Businesses and their owners have to communicate with their clientele (one-time customers, returning clients), partners, and shareholders. Email is a great option as it lends an air of credibility to the business’ brand identity. An even better way to appear more credible is to use a custom domain email via email hosting. Ordinary email addresses like [email protected] do not cut it, but an email address like [email protected] does the trick; it supports your brand’s public identity and increases its credibility. Bluehost Professional Email can indeed help solve the problem, however is it the solution your business needs?
This article will discuss and compare what process email solutions—Hostonce email hosting and Bluehost—have to offer; and guide you, by providing the pros and cons of each provider, to help to make your choice of the right email domain hosting provider.
Types of Web Hosting and Which One Is Best for You
By Javeria Riaz on November 10, 2025What is Email Hosting & Why Does It Matter?
Email hosting runs email servers, enabling the creation and management of customized email addresses. Professional Email hosting is tailored for businesses to use and it offers:
- Branding
- Advanced security
- Greater storage
- Spam filters
Using reliable web hosting with email option is a way to ensure your clientele can reliably reach you at any time of the day. It enhances communication for small blogs, e-commerce sites, and start-up companies.
Get started with professional email hosting
Did you know that research shows that 75% of web users strongly believe that a domain-based email is more trustworthy than a free email address?
The Cons of Using Free Email for Business
Small businesses often start and continue to use free email services (Gmail, yahoo, Outlook), but there are quite a number of disadvantages to the practices.
Lack of credibility
A custom email address makes a business appear very professional and trustworthy, while a generic address makes the business seem less serious, less organized, unprofessional and risky.
Limited control
A free email is easy to set up and use, and it needs minimal maintenance. But the control that a custom domain email accords a user is scalability; create as many addresses as you need, less likelihood to be spoofed and phished, and customization: email rules, server settings, and storage limits.
Deliverability
Free emails are much more likely to end up in a spam folder. It is undesirable for the sender and receiver if a mail lands and is registered as spam, especially when a financial transaction is involved.
Low scalability
Any growing business knows the pain of a free service becoming a nuisance, and in this case it’s choking communication channels. After all, it is free for a reason.
Financial investments in domain and email hosting is a mark of a business that takes itself seriously. Clients recognize it subconsciously and it helps create trust just from a single interaction.
Key features of Bluehost Professional Email
Bluehost is partnered with Microsoft 365 and provides its professional email hosting service through that partnership. Below are their core features:
- Customized email addresses
- Integration with M365
- Free email storage
- Synced contacts and calendar
- Anti spam and anti malware
- Mobile UI/UX optimization
Bluehost prices and plans: Bluehost has a couple of plans for email hosting.
- Basic: $2.49 lee month: 15 gigabyte cloud storage and email +calendar
- Business: $8.99 per month: 50 gigabyte cloud storage, MsOffice and Teams.
- Enterprise: Custom prices for advanced functionalities and tools.
It should go without saying that each plan has customer support service, 99.9% uptime, and integration with existing web hosting with email setups.
Hostonce vs Bluehost: Professional Email Hosting
Hostonce email hosting has flexible pricing plans and features that are also suited to developers, while Bluehost focus is its simplicity and integration with Microsoft.
| Features | Bluehost | Hostonce |
| Custom email | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft 365 | Yes | No |
| Control Panel | Basic | Advanced |
| Price | $2.49 upwards | $1.99 upwards |
| Hosting Bundles | Website + email | Website + email + VPS |
| Customer Support | Yes. 24/7 | Yes. 24/7 |
Evidently, it is convenient if one is already subscribed to Bluehost’s web hosting with email, but if you want or need a more dynamic setup (or don’t want Microsoft suite) Hostonce offers a customizable setup with wide-ranging hosting options. For you, Hostonce is the right pick.
Explore Hostonce Email Hosting.
Is Email Hosting Included in Web Hosting Plans?
To begin with many hosting providers only offer email domain hosting as an added service while if you authors make it one package combined with web hosting
Blue host is one of the former. Their shared hosting plans are completely separate, by default, from their email hosting service. Furthermore, email hosting has to pay purchased through Google’s workspace, or their Microsoft 365 integration.
