasons to avoid custom email domains, but I think that if you already own a domain, you should seriously consider using it for your email as well.