You'll never lose your email address again (domain in your own name)
Keeping your email address with your own domain
Your own domain makes your address portable. Your address you@yourbusiness.be belongs to the domain yourbusiness.be, and that domain is in your name. The provider hosting your mailboxes is interchangeable; the domain, and therefore your address, stays yours.
Compare it to a phone number you take with you to another provider. The technology behind it changes, but the number stays the same, so everyone can still reach you. With email, your domain plays that role. As long as you manage the domain, your address keeps existing, no matter which party handles the mail.
Why it matters
Losing your email address is more costly than it seems. It's on your business cards, in your invoices, with your clients and as a key to dozens of other accounts. If the address changes, you have to update it everywhere, and there's a risk that messages no longer reach you.
With a free address, or an address from your current provider, you depend on that party. If the service raises the price, the service worsens, or it stops entirely, you're stuck. Switching then means a new address, with all the hassle that entails. With your own domain that dependency disappears: you're free to choose who hosts your mail, without having to rebuild your online identity from scratch.
For the self-employed and start-ups that's extra valuable. You build the recognisability of your address over years. You don't want to lose that just because you happened to start out with the wrong party. Read more about why the address should really be yours in your email, truly yours.
Also think about everything tied to your address. You use it to log in to your accounting package, your bank, your webshop partners and dozens of other services. At each of those services your email address is listed as contact and as recovery path. If that address changes, you have to adjust something everywhere, and if you forget one, you might miss an important notification. So an address that stays saves you far more than just retyping it on a business card.
How it works
Keeping the address when you switch happens in a few steps:
- Your domain is in your name. This is the foundation. Register your domain to yourself or your organisation, not to an intermediary you can no longer reach later.
- You choose a provider to host the mailboxes. You connect them to your domain via the DNS settings. The provider supplies the storage and the webmail; the domain stays yours.
- If you want to switch, you move your mailboxes to the new provider and point the domain there. Your address doesn't change. How such a switch works in practice is covered in switching from your current hosting provider.
- You renew your domain on time. This is the only real condition for keeping your address. More on that below.
Want to understand the basics first? Then take a look at email on your own domain: what and why.
What to watch out for
A recurring question is: what happens if my domain name expires? That's exactly the point where things go wrong, so watch out for this:
- Renew your domain on time. You rent a domain per year (or per multiple years). If you forget to renew, it becomes available again after a grace period, and someone else can register it. Your address then stops working. Turn on automatic renewal or note the expiry date.
- Keep your registration details current. Renewal reminders often go to an email address. Don't use only the address on that same domain for this, and keep the contact details with the registrar up to date.
- Register in the right name. If the domain is in the name of an old web builder or a departing employee, you don't have control. Put it in your own name or your organisation's.
- Keep your access details. You need DNS access to connect and move your domain. Make sure you know those details and store them safely.
- Don't think the mailbox keeps the address. The mailbox is storage at a provider; the domain carries your address. If you lose the domain, a backup of your mailbox won't get you your address back.
And at Mailflux
At Mailflux your email is on your own domain, hosted in Europe and GDPR compliant. You bring along an existing domain (with DNS access) or Mailflux registers and manages one for you. If you choose the latter, Mailflux keeps an eye on the renewal, so your domain doesn't expire unnoticed.
Because your address is tied to your domain, it stays yours, even if you later want to go a different way. Every plan includes automatic backups of your mailbox, 20 free aliases and optional two-factor authentication. That way you keep both your messages and your address in your own hands. Read more about the hosting side in European email hosting on your own domain.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What happens if my domain name expires?
Then your email address stops working, and after a grace period someone else can register the domain. Prevent this by renewing your domain on time, turning on automatic renewal and noting the expiry date. Also keep your contact details with the registrar current.
Can I take my email address to another provider?
Yes, if it's on your own domain. You move the mailboxes to the new provider and point your domain there; the address stays the same. Only with a free address or a provider-bound address is that not possible.
Do I lose my old emails if I switch?
Not if you take them with you. When switching, you usually move your messages along, and a backup protects you against loss. The domain determines your address; the mailbox contains your messages. See switching from your current hosting provider.