Contrarily, Hostonce’s dynamic, custom plans can include email in its hosting plans. For a startup, this makes their offers cost effective.
How to Set up Hostonce Email Hosting
Setting up with Hostonce web hosting with email is a fairly straightforward process
- Login to your host one dashboard
- Navigate to the email tab
- Choose the name of your domain
- Select your email plan
- Input email name and email password
- Read the guide that follows for device configuration
Setting up the email takes less than 10 minutes to complete, if nothing goes wrong. And Hostonce provides a walkthrough and guide for correct configuration.
Best Practices in Managing Domain and Email Hosting
Follow the practices below to extract the most value out of email hosting
Anti-spoofing and anti-phishing by setting up DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a domain name service record. It lists all the IP addresses granted the authority to send emails for your domain. It is a safety measure that will flag any email claiming to be from your domain or spam if the server is found in the SPF.
- DKIM (Domainkeys Identified Mail) authenticates emails via a unique digital signature, thus verifying that said mail wasn’t tampered with at any point in transit. The unique signature is generated, and embedded into each email, through a private key. A public key in your domain’s DKIM record maps to the private key, and the public key is used by mail-receiving-servers to verify that signature.
- DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance) is a protocol relying on DKIM and SPF. It is the reporting mechanism for when an email is unable to pass DKIM or SPF checks. This record also includes the digital address where all the accumulated authentication reports, and the details on failed verifications, should be sent. In summary, DMARC helps you identify the sources of authentic emails, and to discover when your domain is being used without your permission.
Implement two-factor authentication
Also use very strong passwords to safely secure your email accounts
Schedule regular backups
Keep an eye on email blacklists to ensure your IP isn’t blacklisted
Human factor
This the most exploited link in digital security, so sensitize your staff (and yourself) on email safety and phishing.
It does not matter if your host is Hostonce email hosting or Bluehost. These practices are necessary, even vital, to running a reliable email system.
Who gains the most from email hosting
Adam built his portfolio using a free web template. His work email at the time was [email protected]. And it was also on his business cards. But when he upgraded to host ones for email domain hosting his professional email positively affected the conversion rates on his portfolio website.
Read how to increase user engagement.
How to Troubleshoot Common Email Hosting Problems
- Problem receiving emails?
DNS MX records might not be pointing to Hostonce (or Bluehost) and if that’s the case your emails simply aren’t going to be delivered into your inbox.
- Problem with sending emails?
Set up SPF and DKIM in order to protect your emails from being marked as spam.
- Emails deliver slowly?
Most likely is an issue with the server. Contacts host ones email domain hosting support.
- Migrate to custom email from gmail
Tools to transfer emails and even contacts are provided via POP3 or IMAP.
Conclusion
Blue hose professional email is integrated with Microsoft 365 and is secure. It is a good choice for websites seeking more credibility through a custom domain.
However, it is far from being the only option available. Hostonce email hosting is an alternative that offers its users more flexibility and affordability. Especially with its package that bundles domain and email hosting together.
Professional email hosting is perfect for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and for people who are looking for an extra oomph to their brand’s credibility. Web hosting with email as a package saves time, money, and effort.
Related Resources
Domain registration with Hostonce
FAQs
I don’t know if I should use a custom domain for my personal email. I feel like once I start paying for it I will have to keep the domain forever. Is it worth the lifetime subscription?
There is no email service that you can trust to exist forever, and many users find that paying for their domain is a worthwhile investment for as long as … ten years upfront. Buy now and worry about renewing it in a decade.
Is it safe to use my real name on my custom email address?
Using your name is as safe as not using your real name. You should not use any sensitive information like your phone number or bank account number or social security number. And in professional correspondence it is expected that you use your real name not something [email protected]
If I use a catch-all email, will it expose my entire domain to spam?
No, it won’t but you have to use smart filtering. A catch-all will receive all emails sent to your domain, but you can set rules to auto-delete emails sent to unknown or unused aliases.
What are the downsides to using a custom email address?
If your domain gets compromised it can affect all linked services and aliases, and in any case securing your domain is an essential part of web hosting.
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